Food industry outlines opportunity for sustainable farming
A new report has highlighted that the food industry is looking for ways to measure how sustainably its ingredients are grown and produced, providing an opportunity for farmers to demonstrate their credentials in this area.
A new report has highlighted that the food industry is looking for ways to measure how sustainably its ingredients are grown and produced, providing an opportunity for farmers to demonstrate their credentials in this area.
These findings come from a new report, Driving Sustainability, from LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) to be launched at IFE 2013 on Tuesday 19 March.
The report provides a unique insight into the challenges facing farmers and the food industry in producing sustainable food. It surveyed nearly 1,000 representatives from across the food industry and questioned more than 150 LEAF farmers about how they are addressing sustainability.
The results show that while 82 per cent of the food industry representatives agree sustainability is very important to their company, one in five (19 per cent) do not monitor or measure the sustainability of food products they source. However, the good news for the farming industry is that 67 per cent of respondents agreed that if they were in charge of procurement for their company, they would pay a premium for sustainably produced food or ingredients.
Farmers surveyed believe consumer demand will be the most influential in shaping the future sustainability of the farming industry over the next five years (31%), followed by agri-environmental financial incentives (22%) and the farming industry itself (17%). Just ten per cent thought that this would be driven by retailers.
To address the need for clear and practical ways of measuring sustainability, LEAF has developed a new framework for LEAF members. The framework is based on the LEAF Audit, a self-assessment which farmers undertake to help them to farm more sustainably and to high environmental standards. They can then take this to the next level which is the independently assessed LEAF Marque certification. The framework covers 24 key objectives under the three pillars of sustainability – economic performance, environmental quality and social health. These look at a variety of factors, including crop health and protection, water management, pollution control and by-product management and landscape and nature conservation. LEAF can use the framework to assess and encourage continuous improvement of its farmers, which in turn can provide the food industry with a more sustainable supply chain.
Caroline Drummond, MBE and chief executive of LEAF said: “This research shows that it is becoming increasingly important for farmers to demonstrate and measure how sustainable their business is. Not only does it help provide market opportunities, but it can also increase productivity. Sustainability doesn’t just refer to the environment; it also means ensuring farming businesses are financially sustainable as well . This new report establishes a base point from which the food and farming industry can measure progress in the development of sustainable farming.”
Driving Sustainability, a report from LEAF can be downloaded from www.leafuk.org.
