Meaningful change requires more than individual action— it demands leadership from governments, businesses and communities too. That was the conclusion of an important event hosted by Compassion at the Oxford Literary Festival entitled, A Shopping List for Life: Eating for People, Animals, and the Planet. 

Chaired by our wonderful trustee, Professor Joy Carter, former vice-chancellor of the University of Winchester and a co-chair of the UK Climate Commission for Higher Education and Further Education, the event brought together experts to discuss the future of food in relation to health, animal welfare, and the environment. 

Overhaul

Dr. Stuart Gillespie, a former food policy researcher and author of Food Fight: From Plunder and Profit to People and Planet, opened the discussion with a sobering analysis of our global food system. Designed in a different century to mass-produce cheap calories and prevent famine, the system is now at the heart of a cascade of crises—health, climate, environment, poverty, and inequity. Rather than nourishing people, it generates obesity, undernutrition, illness, and early death. Globally, 12 million deaths a year are associated with poor diets, he shared.

Gillespie explained how a handful of transnational corporations have captured the system, prioritising profit over public good. He called for governments to rein in corporate influence, incentivise healthy foods, and implement policies that support a food system capable of nourishing all eight billion of us while protecting the planet. 

Public Health Crisis

Dr. Shireen Kassam, a consultant haematologist and founder of Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, shared her firsthand experience of the health harms caused by the typical British diet. High in meat and ultra-processed foods, and lacking in healthy plant-based options, this diet is driving chronic illnesses like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. 

Transitioning to plant-based diets, focussed on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, could prevent and even reverse these illnesses. Kassam highlighted the staggering financial cost of unhealthy diets in the UK: £268 billion annually, as quantified report by the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. This figure exceeds the entire NHS budget and represents a burden on healthcare systems, the economy, and society.

Ethical Imperative

Professor David Clough, Chair in Theology and Applied Sciences at the University of Aberdeen gave a heartfelt call for compassion in food choices. He recounted his visit to a broiler chicken unit rearing birds for meat. He held a 16-day-old chick who was already suffering from leg pain due to being bred for rapid growth. Clough described factory farming as an atrocity—cruel to animals, disastrous for the environment, and harmful to society.

He urged consumers to reject factory-farmed products and called on governments to enforce stricter animal welfare regulations, support ethical farming practices, and promote plant-based alternatives.

Our panelists agreed that the time to act is now. The evidence is undeniable, and the solutions are available. We urgently need policies and practices to incentivise healthy, sustainable, and ethical food systems. 

With thanks to the Oxford Literary Festival 

I’d like to extend sincere thanks to Joy, Stuart, Shireen and David for delivering such an inspiring panel. Thanks too to Sally Dunsmore and her team at the Oxford Literary Festival for again so kindly hosting the event. 

The insights shared are available here in the video recording of the event.