Jack McGovan
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jackmcgovan.bsky.social
Jack McGovan
@jackmcgovan.bsky.social
12K followers 810 following 320 posts
Writer and environmental journalist @ Sentient, The Guardian, Hakai etc

www.sower.world

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jackmcgovan.bsky.social
Yeah, news stories on bird flu (and antimicrobial resistance etc) have a real habit of not mentioning intensive animal farming, even though we know the H5N1 strain emerged on a commercial geese farm three decades ago.
jackmcgovan.bsky.social Jack McGovan @jackmcgovan.bsky.social · Nov 12
The story suggests rising prices of animal products could encourage people to care about the virus.

We should instead be sounding the alarm about animal ag: the H5N1 strain of bird flu emerged from a commercial geese farm in the 90s.

Link: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
A screenshot of the linked article. The subtitle reads: Virus origin. The text reads: The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain emerged in commercial geese in Asia in around 1996, and spread in poultry throughout Europe and Africa in the early 2000s.
November 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
Happy to hear you found it interesting! If you're able to repost it and get some more eyeballs on it it'd be much appreciated 🙏
October 31, 2025 at 11:00 AM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
and big thank you to @ruxandragrrr.bsky.social as always for her edits!
October 30, 2025 at 3:09 PM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
Hi @georgemonbiot.bsky.social, I'm a long-time reader of your food systems work, and I've not seen you mention any of this before to the best of my knowledge. I think you might find it interesting!
October 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
Tagging some food systems people who might find this interesting @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social @rob-percival.bsky.social @mbolotnikova.bsky.social @slowfoodhq.bsky.social @foodrise.bsky.social @johngimi.bsky.social @whitneybauck.bsky.social
October 30, 2025 at 2:25 PM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
This is the latest feature for my newsletter Sower.

Please consider sharing the article in your network if you enjoyed it, or subscribing for free to help me grow and keep producing more content with this, alongside a host of editors and illustrators.
What’s Sower about?
A newsletter inspiring action through progressive ideas.
www.sower.world
October 30, 2025 at 2:12 PM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
Of course, relying on the private sector for anything – unless you enjoy shit in your rivers, or an overpriced terrible rail system – isn't really a good idea either.

So what's the solution? Click through to the article to read more and find out!
October 30, 2025 at 2:11 PM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
Another project thinks community dining experiences in schools is a more politically-palatable solution. The CanTeams project has already ran 50 successful events across the country.

Not only does the concept use already established infrastructure, it has relied so far on philanthrophic funding.
The CanTeams project hosts community dining experiences at schools across England. So far, the project has served over 3000 people at over 50 events. “We're trying to turn schools into community hubs, and using activities and nutritious food to do that,” said Jonathan Harper, CEO of Future Foundations, the organisation behind CanTeams. “If you have a young person performing, singing, or doing something… [that] can help catalyse communities coming in.” Although the project primarily focuses on school children and their immediate families, there have been events involving pensioners or those in care homes. Harper told the story of one old lady who said she was scared of young people and therefore didn’t take the bus in the afternoons, who, after sitting side by side with teenagers and breaking bread with them, felt safe. In the future, he wants to create events where the wider community can come in to eat after the children leave.
October 30, 2025 at 2:03 PM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
British Restaurants were eventually closed down in the 1960s because of lobbying from the private sector, which raises a big sticking point: if they couldn't survive during a time of bigger public investment, what chance do they have in a world that's increasingly relying on the private sector?
But if public diners are so great, why did they disappear in the first place? Bryce Evans, a professor of modern world history at Liverpool Hope University who has written a book on the history of British Restaurants, told Sower in an email there were three main reasons they were shut down: the political will to keep them disappeared after the war ended; private retail trade rallied hard against state-subsidised dining and urged a return to the free market; and the central government cut funding.
October 30, 2025 at 1:59 PM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
As they'd be public infrastructure, public diners could have guidelines to promote more climate-friendly diets and overhaul diets at a systemic level.

An important aspect, however, is that the diners should be democratic – those eating there should have a say in how they are run.
More broadly, public diners could be a guiding light for a better food system. In a piece for The Conversation published late last year, Benjamin Selwyn, professor of international relations and international development at the University of Sussex, wrote: “subsidised community restaurants could serve seasonal dishes made with locally grown plant-based food, produced on farms that encourage wildlife through widespread tree cultivation, the use of cover-crops, and improvements to soil health.” Democratic input would also be important to make public diners work. Different demographics have cultural practices that should not only be reflected in what food is served, but also how it’s served. In places with large Muslim communities, for example, public diners should be accessible after sunset during Ramadan. Public diners could also act as a place of cultural exchange, where those from different backgrounds meet and explore cuisines from all over the world.
October 30, 2025 at 1:54 PM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
It might seem like a big ask, but state-subsidised dinners were already a thing in the UK during the wartime period of the 20th century – at their peak, there were more so-called British Restaurants than there are McDonalds today!

I grew up in the UK and had no idea of that history.
Public diners already have a history in the UK, where so-called British Restaurants offered places to eat during the wartime period of the 20th century. At their peak, there were 2000 situated across the UK, all of which were subsidised by the government. For comparison, there are around 1450 McDonalds in the country today. “Before we had a national health service, we had a national restaurant service,” said Chworow. An exhibition by Nourish Scotland demonstrating the history of British Restaurants, and how similar concepts exist in countries like Poland, Turkey, Mexico, and Singapore, is currently travelling around Scotland to raise public awareness. “We somehow seem to think, ‘Oh, no, the state couldn't do that’, and when you say, ‘No, actually, it has done that—and within our living memory’, it just allows people to go, ‘Oh, maybe we could do this again’,” said Chworow.
October 30, 2025 at 1:47 PM
jackmcgovan.bsky.social
Free community dining experiences are gaining in popularity across the world – a symptom of a failure in social policy to ensure everyone has access to nutritious, climate-friendly foods.

That's why Nourish Scotland is pushing for state-subsidised diners instead.
The idea of people coming together to eat might seem like a wonderful idea on the surface, but it’s also a response to something more sinister. One in ten people in the EU are unable to afford a proper meal every second day, and a third of children in the UK live in homes where there is not enough access to healthy and nutritious food. As people can’t afford basic nourishment, restaurants, too, are struggling with people no longer able to afford the experience of eating out. While charity or pay-what-you-can models offer a way for the needy to eat, they’re a symptom of a failure in social policy. That’s why the food charity Nourish Scotland are pushing for the reintroduction of public diners to Scotland: diners subsidised by the state to provide affordable, nutritious, and filling meals that are accessible to everyone regardless of their financial status.
October 30, 2025 at 1:43 PM