March 2024: Farmer-led Working Group

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In March, our second Farmer Advisory Board meeting brought together farmers, manufacturers, processors and brands to co-create a vision for the future food system.

Guests explored what a sustainable food future should look like, identifying six critical themes: regaining respect for food and farmers, improving public understanding through education and transparency, prioritising healthy diets starting in schools, ensuring financial viability through supportive policies, minimising waste at all levels, and guaranteeing fairness throughout the supply chain with sustainable incomes for everyone.

However, the session also confronted the harsh blockers standing in the way: lack of political will and expertise in government, economic pressures where supermarkets keeping prices low makes it impossible to redistribute funds fairly, fear of acting when the path forward remains ambiguous, difficulty attracting young talent to agriculture, the industry's slow pace in adopting technology, and perhaps most critically, resistance to complexity across all stakeholders.

As one participant noted, "we probably know how to fix it, farmers and traders are thinking along similar lines, but the lack of willingness across all actors to embrace complexity is missing."

With only six years until 2030, the urgency was palpable. The meeting highlighted how the current disconnection between farmers and the broader supply chain hinders genuine collaboration and progress, making it clear that stakeholders must swiftly work together to overcome these hurdles and achieve ambitious sustainability targets while building a fair, collaborative and valued food system.