Season 5, Episode 5 - Food security, consumerism and health: What’s the connection?

In the months of both Ramadan and Lent, Generation One joins in with reflections on the relationship between food, community, and health with our fifth episode of Season 5. Hosts Mark and Simon explore not only the impacts of climate change on global food availability, but societal behaviour around food and decision-making, and the effects of both on our health. They’re joined by two UCL experts: Mark Miodownik (Professor of Materials & Society) who deconstructs the supply chain to highlight the damaging effects of packaging and microplastics. And Gail Taylor (Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences), who explains how the latest developments in plant science and agrotechnology can help make food more nutritious and widely available. We also heard from Dr Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation. And from UCL students Carson and Valentina, leaders of the Students’ Union’s Zero Food Waste project, which aims to tackle food waste on campus. Zero Food Waste: https://studentsunionucl.org/volunteering/organisation/zero-food-waste Transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/climate-change/podcasts-videos/ucl-generation-one-climate-podcast Date of episode recording: 6 and 21 March 2025 Duration: 55.46 Language of episode: English  Presenter: Professor Mark Maslin and Dr Simon Chin-Yee  Guests: Professor Mark Miodownik, UCL Professor Gail Taylor, UCL Yat Hin Carson Chan, UCL Students’ Union Valentina (Hye Won) Chang, UCL Students’ Union Producers: Adam Batstone Caitlin Mullin