BRIDPORT Arts Centre hosts a double bill of food documentaries on Thursday 25th January, at 7.30pm – Hungry for Change and Food for Thought. The films, both made in Cornwall, focus on key challenges for the future – waste, resilience and meat.

In Hungry for Change, the film maker, forager Josh Quick, explores the shocking facts that we import nearly 50 per cent of all our food in the UK, and waste one-third of it – so it is unsurprising that the food we eat and the way we produce it is responsible for a huge part of our carbon emissions.

Cornwall Climate Care’s Hungry for Change, looks at our reliance on this intensive, hyper-globalised, fossil fuel-driven food system – which is itself becoming more and more vulnerable to climate shocks.

Presenter Josh Quick asks whether there are ways of producing more of our food locally and in more imaginative, but less damaging, ways. It takes a fascinating and inspiring look at a whole range of stories, from the gleaners picking ‘waste’ crops in our fields to projects growing food in unusual places and a microbiologist keen to get us all eating low-carbon insects.

Food for Thought, presented by organic beef farmer Lisa Guy, asks another timely question – should we all be giving up meat and dairy if we are to have a hope of avoiding dangerous climate breakdown?

This is what the headlines seem to tell us. But is this too simplistic a picture – and what would this mean for Cornwall, where the majority of farmland is used to raise livestock or to grow crops for these animals to eat?

The film looks at the undeniable impacts of modern animal agriculture as well as some of the incredible Cornish initiatives under way to mitigate them – and also the role that regenerative farming could play in actually combating climate change while producing nutritious food.

Food for Thought aims to inspire much-needed conversation and action about a crucial subject that has become one of the most contentious within the climate debate.