Bean Facts

Our current food system is driving soaring levels of diet-related disease as well as catastrophic levels of nature loss and climate change. We're pushing our planet past the point of no return. So great are the challenges our current food system is facing, as well as directly impacting on, that it is sometimes hard to remain positive about the future.

Shifting diets so they are healthier and more sustainable will require different production practices as well as, crucially, a transition towards more plant-rich diets. Yet when it comes to the detail there is often disagreement as to the exact nature of the shifts required.

Enter, beans.

A real-life ‘superfood’, they're a triple win for health, climate and affordability objectives and a rare example of a food that pretty much everyone can agree delivers on multiple fronts.

This briefing aims to summarise the many benefits of increasing bean consumption and production in the UK. It begins to unpack how many beans the UK eats, and from where, in order to support food system stakeholders to identify where they could act to increase production and consumption.