The document discusses tools and frameworks for analyzing a city's food sector. It introduces two tools: 1) The PMCC framework categorizes organizations in the food sector into four overlapping groups to better understand their scope and potential for investment. 2) The CHESS matrix explores trade-offs between factors like health, economic prosperity, and food security, which were used to analyze activities like Digbeth Dining Club and Coca-Cola ParkLives. Additional tools discussed include considering the scale of feeding an entire city's population, thinking "middle-up-down" to examine decisions across different levels, and using different metaphors to generate different perspectives on issues like obesity.

1. In our report published last
September, Food & the city
economcy: Tensions, trade-offs and
opportunities, we presented two
new thinking tools:
The PMCC framework
The PMCC framework is the
first of these tools (see above). It
allows the user to place the
organisations involved in the
city’s food sector into four
overlapping categories giving a
‘lens’ through which to better
‘see’ their scope and impact —
and potential for investment.
The CHESS matrix
As the economics of PMCC
organisations often conflict, we
developed the CHESS matrix. It
uses five factors: conviviality,
health, economic prosperity,
[food] safety & assurance and
security of food supplies within
the city, around which the trade-
offs can be more dispassionately
debated. In the report, we used
the CHESS matrix to explore
two activities in the city:
Digbeth Dining Club
Coca-Cola ParkLives
We’ve suggested other useful
thinking tools and ideas to help
construct qualitatively different
arguments on the food sector:
The SCALE of what it takes
Few grasp the scale of feeding a
city. Here’s one way how: Take
one person’s requirements and
multiply this figure by the size of
the population; e.g. individuals
on average eat 2000kcal/day so
this city imports 2.2bn kcal/day.
MUD: Middle-Up-Down
When making decisions about
vast complex entities such as the
food sector, it’s often helpful to
think MIDDLE-UP-DOWN, as we
have done with the food hygiene
and VAT.
Metaphors we live by
‘Fighting’ obesity? Different
metaphors generate different
emotions; e.g. we could talk
about our relationship with
some food & drink products as
dance, viruses to be inoculated
against, or even as vermin.
BIRMINGHAMFOODCOUNCIL
Keynote talk by
Kate Cooper on
Tuesday 19 April
@
Birmingham
Business School
food, the city & its citizens: thinking tools
birminghamfoodcouncil.org @BhamFoodCouncil /birminghamfoodcouncil email: kate.cooper@birminghamfoodcouncil.org
LOCALNEXUSNETWORK:APRIL2016

2. About the Birmingham Food Council
EU briefing papers (two to date, more to follow)
The food & drink sector: A briefing paper for the Greater
Birmingham & Solihull LEP
What works: Regulation or voluntary schemes in the food sector
Food insecurity in Birmingham: A city level response?
Food & the city economy: Tensions, trade-offs & opportunities
Coca Cola and its effects on us and the city
An update on food crime since the Elliott Review
Response to the Birmingham City Council Budget Consultation
Food & the city economy: An interim report & discussion paper
forthcoming: The safety of the city’s food supply & the role of the FHRS
FEEDINGTHECITY,FEEDINGTHEMIND
Our Board of Directors, advised by an
international Panel of Experts, deliver
activities to inform decision-making on
food matters. These include:
Food safety & integrity
Issues associated with tackling food
crime were high on our agenda after
the Elliott Review Birmingham. We
based our Update on a briefing from
Professor Elliott (who is on our Panel of
Experts) and Nick Lowe to our Board.
With the Food Safety Group at the
University of Birmingham and the
city’s Environmental Health, we’re
leading a project to raise standards of
food safety and hygiene in the city’s
food outlets.
Last November Catherine Brown, the
Food Standard Agency’s CEO,
addressed our 2015 Annual Meeting.
Birmingham City Council Chief
Executive, Mark Rogers, chaired her
talk and the Q&A afterwards.
We’re now working with Birmingham
City Council and the FSA on what the
city can do to meet the UK challenge
of delivering food safety & integrity
across the nation.
Food & the city economy
We’ve published three reports about
the food sector, the first being facts &
stats on the significance of the food
sector to the city economy. The second
was on the tensions, trade-offs &
opportunities in the sector. Our latest
was a strategy briefing paper for the
Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP.
Food poverty, food insecurity
The drivers for food insecurity are
worryingly real for many here.
Our paper on city-level responses to
food insecurity, the result of a six-
month project part-funded by the
Barrow Cadbury Trust, was very well
received, and taken up by the All Party
Parliamentary Group (APPG) on
Hunger and Food Poverty.
We’re planning a project with NatCen
to develop and pilot survey tools to
help inform decisions to mitigate
against hunger.
Global food security
With the Warwick Food
GRP and the NFU, we’ve
begun a mapping project
on local shire produce.
We meet with the CEO
of Rothamsted this May
to discuss Birmingham as
a case study on a city’s role in relation
to global food security.
And . . . The Hand That Feeds
Food production involves more land,
water and people than other areas of
human endeavour. Access to food
determines health and influences
national security and patterns of
human movement.
Tim Benton, UK Champion for Global Food Security,
Birmingham Food Council Panel of Experts member
Our publications likely to be of interest to the Local Nexus Network
At a Warwick Crop Centre lab
ANARRATIVIUMPRODUCTION
FROMTHENEWOPTIMISTS