Hay Festival 21 May 2015

Hay Festival 21 May 2015

Good afternoon, Im Rob Yorke and welcome to this Hay-on-Earth discussion around ensuring affordable food and paying more for the environment.

Affordable to whom? The consumer? can we afford the impact on the environment?

Its a loaded question

The 20th century freethinking journalist (Sage of Baltimore) Henry Mencken said

for every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and // wrong

So I hope you are ready for a rollacoaster discussion with no one clear solution and in every year I propose these debates, I try and reduce my preamble as it eats into valuable time that we have with a very exciting panel this year, and we are honoured to have with us the UK governments Minister of Life Sciences George Freeman and the City Universitys Professor of Food Policy Tim Lang.

Theyll say a little more about themselves in a moment but first I want focus us on the central theme/frame of our discussion today // 75% of the countryside is farmed to help feed 64 million people / This has an impact on habitat in which of most of our wildlife lives.

Or put another way can we have our cake and cuckoo and // eat cake but not cuckoo

This discussion involves you there are roving nimble footed mics but ground rules.

Be pithy. No mission statements Ill cut you off. Think about how you use the s word (sustainable for a hill farmers business plan, sustainable in the food budgets for those on low incomes, sustainable use of our resources) and although today is about "What should the new UK governments policies be to deliver a truly sustainable Britain" (that dreaded s word again)

Lets aim to keep this apolitical as politicians come and go, unlike hopefully, our food supply and the environment .

First intro..