Public views on sustainable food and museums

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A big fork in the sea.
Jean-Pierre Zaugg designed this work of art in 1995 to commemorate the Alimentarium Food Museum's 10th anniversary. This 8 meter tall stainless steel fork reflects the serenity of Lake Geneva and the surrounding landscape. © ALwinDigitalFollow

Bridget McKenzie reflects on research about public attitudes to sustainable food in the UK, India, and Brazil, and how museums can engage people on this vital issue. We found that visitors want to be activated through hands-on and 'tongues-on’ experiences that reach out into communities and connect people in radical ways.

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I’ve worked in the museum sector for 30 years, feeling constant concern about the state of the planet. But until very recently, these important public concerns have not been reflected fully within the museum sector. In 2019, I founded Climate Museum UK and co-founded Culture Declares Emergency to support the sector to engage the public on issues of environmental harm. I also continue to do audience research with Flow Associates, and here I reflect on research we did with important lessons for Indian and international museums on engaging the public around sustainable food.

As the planet reels from impacts of burning fossil fuels and the food system, we must ask: how can the world’s population eat well without further disruption to climate and ecosystems? And, what can museums and science centres do to engage people to activate change? Working for the Science Museum Group and Lloyds Register Foundation, we in Flow Associates led the team to deliver this research along with Flow India and People’s Palace Projects. We consulted adults, families, schools and professionals in the UK, Brazil and India to discover their knowledge and views about sustainable food and how they wanted to be engaged.

Headlines for museums and science centres

• Sustainable attitudes to food will grow through hands-on, 'tongues-on’ experiences that connect communities, that tap into culinary traditions, and that take a nature-based approach to solutions.
• Factual information must be delivered in graphic ways that 'join the dots’, showing the connections between food, land use, ecosystem harm and climate change.
• We must help people to cut through areas of confusion or binary debate, sown by the media, so that they know what causes most harm, what they can easily do themselves and how they can support the most effective solutions.
• All audiences challenged traditional narrative exhibits in museums, suggesting ideas that museums be transformed into greenhouses, food laboratories or experimental restaurants, to make a direct impact on the availability and sustainability of food.  

Findings across all three countries

• There is a gap between knowing about the need for sustainable food, and feeling able and informed enough to take effective action.
• Children voiced strong concerns about environmental harm, and felt that they had little control over their diets, yet parents said that their children and teens were reasons for choosing less planet-friendly food. (This was less so in India.)
• Waste, of both plastics and food, was top of mind as a major problem in the food system.
• People prefer nature-based solutions that bring both social equality and environmental benefits, to those solutions that seem very high tech or commercial.
• Everyone is strongly influenced by audio-visual media, often citing the same hard-hitting films across three countries, including BBC films such as Blue Planet, and more activist films such as Cowspiracy.

Focus on findings from India

404 people consulted in India were in four audience groups of adults, families, secondary school teachers, and professionals in science education or food sustainability. They were recruited by an online survey, distributed by the National Council of Science Museums, so it reached people interested in museums and science across India. Others were recruited through Flow India’s networks which centre on New Delhi and Bangalore/Bengaluru.

About their motivations

• Adults in India are the group most motivated by environmental issues, open to trying new food and taking action.
• Teachers are most motivated by children's’ rights to a nutritious diet to help their education, and parents are similarly concerned about their children's’ health.
• Children feel compelled by fast food advertising but that their food choices are determined by parents and schools.

About their awareness

• There is a strong focus on waste when people talk about sustainable food.
• Adults had the most knowledge about the industrialised food system and its harms.
• School students had good scientific knowledge but lacked general knowledge about the harms and solutions of this global system.
• Families are the least knowledgeable on environmental issues arising from the food system such as climate change, but do understand how to source and cook good food.

Their preferences and ideas for solutions

We showed some solutions to spark discussion (see image below) and invited their ideas.

• Social schemes to end food waste was the most popular idea with all groups.
• Families saw more home cooking as a multi-solving solution, because food isn’t wasted at home.
• Interviewees felt that eating insects is not a part of food culture in urban India, so is not likely to catch on.
• Students and teachers were keen on practical experiences to grow and produce food, calling for school gardens.
• There were several calls for reinstating the diversity of traditional grains in farming.

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Their ideas on engagement

• Adults in India learn through social media, documentaries and news reports.
• Audio Visual and sensory methods are essential as literacy is not pervasive.
• Half of the Indian workforce is in agriculture, so the future of food is a topic of public interest and could be more visible in museums.
• Adults and parents want museums to focus mostly on food traditions and rural experiences. Teachers and students were more keen on museums being more future-focused, with more science and innovative uses of technology.

Overall, we found that there is great potential in India to tap the power of museums and science education networks to engage wider audiences with the environmental issues around food and to spark more sustainable food enterprises and civic policies, as well as behaviour change at a domestic level.

Drawing by young participants in a focus group, in a London secondary school

The main summary report can be downloaded here, giving you more insights into our findings about the UK and Brazil.

To see detailed reports on the context and audience views in India, get the full appendix from this link.

Bridget McKenzie is a researcher and creative curator in culture, learning and environment. After 14 years in roles such as Education Officer for Tate and Head of Learning at the British Library, she founded Flow Associates in 2006, who supported the evolution of Flow India. In 2019, Bridget founded Climate Museum UK, an experimental museum which stirs and collects the emerging response to the Earth crisis. She is an advisor for Culture Unstained and co-founder of Culture Declares Emergency. She presents and publishes internationally on possibilities of Regenerative Culture. Connect with her on Twitter @bridgetmck and https://aboutbridgetmckenzie.wordpress.com/