Sustainable Food Trust

✅ We want your feedback! We've created a quick, 5-minute survey so that we can find out what you think about the SFT and the work that we're doing. What food and farming issues are you most interested in learning about? Which guests would you like to hear on the SFT podcast next? Why does sustainable food and farming matter to you? 📚 Once completed, you'll also be entered into a prize draw to win one of four books from Chelsea Green Publishing, the leading publisher on regenerative farming, resilient food systems and low-impact living. Click here to take part: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eVUAS8Cn

In our latest thought piece, Patrick Holden, Welsh farmer and CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, explores the implications for regenerative agriculture following Labour’s historic election victory this month.   Patrick, a valued member of the Goals House community and a leading voice in sustainable farming, is dedicated to advancing food and farming systems that benefit our planet and communities.   In this piece, Patrick outlines his policy recommendations for the new Labour government, including large-scale pilot programs, aligning subsidies for sustainable farming with accurate holistic reporting metrics, and strengthening the regulatory framework.   Read more about Patrick’s insights below:   #SDGs #SustainableFarming #RegenAg #GlobalGoals

"The good news is that farming, having been part of the problem for most of my farming lifetime, could become part of the solution." As Patrick Holden from Sustainable Food Trust explains, modern agriculture has become disconnected from the natural world. Our current methods are highly industrial and extractive – but there is another way. Farming in harmony with nature has a positive impact on both people and the planet 👩🌾🌍 RE:TV’s month-long season dedicated to #RegenerativeAgriculture is still underway. To learn why transforming the way we farm is essential to global food security, watch the extended interview with Patrick on our hub full of films and reports 👉 https://lnkd.in/eWg5eSsX

"Do we need a better agricultural system to feed the world? The answer is yes." Food is responsible for a third of all global emissions, but Regenerative Agriculture offers a way of reducing emissions from our food system at the same time as regenerating ecosystems and removing carbon 🥕 The challenge for Regenerative Agriculture is one of scale – can it produce enough food for our growing population? Patrick Holden and Adele Jones from Sustainable Food Trust, Julie Greene from Olam Agri, and Alexander Gillett from HowGood all work at the forefront of the agricultural transition - and collaborate through the Sustainable Markets Initiative's Agribusiness Task Force 🌱 To learn more about their insights into this growing movement, watch the brand new tentpole film on our Regenerative Agriculture Hub (link in the comments 👇)

🛒 Interesting developments are afoot in the meat retailing sector. Sales appear to have stabilised after a period of declines, and specific trends include increased mince sales but less luck for stewing beef and burgers. Adele Jones, executive director of the Sustainable Food Trust discusses funding for local abattoirs, and AIMS' Norman Bagley thinks it is time to reconsider the UK's position on African Smokies. Fermented products are currently amongst the strongest contenders in the alternative proteins market - but can they seriously rival traditional meat products? The latest data from the sector reveals all. Don't forget to enter your best bangers into this year's UK Sausage Week competition. More details on the 2024 programme are available on page 26. View the latest emag here: https://lnkd.in/d62xTumu

🤝 We’re looking forward to working with the new Labour-led government to accelerate the regenerative farming transition. Our CEO, Patrick Holden, recently wrote to the Secretary of State for Defra, Steve Reed, expressing the critical need for finance to accelerate the transition and the use of common metrics to measure and report on progress towards meeting our climate, nature and social goals. 🔗 Read Patrick's letter here: https://lnkd.in/eGsxKGPS #Defra #Labour #RegenerativeAgriculture #SustainableFarming Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

🍲 As participants of the #BigFoodRedesign Challenge prepare to launch their brand new food products on supermarket shelves in January, we check in with the people bringing these ideas to life. 🍴 As part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's new vlog series, challenge participants take us behind the scenes as they share the inspiration behind their products – from a cocoa honey spread in Brazil to upcycled porridge in the UK – and prove that designing nutritious yet delicious food products while prioritising nature is possible. 🤝 The #BigFoodRedesign Challenge, launched by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Sustainable Food Trust, brings together ambitious producers, retailers, start-ups, and suppliers to design new food products – or redesign existing ones – to regenerate nature. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/eyiAXDqK ➡️ Watch the first episode in this new vlog series to find out more about the process so far: https://lnkd.in/eMUtv_G9 #Sustainability #RegenerativeAgriculture #SustainableFarming #CircularEconomy #CircularDesign

🚨 Regen10's Outcomes-Based Framework survey is closing on Monday 22 July 🚨 If you’re an expert in agriculture and food systems with experience working with farmers and landscape stewards on regenerative and agroecological approaches, we would like to hear from you! Thank you to all those who have shared their insights so far - your expertise will help shape and refine the Framework, which aims to provide all value chain stakeholders with a shared understanding of how to advance equitable and inclusive regenerative food systems. To take part, press the link in the comments ⬇️ #Regen10 #Regenerative #FoodSystems Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), IUCN, Leaders' Quest, Meridian Institute, Systemiq Ltd., WBCSD – World Business Council for Sustainable Development, World Farmers' Organisation, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Sustainable Food Trust, 1000 Landscapes For 1 Billion People, The Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation, McKnight Foundation

📈 The latest UK Climate Change Committee report released today assesses how far the UK has progressed in meeting its climate targets. Agriculture is in the spotlight as the fourth largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions at 48 MtCo2e (11% of total emissions in 2023, after transport, buildings and industry – and greater than the UK’s energy supply). Yet emissions reductions in agriculture were only 2.4%. As other sectors carbonise, agriculture will play an increasingly large part in the UK’s climate impact. Yet there is huge untapped potential to move from agriculture being part of the climate problem, to being a solution, while restoring biodiversity and delivering resilient food production. We need an urgent shift to regenerative farming that restores soil carbon, builds back nature and increase our resilience to climate shocks. Achieving this requires balancing multiple needs. We must address the climate challenge whilst also producing high quality food, meeting our nature targets and fostering healthy communities. The SFT’s report 'Feeding Britain from the Ground Up’ showed that, through regenerative farming, the UK can strike this balance. However, it requires policy and business support to incentivise producing food in harmony with nature, rather than treating these as two separate goals, whilst also raising the regulatory bar to reduce environmental harm. We recently wrote to the Secretary of State for Defra, The Rt. Hon. Steve Reed, to express the critical need for finance to accelerate the regenerative farming transition and the use of common metrics to measure and report on progress towards meeting our climate, nature and social goals. 🔗 Read our letter to Steve Reed here: https://lnkd.in/eGsxKGPS #ClimateChange #RegenerativeAgriculture #FeedingBritain

A bit late to the party, but it was great to host this panel last week at the UN Global Compact Network UK event at the The Conduit with Maria Carvalho from NatWest Group, Khanh Mach from Quorn Foods, Sandrine Ricard from Pernod Ricard and Eleanor Besley-Gould from Xynteo. Thanks Lily Venables for organising. The discussion was about where companies are at on their 2030 targets in line with the #SDGs. It’s a bit of a daunting time given how much we still plan to achieve in the next few years. If you include the one that’s about to happen, we have 6 harvests left to get some serious 💩 done. Key takeaways for me were: 1) pre-competitive efforts are absolutely key to solving the sustainability issues we face. A degree of competition around sustainability between companies is healthy but we must identify where honest collaboration is needed. Coalitions like the UN Global Compact Network UK, Sustainable Markets Initiative and WBCSD – World Business Council for Sustainable Development are crucial here. 2) we have to make this a financial no brainer, particularly for farmers. All the risk and bureaucracy cannot fall on their shoulders. This will take investment from the private sector to bridge the transition gap, but critically also the development of a long term business proposition for regenerative agriculture. 3) transparency and the use of harmonised data will be game-changing when it comes to procurement but also financial decision making. A common framework of metrics provides the glue which sticks all the different actors operating in the food system together, ensuring we all all pushing in the same direction, rather than 8 different ones..