Industry moving to balance nutrition with nature

Surrounded by people concerned with the environment and how we can farm more ecologically while ensuring farming and growing are more sustainable, both environmentally and in terms of income. 

But how do we get there? Agroecological farming is a small but fierce sector. High principles and an urge to transform food and farming to achieve a bright future for the next generation. Mainstream farming is often seen as diametrically opposed to this. How can they come together to move us towards the goal of net zero, improvement in landscapes and the wildlife they support? 

Industry needs support to enhance environmental goals

Farmers and growers are stewards of our land. Many want to move towards more sustainable and climate-friendly practices, but this can be daunting, costly, and another pull on their limited time. They need help from across the industry to make these changes. Coaching, mentoring, learning from other farmers and growers’ experiences will assist with this. And progress is likely to be incremental, realised in a series of small steps towards regenerative practices. This is where those already on the path and those who support them have a duty to help and collaborate, sharing knowledge and skills. 

To fully appreciate diversity, one must have an open mind, being quizzical, honestly exploring others’ situations without prejudices. In this way indi, individuals are able to learn from others but also share opinions safely and, through reflection, consider their own situations, mindsets,working practices to make beneficial changes. We all need to rise above negative language – comments about ORFC attendees being ‘hippies’ and jokes about this year’s OFC theme aren’t really going to move us to net zero. Focusing on the common ground will.  

A few sessions touched on future scenarios which will help us move towards a more environmental future. The key themes were eating less meat and smaller scale food production with shorter supply chains. TIAH has a role in modelling these scenarios to understand the future workforce needs and we’ve already produced a labour market analysis tool which can achieve this.

Not all proteins are created equally

A concern for me was a potential increase in consumption of alternative proteins to replace red meat. Lord Deben (ex-Chair of the UK Committee on Climate Change) spoke about their related energy use – growing beans can be 50 times more effective in energy use than producing alternative proteins.

To produce novel food proteins sustainably in the UK we may require more graded farmland to be converted to solar plants. The public need to be more aware about the carbon footprint of the food they consume and we all have a role in this. Better labelling around provenance will also help educate consumers and ultimately benefit our farmers and growers.  

Along with communicating better with the public we also need to work on getting messages out about innovations. Academics need to be better at engaging with farmers - involving them in impactful research that solves problems on the ground, and then explaining clearly the research undertaken and its benefits so changes can be implemented, or at least considered, on-farm. 

Industry facing a host of challenges 

Of course, farmers and growers need to be able to manage these environmental and consumer challenges while also ensuring their own business continues to be successful. And when you then consider the additional challenges around market volatility and the labour market, it quickly becomes clear that to succeed, many businesses will need to adapt.

We're here to help with that. Our Learning Hub is continually being updated with new resources to inform farmers and growers on how to tackle all these challenges. And we're adding more tools and information to help managers and owners improve their recruitment processes, giving them the best chance of finding and hiring the best candidates for their positions on-farm.

Importantly, we're working with partners across the industry to help identify new challenges - so we can help our members adapt to the changes before they impact their businesses.

The world is changing. We're working hard to help our members identify and adapt to those changes.

Find out more about how you can benefit from becoming a member of TIAH today.