CUSP

30/09/2026

Two years on from my report on "The False Economy of Big Food" the hidden costs of food-related sickness in the UK are rising.

TLDR: Health care costs, social care costs, welfare payments, lost productivity and sheer human suffering: the overall sum now approaches £300 billion. The cost of intervening is a fraction of that at £51 billion.

👉 You can read my full updated analysis for the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission here: https://ffcc.co.uk/news-and-press/true-cost-of-uks-food-system-nearly-300-billion or via the blog below.

The uncomfortable truth is that is still holding us hostage, hijacking public health and undermining public finance in the name of shareholder profit.

This isn't just a failure to join up food policy and health policy. It's , pure and simple. It's bad economic policy. It's a massive false economy - measurable not only in pounds sterling but in human tragedy.

It's time to ensure that every household in the land has access to affordable, healthy and sustainable food.

The economic case for intervening is unassailable.
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🔗 Blog: https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/food/tj-blog-held-hostage-ffcc/

30/09/2026

10/09/2026

What shapes ’s response to climate and nature loss? CUSP co-director Tim Jackson's recent evidence to the ongoing EAC inquiry challenges the growth, wellbeing and discounting assumptions behind The Green Book.
🔗 https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/tj-eac-submission-treasury-economics/

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15/07/2026

Confronting Extractivism // CUSP co-director Tim Jackson has contributed to a new report from Ernst & Young’s New Economy Unit (NEU), exploring how businesses can help drive the transition away from towards a regenerative economy.

🔗 https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/ey-neu-extractivism-report2026/

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01/07/2026

Community-rooted social enterprises are transforming local food systems by combining trading with social impact and reaching underserved communities. They should be recognised as essential food-system partners. New policy briefing from the SEFS project.

🔗 https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/p/sefs-policy-briefing/

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New briefing by CUSP researchers summarises evidence from the SEFS project on how social enterprises are contributing to healthier, fairer and more sustaina ...

19/06/2026

Workshop: The Care Economy: reimagining health and care
🗓️ Online 23 June 2026, 12pm (BST)⁠
⁠🔗 https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/health/tj-event-q-nhs-alliance-2026/

CUSP co-director Tim Jackson joins Jennifer Morgan from Q-Community at an The NHS Alliance event to explore the value of care, its place in economic thinking, and how a more human‑centred approach to prosperity and health can help reimagine our future.⁠
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17/06/2026

🌍 The latest CUSP Newsletter is live now. // Co-director Tim Jackson reflects on the turmoil of the first half of 2026—aggressive expansionism, rising militarism, and justice systems that punish protest while shielding atrocities—arguing that what's done in the name of growth, law, and defence is the very opposite of prosperity, justice, and security.
🆕 Plus new research and activities from across the CUSP community.
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When civic virtue goes missing, said the Roman poet Juvenal, political engagement gives way to ‘bread and circuses’. Governments resort to materialism and entertainment to distract the populace from rampant injustice.

09/06/2026

What Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations can teach us about today’s failed energy transitions—Blog by Simon Mair
→ https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/blopg-sm-energy-use-wealth-of-nations/

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08/06/2026

An unregulated post-growth transition in the North can cause crises in the South: debt, inflation, unemployment. That’s the finding of a new paper by CUSP researchers Dario Leoni, Andrew Jackson and Tim Jackson. Their scenario dynamics analysis from the PADME model reveal that financial transfers and global cooperation are essential to make it work internationally—ecological space isn’t enough. →

https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/paper-dl-postgrowth-north-south-divide/

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01/06/2026

The cost of data centres—New FoE Ireland report by CUSP fellow
Seán Fearon models how the growing data centre demand on the Irish electricity grid is pushing up electricity prices for households across the state.
→ https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/report-sf-cost-of-data-centres

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