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At this year’s Conservative Party conference our CEO Ravi Gurumurthy caught up with Henry Dimbleby, author of National Food Strategy, co-founder of Leon and Lead Non-Executive board member at Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Henry was commissioned by the Government to conduct a review of our food system. The final report was published in June 2022 with recommendations to break the junk food cycle and build a food system focused on making the healthy and sustainable choice the easy choice.

“By 2025 it is estimated that the NHS is going to be spending more on type 2 diabetes, which is just one diet-related disease, than it does today on all cancers”

Henry Dimbleby

In this short interview they deep dive into the government’s food strategy, explore how the food sector can take responsibility for the health of consumers and discuss the impact of the cost of living crisis and the steps needed to end food poverty.

You can watch the interview below.

The opinions expressed in this event recording are those of the speaker. For more information, view our full statement on external contributors.

Speakers

Ravi Gurumurthy 2022 (3)

Ravi Gurumurthy

He/Him

Ravi Gurumurthy joined Nesta as Chief Executive in December 2019. Ravi was previously responsible for the International Rescue Committee’s work in designing, testing and scaling products and services for people affected by crisis in over 40 countries - from reducing acute malnutrition and intimate partner violence, to expanding employment for Syrian refugees. Prior to joining the International Rescue Committee in 2013, Ravi held a number of roles in the UK Government, including Director of Strategy at the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change and as a strategic advisor to the Foreign Secretary. Across many departments, Ravi led a number of major social and environmental reforms including the development of the world’s first legally-binding carbon emissions targets and the integration of children’s services. Ravi has also worked as a researcher at the think-tank Demos and in local government in London.

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Henry Dimbleby

He/Him

Henry Dimbleby was appointed lead non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in March 2018. Henry Dimbleby was co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain. He is also co-founder and Director of The Sustainable Restaurant Association and of London Union, which runs some of London’s most successful street food markets. He co-authored The School Food Plan (2013), which set out actions to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food. Henry previously worked as a Strategy Consultant at Bain & Company (1995-2002) where he advised businesses on strategy, performance improvement and organisational design.