The future of food
Our food industry is systemically flawed. Serial entrepreneur, educator, charity founder and former government adviser Henry Dimbleby has dedicated his career to changing it.
17 November 2025
Henry Dimbleby’s CV is full of seriously impressive achievements, all of which have played a role in delivering solutions to the damage that he says the food chain is doing to our health and the environment.
Two of the biggest issues he identifies are the “junk food cycle”, which incentivises companies to produce unhealthy, calorie-dense food, and the “invisibility of nature”, where biodiversity is damaged by modern farming methods.
The restaurant chain Leon, which he jointly set up and then sold, introduced a healthier way to eat out, while his review of school meals for the Department of Education led to a significant shift in government policy, meaning millions more free lunches for children.
He was the lead non-executive director at Defra between 2018 and 2023, and his National Food Strategy, written for Michael Gove, is widely regarded as the definitive soil-to-fork solution to the food-related health, environmental and resilience issues facing the UK today.
In fact, many have criticised the previous government for not following enough of the report’s recommendations, and the current administration for delaying the launch of its own food strategy when Henry’s is ready and waiting to be implemented.
Henry himself is more sanguine. “I think it’s really important to understand the difference between an independent review and a government strategy. I am not a democratically elected person. Governments ask experts for advice, and then it’s up to them to respond and say what they’re going to do.”
“On the environmental side, this government and the previous one have been slowly acting on the recommendations. We’ve got a land use framework coming in, which I recommended, and there’s the expansion of environmental land management schemes. I think, broadly, the direction of travel for health is also moving in the right direction.”
He does, however, admit to frustrations. “I do wish that between governments, they’d move faster and quicker.” He is also critical of this government’s Inheritance Tax reforms. “That’s really made things difficult.”
Profitable solutions
Henry’s latest venture, Bramble Partners, is very much focused on enabling the private sector to deliver innovative and profitable solutions to the issues he’s identified in the food chain.
Bramble is split into two sections: Bramble Intelligence, an advisory service, and Bramble Investments, which is a £100 million fund that is just about to close its first round of fundraising.
Henry says the fund will invest in businesses that are improving the food system via biodiversity, climate, food security and health and wellbeing.
“We are about to close the investment in our first two chosen companies. One is a really interesting shelf-life extending technology that could save a lot of waste in the food chain and remove harmful preservatives.”
“The other is a new device to measure and diagnose what’s going on in your gut via your breath, something that normally costs thousands of pounds.”
“I think we’re at the beginning of a golden period for food investing, because people have realised that food is the new climate. It’s more complex, but it’s a huge sector, and it needs a huge transformation. So, there’s money to be made as well as impact to be created.”
Junk food cycle
Bramble Intelligence will help food businesses break out of the junk food cycle and manage the transition to more environmentally and climate-friendly agriculture.
The timing is right for two main reasons. “With the huge acceleration in appetite-suppressing drugs, the aversion to ultra-processed foods and more regulation, big food companies are now saying, ‘this portfolio that we’ve got, it’s not going to be profitable in the next two to five years.’ The second piece is that climate change is causing real concerns about the way we farm.”
Photo: Food education for children is key to their understanding of diet and health
A key initiative is the 1M Hectares Coalition. This will bring together the UK’s largest estates, landowners and smaller farms, to pilot, accelerate and scale practices, inputs and technologies that will “catalyse the UK’s transition to a resilient, profitable and purposeful food production system.”
Given his influence, Henry is modest about the leadership role he has played.
“I wouldn’t argue to have been the world’s greatest entrepreneur, the world’s greatest government adviser or the world’s greatest charity founder. But I am one of the few people who have seen [the food industry] from so many different angles. I think that gives me a perspective that is unique.”
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