What impact could a basic income have on the food sector in a place like Brighton and the South East?

We all want to eliminate household food insecurity, so are we paying enough attention to the idea of Universal Basic Income (UBI) - a regular, unconditional payment to everyone to cover basic needs - as a potentially powerful tool to help us achieve this?

There's been a resurgence of interest in basic income in response to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been shooting up the political agenda as more and more people are considering it as part of a set of solutions that will see us out of this crisis with a new social contract. By providing everybody with some basic financial security, basic income has the potential to deliver significant net benefits to our food systems - and society. It could help transform people's lives as well as food and farming more widely.

But basic income is rarely framed in these terms. Food organisations around the UK are taking part in the Basic Income Conversation to explore the links between basic income and food insecurity in more detail.