Corinna Hawkes is a Professor of Food Policy at City, University of London. She works on policies that improve the quality of diets, both nationally and internationally. She studies various forms of ill-health relating from diet, including obesity and malnutrition. She Is Vice Chair of the London Child Obesity Taskforce and a member of the London Food Board.
After her PhD Hawkes moved to Los Angeles, where she discovered farmers' markets. She returned to the United Kingdom and volunteered for the organisation Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. She began to research food poverty and became interested in a career in food policy. She also worked in New York City. Hawkes was appointed chair of the World Health Organisation expert group on the marketing of food and non-alcoholic drinks to children. In 2009 Hawkes joined the International Food Policy Research Institute. She moved to the University of São Paulo where she served as a Fellow in the School of Public Health. In 2012 Hawkes moved to the World Cancer Research Fund International, where she served as Head of Policy and Public Affairs. She established the NOURISHING policy framework of policies that promotes and tracks healthy diets. As Hawkes starts from the perspective of the eater, she connects the challenges of agriculture, healthy eating and food security. She published the annual Global Nutrition Report, identifying places for progress. The report includes global targets for nutrition as defined by the Sustainable Development Goals. In the 2015 report, Hawkes made a number of findings, including that he increased number of refugee children results in more stunted growth. She found that the majority of countries are not on target for reducing anemia and obesity. She identified that only 15% of children in developing countries were receiving adequate nutrition. In 2016 Hawkes was made Chair of the World Economic ForumGlobal Future Council on Agriculture. She joined the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London. Here she looks to make a more sustainable and equal global food system. She led the report Food Systems and Diets: Facing the Challenges of the 21st Century. She was one of several signatories who requested a sugary drink tax in South Africa. She was appointed to the City Hall Food Board in 2017. In 2018 the Mayor of London appointed Hawkes as the Vice Chair of the London Child Obesity Taskforce. She has written a series of essays on the evidence that must be required to prevent obesity, and is a member of The Lancet commission on obesity. She has argued that the people of a food system should be involved in the creation of new policies, and that extra value needs to be placed on their lived experiences. Hakwes created a report on food policy for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, defining the sweetspot of food systems at the intersection of the environment, economy and health. The systems approach recognises that food production is a complex process, which requires cross-government collaboration. Hawkes is an advisor for the Leverhulme Trust Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health and a member of the EAT Forum. She developed their Department for International Development map of agriculture-nutrition research. She has written for The Conversation.
