Staff Directory

Professor Tim Lang

Professor of Food Policy

Centre for Food Policy
City University London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
UK

Tim LangTim Lang has been Professor of Food Policy at City University London's Centre for Food Policy since 2002. After a PhD in social psychology at Leeds University, he became a hill farmer in the 1970s which shifted his attention to food policy, where it has been ever since. For over 35 years, he's engaged in academic and public research and debate about its direction, locally to globally. His abiding interest is how policy addresses the environment, health, social justice, and citizens.

He has been a consultant to the World Health Organisation (eg auditing the Global Top 25 Food Companies on food and health). He has been a special advisor to four House of Commons Select Committee inquiries (food standards x 2, globalisation and obesity), and a consultant on food security to the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). He was a Commissioner on the UK Government's Sustainable Development Commission (2006-11), reviewing progress on food sustainability. He was on the Council of Food Policy Advisors to the Dept for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (2008-10), and was appointed to the Mayor of London's Food Board in 2010.

The Centre for Food Policy works closely with civil society organisations, through Sustain the UK NGO alliance (which he chaired in the past). He has been a Vice-President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (since 1999) and President of Garden Organic (since 2008).

He has written and co-written many articles, reports, chapters and books. His most recent books are Food Policy (with D Barling and M Caraher, Oxford University Press, 2009), Food Wars (with M Heasman, Earthscan 2004), Atlas of Food (with E Millstone, Earthscan 2003/2008), Unmanageable Consumer (with Y Gabriel, Sage 1996/2007). Ecological Public Health (with G Rayner, Earthscan/Routledge) is published in May 2012. He writes frequently in the media and has written a monthly column in The Grocer since 2000.

He was elected Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health in 2001; is an Hon Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Cooks (City of London). He rides a bicycle to work, doesn't own a car and grows vegetables and fruit in his London garden.

His current research interests include:

Awards

Tim Lang Publications (books, chapters, reports, articles, journalism)

Books

Geof Rayner, Tim Lang (2012). Ecological Public Health: reshaping the conditions for good health. Abingdon: Earthscan/Routledge (forthcoming)

Tim Lang, David Barling, Martin Caraher (2009). Food Policy: Integrating Health, Environment & Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780198567882#authors

Lang, Tim, Michael Heasman (2004). Food Wars: the battle for mouths, minds and markets. London: Earthscan, October ISBN 1-85383--701-4 &6

Millstone, Erik and Tim Lang, eds. (2003). The Atlas of Food. London: Earthscan (& New York: Penguin & Paris: Autrement) (2nd edition 2008 Earthscan & University of California Press) [winner André Simon Food Book of the Year 2003]

Gabriel, Yiannis, Tim Lang (1995). The Unmanageable Consumer: Contemporary Consumption and its Fragmentation. London: Sage (2nd edition 2006)

Chapters in books (2007-present)

Lang T, Caraher M, Wu M (2010). 'Meat and Policy: Charting a Course through the Complexity' In: J d'Silva, J Webster eds The Meat Crisis: Developing More Sustainable Production and Consumption. London: Earthscan, chapt 16

Lang T (2010) 'Conclusion: Big Choices about the Food System' in Geoffrey Lawrence, Kristen Lyons & Tabatha Wallington, eds, Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability. London: Earthscan. pp 271-288

Barling D, L Sharpe, T Lang (2010) 'The Re-emergence of National Food Security on the United Kingdom's Strategic Policy Agenda Sustainability Challenges and the Politics of Food Supply' in Geoffrey Lawrence, Kristen Lyons & Tabatha Wallington, eds. Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability. London: Earthscan. pp 61-78

Rayner G, Lang T. Obesity: using the ecologic public health approach to overcome policy cacophony. In: Kopelman PG, Caterson ID, Dietz WH, editors. Clinical Obesity in Adults and Children. 3rd ed. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons, 2009:452-470.

Lang T (2008) 'Sustainable Development' in Yiannis Gabriel (2008) Organizing Words: a critical thesaurus for social and organizational studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp292-294

Sharpe R P, Barling D, Lang T (2008) 'Ethical traceability in the UK wheat-flour-bread chain', in: Christian Coff, David Barling, Michiel Korthals, Thorkild Nielsen, eds. Ethical Traceability and Communicating Food. New York: Springer pp 125-165

Lang T & Barling D (2007) "The Environmental Impact of Supermarkets: mapping the terrain and the policy positions in the UK", in D. Burch and G. Lawrence, eds., Supermarkets and Agri-Food Supply Chains: Transformations in the Production and Consumption of Foods. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar: 192-215

Reports & Papers (2007-present)

Lang T, Dibb S, Reddy S (2011). Looking Back Looking Forward: Sustainability and UK Food Policy 2000-2011. London: Sustainable Development Commission

Reddy S, T Lang, S Dibb (2009) Settting the Table:Advice to Government on priority elements of sustainable diets. London: Sustainable Development Commission http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications.php

Lang T (2009) Reshaping the Food System for Ecological Public Health. Background Paper for Conference: 'Food Systems and Public Health: Linkages to Achieve Healthier Diets and Healthier Communities', held at the Airlie Center, Warrenton, Virginia, USA, April 1-3, 2009

Lang T (2009) How new is the world food crisis? Thoughts on the long dynamic of Food Democracy, Food Control & Food Policy in the 21st century. Background paper to Conference: Visible Warnings: the World Food Crisis in Perspective. April 3-4, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA

Dibb S, Eppel S, Lang T, Rimmer H (2008). Green, Healthy and Fair: a review of government's role in supporting sustainable supermarket food. London: Sustainable Development Commission. February http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/supermarkets.html

Barling D, Sharpe L, Lang T (2008). Rethinking Britain's Food Security. Report for Soil Association. London: Centre for Food Policy. http://www.soilassociation.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=wCYoHYSHsy8%3D&tabid=387

Barling D, Lang T, Rayner G (2008). Current trends in food retailing and consumption and key choices facing society in Rudy Rabbinge and Anita Linnemann, eds, Forward Look on European Food Systems in a Changing World. Final Report to European Science Federation (ESF/COST). April 2008 pp117-136

Barling D, Sharpe L, Lang T (2008). Towards a National Sustainable Food Security Policy. Report on a project to map the policy interface between Food Security and Sustainable Food Supply for Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. London: Centre for Food Policy.

Laura Davis, Elizabeth Dowler, David Hunter, Tim Lang, Kevin Morgan, Veronica Barry (2007). Food and Well Being: A Review of the Nutrition Strategy for Wales 2003-2006. Final Report, May 2007. Report to Food Standards Agency Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government. Coventry: University of Warwick. September http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/fwbreview.pdf#page=24

Articles in Journals (2000-present)

Rayner G, Lang T (2011). A healthy choice?, Primary Health Care. 21, 1, Feb, 10

Pretty J, Sutherland WJ Ashby J, Auburn J, Baulcombe D, Bell M, Bentley J, Bickersteth S, Brown K, Burke J, Campbell H, Chen K, Crowley E, Crute I, Dobbelaere D, Edwards-Jones G, Funes-Monzote F, Godfray HCJ, Griffon M, Gypmantisiri P, Haddad L, Halavatau S, Herren H, Holderness M, Izac A-M, Jones M, Koohafkan P, Lal R, Lang T, McNeely J, Mueller A, Nisbett N, Noble A, Pingali P, Pinto Y, Rabbinge R,Ravindranath NH, Rola A, Roling N, Sage C, Settle W, Sha JM, Shiming L, Simons T, Smith P, Strzepeck K, Swaine H, Terry E, Tomich TP, Toulmin C, Trigo E, Twomlow S, Vis JK, Wilson J, Pilgrim S. (2010) 'The top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture'. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 8, 4, 219-236

Lang T, Rayner G (2010). 'Corporate responsibility in public health', British Medical Journal, 341, 110-111 doi: 10.1136/bmj.c3758 http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c3758 

Barling D, Lang T (2010) . 'Food Policy in the UK: Reflections on Food 2030, its past and future' Food Ethics, 5, 2, 4-7 http://www.foodethicscouncil.org/system/files/FoodEthics5%282%29web.pdf 

Lang T (2010). 'From 'value-for-money' to 'values-for-money'? Ethical food and policy in Europe', Environment and Planning A, 42, 8, 1814-1832 doi:10.1068/a4258 http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=a4258

Lang T (2010). Crisis? What Crisis? The Normality of the Current Food Crisis' Journal of Agrarian Change, 10, 1, January, 92-102. DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-0366.2009.00250.x http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2009.00250.x/abstract 

Lang T (2009). Reshaping the Food System for Ecological Public Health, Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition [special issue on Food Systems and Public Health: Linkages to Achieve Healthier Diets and Healthier Communities], Vol 4, 3/4, 315-335. DOI: 10.1080/19320240903321227 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t792306860

Lang T (2009). What President Obama can do in the world, Public Health Nutrition, 12, 4, 581-583 doi: 10.1017/S1368980009005436 http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=4818780 

Gabriel Y, Lang T (2008). New Faces and New Masks of Today's Consumer, Journal of Consumer Culture , 8, 3, 321-340 DOI: 10.1177/1469540508095266 http://joc.sagepub.com/content/8/3/321.full.pdf 

Rayner G, Barling D, Lang T (2008) 'Sustainable Food Systems in Europe: Policies, Realities and Futures', J Hunger and Environmental Nutrition, 3, 2/3, 145-168 DOI: 10.1080/19320240802243209 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/19320240802243209 

Millstone, E, Lang T (2008). 'Public Health Protection or Regulatory Capture?', The Lancet, Vol 372, July 12, 2008, 94-95

Barling D, Lang T, Sharpe R. Food Capacity: the root of the problem. Royal Society of Arts Journal 2008; vol 154, no 5533, pp.22-27.

Lang T (2007). Functional Foods. British Medical Journal, 334, 1015-6. May 19. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39212.592477.BE

Keller, I. & T. Lang (2007) Food-based dietary guidelines and implementation: lessons from four countries - Chile, Germany, New Zealand and South Africa, Public Health Nutrition, 11(8), 867-874 doi:10.1017/S1368980007001115

Lang T, Rayner G (2007) Overcoming policy cacophony on obesity: an ecological public health framework for policymakers. Obesity Reviews, 8 (s1), 165-181.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-789X.2007.00338.x http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-789X.2007.00338.x

Wrieden WL, Anderson AS, Longbottom PJ, Valentine K, Stead M, Caraher M, Lang T, Gray B, Dowler E (2007). 'The impact of a community-based food skills intervention on cooking confidence, food preparation methods and dietary choices - an exploratory trial', Public Health Nutrition, 10, 2, February 2007, 203-211
doi: 10.1017/S1368980007246658
http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPHN%2FPHN10_02%2FS1368980007246658a.pdf&code=0fd7499ee9545f1383c2e95bce65491e 

Rayner G, Hawkes C, Lang T, Bello W (2006). Trade liberalization and the diet transition: a public health response. Health Promotion International, 21(Supplement 1):67-74; doi:10.1093/heapro/dal053 http://www.heapro.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/21/suppl_1/67 or http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/hpr_special%20issue.pdf

Lang T (2006). 'Food, the law and public health: Three models of the relationship', Public Health, 120, October, 30-41 doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2006.07.013
http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/uploadedFiles/Grants/Lang_30-40.pdf 

Heasman M, Lang T, (2006). 'Plotting the Future of Food: putting ecologically driven, community-based food policy at the heart of Canada's food economy'. Making Waves, 17, 2, summer, 2-17

Lang T, Heasman M (2005). 'Food Wars', Food International Executive Outlook, 5, 1, 26-41

Hewson C, Lang T (2005). 'Human and animal health: strengthening the links: Animal and human case for reforming current food policies', British Medical Journal, 331, 1268 (26 November)

Lang T, Rayner G (2005). 'Obesity: a growing issue for European policy?', Journal of European Social Policy, 15, 4, 301-327 doi: 10.1177/0958928705057263

Lang T (2005). 'Food Control or Food Democracy?: re-engaging nutrition to civil society, the state and the food supply chain', Public Health Nutrition, 8, 6A, 730-737

Pretty JN, Ball AS, Lang T, Morison JIL, (2005) 'Farm Costs and Food Miles: An Assessment of the Full Cost of the UK Weekly Food Basket', Food Policy, 30, 1, 1-20

Lang T, Rayner G, Rayner M, Barling D, Millstone E (2005). 'Policy Councils on Food, Nutrition & Physical Activity: the UK as a case study', Public Health Nutrition, 8, 1, 11-19 doi: 10.1079/PHN2005654

Lang T, Heasman M (2004). 'Diet and Nutrition Policy: A clash of ideas or an investment?', Development, 47, 2, June 2004, pp 64-74 http://www.sidint.org/development/

Lang T (2004). 'European Agricultural Policy: is health the missing link?', Eurohealth, 10, 1, 4-8

Lang T (2003). 'Editorial: FAO-WHO Launch expert Report', Public Health Nutrition, 6 (4), 323-325

Lang T. (2003). 'Food Industrialisation and Food Power: Implications for Food Governance', Development Policy Review, 21, 5-6, 555-568 (reprinted in: Taking Food Public: Redefining Foodways in a Changing World eds. Psyche Williams-Forson and Carole Counihan. New York: Routledge, 2011.

Lang T, Rayner G (2003) 'Ecological Public Health', Holistic Health, 76, Spring, 13-17

Lang T, Rayner G (2003). 'Food and Health Strategy in the UK: A Policy Impact Analysis', Political Quarterly, 74, 1, 66-75 doi:10.1111/1467-923X.00513

Barling D, Lang T (2003). 'The Politics of UK Food: an overview', Political Quarterly, 74, 1, 4-7 doi:10.1111/1467-923X.00506

Barling D, Lang T (2003). 'A Reluctant Food Policy?: The First Five Years of Food Policy under Labour', Political Quarterly, 74, 1, 8-18 doi:10.1111/1467-923X.00507

Barling D, Lang T, Caraher M (2002). 'Joined-up Food Policy? The trials of Governance, Public Policy and the Food System, Social Policy & Administration, 36, 6, 556-575

Rayner G, Lang T (2002). 'Public Health after globalisation: injecting health into the post-Washington consensus', Eurohealth, 8, 3, 21-25

Lang T, Caraher M (2001). Is there a culinary skills transition?: data and debate from the UK about changes in cooking culture. Journal of the Home Economics Institute of Australia, 8, 2, 2-14

Lang T, Barling D, Caraher M (2001). 'Food, Social Policy and the Environment: Towards a New Model', Social Policy and Administration, 35, 5, 538-558

Lang T (2001). 'Public Health and colonialism: a new or old problem?', Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 55, 162-163

Hare C, Kirk D, Lang T (2001). 'The food shopping of older consumers in Scotland: critical incidents', International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management. 29, 1, 25-40

Lang T (2001). 'Putting Policy into Practice: a commentary on the report of Eurodiet working party 4', Public Health Nutrition, 4, 1(A), February, 112-113.

Millstone E, Lang T, Nasha A, Eames M, Barling D, van Zwanenberg P, Trichopoulou A (2000). 'European Policy on Food Safety': comments and suggestions on the White Paper on Food Safety, Trends in Food Science and Technology, 11 (2000), 458-466

Waltner Troews D, Lang T (2000). 'A new conceptual base for food and
agriculture: the emerging model of links between agriculture, food, health,
environment and society', Global Change and Human Health, 1, 2: 116-130

Robinson N, Caraher M, Lang T (2000). 'Access to shops: the views of low income shoppers', Health Education Journal, 59, 2, 121-136

Caraher M, Lang T, Dixon P (2000). 'The influence of TV and celebrity chefs on public attitudes and behaviour among the English public', Journal of the Association for the Study of Food and Society, 4, 1, 27-46

Lang T (2000). 'The state of UK food policy', Radical Statistics, 73, 42-51

Talks and Lectures

Approx. 50 invited lectures are given a year, at national, local, international meetings. Some recent examples include:

2011

'Eating Green: the policy challenge of sustainable diets', Paper to Joint Annual Scientific Meeting of the Nutrition Society of New Zealand and the Nutrition Society of Australia, 29 November - 2 December 2011, Queenstown, New Zealand, delivered December 1, 2011

'Living with an unsustainable food system: can food democracy resolve the dilemmas?' Cunningham Lecture, Academy of Social Sciences of Australia, Canberra, November 8 2011

'NCDs, Agriculture and Food', paper to International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, Sept 7 2011

'Food inequalities (old and new) and the long pursuit of Food Democracy' Opening Keynote to 24th congress of the European Society of Rural Sociologists, MAICh, Chania, Crete. August 22 2011

'Why health and sustainability should be at the centre of agriculture policy' paper to conference: The role of Public Health in the Common Agricultural Policy, European Public Health and Agriculture Consortium (EPHAC), European Parliament June 16 2011

'Moving to Sustainable Food: what models might be resilient?' paper to 'Exploring Change Through Food' Symposium at Canadian Food Studies Association conference, Fredericton New Brunswick, Canada 28 May 2011

'Sustainability and Food: championing green thinking in the Treasury', London: HM Treasury, May 18 2011

'Food Security Challenge: will current institutions provide adequate shelter from gathering storms?', Linacre Lecture, Oxford University, Feb 24 2011

'Food Security and Sustainability: one cannot make an omelette without cracking eggs', Peter Wilson Lecture, Royal Society of Edinburgh, February 14 2011

2010

'Sustainable Diets and Biodiversity: the challenge for policy, evidence and behaviour change' keynote to FAO conference: International Scientific Symposium Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets (3/11/2010 - 05/11/2010), Rome

'The Future of Food Policy: a European Perspective' lecture to 5th Friedman School Symposium, Tufts University, Boston USA, November 6 2010

'Natural Resources, water and food', lecture to Royal College of Defense Studies, London, October 14 2010

'Food Policy from the 1990s: soft consumer or hard public policy choices?' Paper to Nutrition and History conference, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine September 15 2010

'The True Cost of Food' Prince of Wales Agriculture Summer School, Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, July 14 2010

'Sustainable Diets and public policy', keynote to Paper to INRA-CIRAD 2nd meeting on Sustainable Food Systems , INRA Centre de Paris, 147, rue de l'Université 75007 Paris June 22 2010

'Could CAP become a Common Sustainable Food and Agriculture Policy?' Paper to EU Open Health Forum, European Commission, Brussels, June 30 2010

2009

'Why horticultural and agricultural R&D matters', paper to National Horticultural Forum seminar on Horticultural R&D, Royal Society of Chemistry, Nov 26

'How new is the world food crisis? Thoughts on the long dynamic of Food Democracy, Food Control & Food Policy in the 21st century', keynote to Conference: Visible Warnings: the World Food Crisis in Perspective. Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA April 3-4, 2009

Global Food Systems and Regional Food Policy: the struggle with sustainability' , keynote to Morgen/Tomorrow urban planning conference, Amsterdam, October 10

'Diets for Sustainability: Ethics, Politics, Governance', keynote to International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, Dublin, August 27

'Future food', Science Museum Dana Centre Debate, London: Science Museum. Jan 22

Journalism related to academic work

A monthly column for The Grocer, since January 2000, currently by-lined as Second Column:
http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/Endeca.aspx?page=search&Ntk=All&Ns=P_PublicationDate_Millis%7C1&Ntt=Tim%20Lang