Food futures

Our current food system is a leading cause of biodiversity loss and global warming. It is also responsible for increasing the risk of diabetes, stroke, and heart disease, as well as public health threats such as antimicrobial resistance and pandemics emerging from industrial animal agriculture.

Scientists agree we cannot reach our climate targets without significantly changing diets heavy in animal products. However, food choice can be complex and controversial, and it’s unclear how to move dietary change up the policy agenda, or where and when to intervene to ensure a ‘just transition’.

Weaving together diverse but complementary perspectives and areas of focus around the common themes of sustainability, health, and wellbeing, this panel discussion will address the ethical, logistical, and technical challenges of transitioning to a more planet-friendly food system.

Meet your speakers

Chris Bryant is the Founder and Executive Director of Bryant Research, a think tank which uses social science to help animal non-profits and alternative protein companies advance the protein transition. He has his PhD in Psychology, and has published dozens of scientific and policy papers on the social dimensions of alternative proteins and meat reduction.

Tara Garnett is a researcher at the University of Oxford, and the Director of TABLE . TABLE explores visions for the future of food, and provides a platform for interdisciplinary knowledge and dialogue. Her work centres on the interactions among food, climate, health and broader sustainability issues; she has a particular interest in livestock as a sector where many of these converge. She is also interested in how knowledge is communicated to and interpreted by policy makers, civil society organisations and industry, and in the values that these different stakeholders bring to food problems and possible solutions.

Natalia Lawrence is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on behaviour change for healthier and more sustainable diets. She studies how self-control, emotions and habits influence eating behaviour, aiming to develop effective interventions for dietary change and has published over 100 scientific papers. Her innovative Food Trainer app (with over 100,000 downloads) trains people to inhibit responding to unhealthy or unsustainable foods to reduce intake. She also studies the effects of meat-free challenges such as Veganuary and changing the defaults at catered events from meat to vegetarian food. She has worked with national and local food campaigns, such as Veganuary and Sugar Smart Devon and is a member of the University of Exeter’s Climate Advocate Taskforce, helping to shape and deliver sustainability action at the University.

Dr Feiyang Wang is a Research Officer at the Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience, where she leads research projects under the Centre’s Changing Human Behaviour priority area. Her current work explores how information about animal sentience evokes meat-related cognitive dissonance and how this, in turn, influences consumer acceptance of cultivated meat.

Anthony Warner is a chef and author who has worked in professional kitchens for 25 years. As well as several years in high-end restaurants and hotels, he was the Head Innovation Chef at Premier Foods for over a decade, developing recipes for brands such as OXO, Bisto, Sharwoods, Branston, Loyd Grossman, Homepride and Ambrosia. He now a consultant development chef specialising in the development of plant-based foods and the creation of healthier, more sustainable food products. He has writen about food for New Scientist, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Grocer and the infamous Angry Chef Blog. He is the author of the award-winning Angry Chef trilogy of books on food science, health and sustainability. His books have been translated into 14 languages and he is a regular keynote speaker at conferences and events around the world. His writing has been described as ‘irreverent and intelligent’ by Steven Pinker and ‘brutal and meticulous’ by Olivia Potts.

More about this event

This event is part of the LSE Festival: How to save the planet running from Monday 15 to Saturday 20 June 2026. This year's Festival explores how existential threats including the climate crisis, conflict and AI are affecting all parts of the world, transforming the way and where we live, and how our societies function. With a series of events asking what can we be doing to save the Earth, its people and environment? Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 18 May.

From the world to the lab and back again. The Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science (@LSE_PBS) is a growing community of researchers, intellectuals, and students who investigate the human mind and behaviour in a societal context. Our department conducts cutting-edge psychological and behavioural research that is both based in and applied to the real world.

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