Groundswell 2025: The Human and Commercial Realities of Regeneration
By: Emma Victor-Smith, Head of Digital & Community Engagement, Future Food Movement
“Part 1: The Human Cost of the Current Food System
Part 2: The Commercial Case for Regeneration
Two sides of the same system - and both need to shift.
Part one focuses on the human reality: what’s happening on the ground, and why the current food system isn’t built to support the people driving change. Part two explores the commercial strategies that could make regeneration scalable.
Part 1: The Human Cost of the Current Food System
Nature regenerates in seasons. Business reports in quarters. That mismatch is why regenerative agriculture struggles to scale.
Groundswell 2025 was a beacon - but it’s not the system. The presence of DEFRA’s Steve Reed, Labour’s Daniel Zeichner, NFU President Tom Bradshaw, regenerative icon Gabe Brown and even Prince William signalled that regen is becoming political, cultural and commercial currency. But the deeper test is this:
Can a food system built for speed, scale and short-term gain support the long-term shift regeneration demands?
“Regenerative farming is not a fringe alternative. It must be a foundation stone for British agriculture to help us rebuild the health of our nation.” - Prince William HRH
Future Food Movement Founder Kate and I were immersed in brilliant conversations, inspiring sessions and incredible food - but behind the stages and firepits, we also heard a more sober message. Beneath the optimism ran a thread of urgency - and pain. Because the current commercial system still isn’t built to support this shift. And the human cost is mounting.
The Commercial Model Is Breaking People, Not Just Soils
Farming under the current commercial agricultural model - cheap food, short contracts, perpetual pressure - is extracting more than nutrients. It’s extracting hope. At Groundswell, the elephant in the room wasn’t just policy or pricing. It was mental health. “We have five years of farmer goodwill left. After that, it collapses,” one farmer told me.
Margins don’t work. Contracts don’t support change. And too often, the message from business is: “Be more sustainable,” without offering long-term offtake, shared risk or emotional support. The result? Farmers are being asked to solve climate, biodiversity and health - with no safety net.
Soil to Gut to System: Food as a Public Health Intervention
Through Future Food Movement programmes - and our deep work with farmers - I’ve learned that this isn’t just a supply chain story. It’s a health system story. We now understand that: Soil Health → Nutrient-Dense Food → Gut Health → Public Health.
The microbiome of healthy soil mirrors that of the human gut. Diverse, living soils grow food richer in omega-3s, antioxidants and bioavailable nutrients - supporting stronger immune systems, metabolic resilience and lower rates of chronic disease.
Tim Jackson’s research estimates the UK food system creates £268 billion in external costs every year - from healthcare to lost productivity to environmental harm. Imagine if we treated every hectare of regeneratively farmed land not as a niche, but as a health asset.
Labour is calling on food and drink companies to play a bigger role in its moonshot plan to tackle obesity - and regenerative agriculture must be part of that strategy. “Every time we regenerate soil, we’re lowering public healthcare costs.” That’s not a metaphor. It’s an ROI.
Some are already acting on this logic. The team behind First Thirty is calculating QALY scores (quality-adjusted life years) for agricultural practices - putting regen farming on a par with healthcare interventions. Under current UK law, NICE would be required to fund it if it were a drug.
If we want resilient land, we need resilient people. That means better contracts, better care and a deeper commercial commitment to those at the front line of food system change.
Part 2: The Commercial Case for Regeneration
In part two, we’ll explore how the food industry - from procurement to policy - can turn this into a commercial strategy, not just a moral one.
The Shrinking Supply Chain Nobody Talks About
Farmers are leaving the system. Not just because of climate or politics - but because the system is broken. Supply is shrinking. Diversity is vanishing. Infrastructure is collapsing. Carrots can’t get packed. Pulses can’t get cleaned. Small-scale abattoirs are closing. Certification is unaffordable. Contracts are too short. “The most expensive carrot is the one you can’t get.” - Ed Morgan, Castell Howell
If we don’t act, a few vertically integrated players will dominate what’s left. And the price of entry will be scale, not stewardship. That’s not resilience. That’s risk.
The Sustainability Theatre Is Over. This Is Margin Protection.
Regeneration is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s a strategic shield:
Against volatility in supply
Against reputational risk
Against health-driven consumer shifts
Against burnout and workforce attrition.
This isn’t about being ethical. It’s about being operational. The businesses that will survive the next decade are already reframing regen as risk mitigation, not reputation management.
The Political Window Is Narrow - But Open
With Steve Reed and Daniel Zeichner pledging support for regenerative reform, and Tom Bradshaw calling out the UK’s addiction to cheap food, a rare political alignment is forming. But the system won’t shift from Westminster alone. “Retailers must answer the question before the consumer even knows to ask it.” - Justin King, ex-CEO Sainsbury’s.
Long-term contracts. Shared risk models. Procurement linked to health, not just emissions. These are commercial strategies - waiting for commercial courage.
From Carrots to Curriculums: Building the Future
Projects like the Welsh Veg in Schools programme and Hodmedod’s pulse networks show what’s possible: Relational supply chains, backed by public procurement, delivering nutrient-dense, regeneratively grown food to children. It works. It scales. But only with investment.
We must move from preaching to partnering, from audits to outcomes and from compliance to care.
From Case to Action: Building a Resilient Food System
The business case for stewardship is clear:
Secure long-term access to ingredients aligned with climate, health and provenance goals
Build trust with regulators, investors and consumers
Reduce volatility by investing in resilience, not just reacting to shocks
Attract and retain purpose-driven talent who want to work for future-fit leaders.
But none of this happens on its own. There’s no silver bullet - but there is a path.
It starts with a cascade of courageous shifts, led by those willing to go first:
Brave procurement, retail and farming leaders building new models: shared-risk contracts, longer-term deals, regen-linked incentives
Capability-building and storytelling that normalise these behaviours across the system
Platforms like Future Food Movement to connect the dots, convene the leaders and codify the learnings - so others can follow faster.”
Future Food Movement is a convener, a translator and a capability-builder - powerful roles in a system still stuck in short-termism.
If you’re not already building resilience, you’re building risk. We work with commercial and procurement teams to unlock new thinking, grow capability and drive system-level change.
Join us.
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