Jenny Chapman: Sustainability, healthy food, and alternative proteins
Jenny Chapman: Sustainability, healthy food, and alternative proteins
Author
For biology teacher Jenny Chapman, it was working on inter-school sustainability projects, often themed around food, that inspired her Churchill Fellowship.
Yet, what began as an interest in plant-based alternatives to meat in terms of sustainability and health, evolved into a comprehensive exploration of the adoption, acceptance, trust, and even the language used around food.
Starting out on a Churchill Fellowship
Jenny set out to investigate the intersection between sustainability and heathy food, in particular plant-based alternatives to conventional meat products.
Her Fellowship in 2023 took her across Europe, travelling by rail to visit Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin. She also liaised online with organisations in the USA.
Jenny quickly came to realise that the use of language – particularly a misunderstanding of the meaning of ‘ultra-processed’ – was a barrier to people’s adoption and acceptance of plant-based meat.
“The science and evidence behind conventional meat production is clear, and plant-based alternatives are healthier and more sustainable. But once you start to unravel a topic you find there are all these layers. Very quickly, it became clear I needed to focus further on plant-based meat, and then within that, people’s concerns that the products were ultra-processed.
“I began to ask, where did those concerns come from? Were they rooted in science and evidence? How could we communicate what the word ultra-processed actually means?”
"My Fellowship became as much an exploration of the communications challenge as the science challenge."
The term ‘ultra-processed’ originated as a socio-political framework, developed by a Brazilian academic, concerned about where food was made, but not the nutrients in it, or how healthy it was.
“In the last five years, ultra-processed has been inappropriately applied by nutritionists to try to work out how healthy food is. However, if a food is ultra-processed or not tells you nothing about how nutritious it is – simply where it was made! In reality, people are incorrectly using the term and in common parlance it seems to have replaced what we used to call ‘junk food’, even though the two concepts are very different to one another.”
Jenny appreciated how flexible her Fellowship was, allowing her to follow different paths.
“My Fellowship became as much an exploration of the communications challenge as the science challenge.”
Impact of Churchill Fellowship
Returning to the UK, Jenny published her Fellowship report, hosting a roundtable for its launch.
She went on to talk about her findings on several podcasts, including one hosted by the Vegan Society.
An article Jenny wrote for New Scientist featured on the front cover, and was even cited on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. She also had her evidence to a House of Lords Select Committee accepted and published.
In fact, Jenny received the Churchill Fellowship Pol Roger award in recognition of her success in generating significant publicity for her Fellowship.
The impact of Jenny’s Fellowship is ongoing; her report will be included in a new course, The Alternative Protein Fundamentals Programme, which has just been awarded the EIT Label – the first in the field of ‘alternative proteins’ to receive a pedagogical certification officially recognised by the EU.
As Jenny said, “I’m trying to edge the needle towards discussions rooted in science and evidence, so people use this information to make decisions on what is a good diet for them, and for the planet.”
Yet, what began as an interest in plant-based alternatives to meat in terms of sustainability and health, evolved into a comprehensive exploration of the adoption, acceptance, trust, and even the language used around food.
Starting out on a Churchill Fellowship
Jenny set out to investigate the intersection between sustainability and heathy food, in particular plant-based alternatives to conventional meat products.
Her Fellowship in 2023 took her across Europe, travelling by rail to visit Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Berlin. She also liaised online with organisations in the USA.
Jenny quickly came to realise that the use of language – particularly a misunderstanding of the meaning of ‘ultra-processed’ – was a barrier to people’s adoption and acceptance of plant-based meat.
“The science and evidence behind conventional meat production is clear, and plant-based alternatives are healthier and more sustainable. But once you start to unravel a topic you find there are all these layers. Very quickly, it became clear I needed to focus further on plant-based meat, and then within that, people’s concerns that the products were ultra-processed.
“I began to ask, where did those concerns come from? Were they rooted in science and evidence? How could we communicate what the word ultra-processed actually means?”
"My Fellowship became as much an exploration of the communications challenge as the science challenge."
The term ‘ultra-processed’ originated as a socio-political framework, developed by a Brazilian academic, concerned about where food was made, but not the nutrients in it, or how healthy it was.
“In the last five years, ultra-processed has been inappropriately applied by nutritionists to try to work out how healthy food is. However, if a food is ultra-processed or not tells you nothing about how nutritious it is – simply where it was made! In reality, people are incorrectly using the term and in common parlance it seems to have replaced what we used to call ‘junk food’, even though the two concepts are very different to one another.”
Jenny appreciated how flexible her Fellowship was, allowing her to follow different paths.
“My Fellowship became as much an exploration of the communications challenge as the science challenge.”
Impact of Churchill Fellowship
Returning to the UK, Jenny published her Fellowship report, hosting a roundtable for its launch.
She went on to talk about her findings on several podcasts, including one hosted by the Vegan Society.
An article Jenny wrote for New Scientist featured on the front cover, and was even cited on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. She also had her evidence to a House of Lords Select Committee accepted and published.
In fact, Jenny received the Churchill Fellowship Pol Roger award in recognition of her success in generating significant publicity for her Fellowship.
The impact of Jenny’s Fellowship is ongoing; her report will be included in a new course, The Alternative Protein Fundamentals Programme, which has just been awarded the EIT Label – the first in the field of ‘alternative proteins’ to receive a pedagogical certification officially recognised by the EU.
As Jenny said, “I’m trying to edge the needle towards discussions rooted in science and evidence, so people use this information to make decisions on what is a good diet for them, and for the planet.”