Mapping Responsibility for Food in Government
BRINGING CLARITY TO RESEARCH FINDINGS
Outline
Government responsibilities for food are spread across many different departments. Researcher Dr Kelly Parsons at the Food Research Collaboration took a deep dive into public documents and interviews with key actors to unpick the situation. What at first sounded like a simple task resulted in the discovery of many complex relationships and responsbilities spanning a total of sixteen government departments.
Taking the vast body of information discovered and translating it into a 47 page report was a vast piece of work, which then required a simple infographic to demonstrate the findings. Working closely with Dr Parsons, we created a simple graphic which can be used in future workshops to illustrate the linkages that people discover.
Treading the line between carefully representing the research and creating a graphic which is visually appealling is often a delicate balance. The final product required an understanding of the complexity of the situation, without being complex in itself.
Results
Worldwide reception of the graphic has been enormous, with researchers from as far afield as New Zealand and USA wishing to adopt similar formats for their own research. It has also been picked up by the specialist food press, such as Farmers Guardian and Food Navigator.
