Uniting the food sector to deliver a Good Food Cycle

Connecting a complex sector

The food industry is the UK’s largest private sector employer, yet its scale often makes collaboration difficult. We are often organised in siloes, so trade bodies play a critical role in supporting their respective parts of the sector. The IGD is a charity which can work across the whole supply chain and plays a role in bringing those different parts of the food system together through our forums, to enable collaboration which can drive impactful change.

Earlier this year the Government asked IGD to use our experience in bringing together different parts of the food sector to help Defra to hear from as many people working in this industry as possible.

Listening to the food industry

Over recent months, IGD has been supporting Defra to listen to the views of people throughout the food sector – from agriculture, businesses and NGOs – to make sure that the political decision-makers could hear from as many people as possible with a stake in the future of the food system.

In May, we partnered with Defra to host a series of four multi-stakeholder workshops across London, Birmingham, and Leeds. Bringing together over 150 organisations from across the agri-food supply chain - including representatives from agriculture, industry, NGOs, and private citizens - the workshops explored the four pillars of the UK food strategy: economic growth, health, sustainability, and food security. Participants shared their visions for the future of the food system, identified key challenges, and proposed actionable steps. You can read a summary of the themes which emerged under each pillar of the Food Strategy along with a downloadable spreadsheet with every idea submitted across all four workshops.

IGD is also the co-secretariat for the Food Strategy Advisory Board. This is the independent expert advisory group made up of representatives from many different parts of the food system, which is supporting the Government to create the food strategy. If you are interested in learning more about the work of the Advisory Board, you can read the minutes from its meetings.

A shared vision for change

Over the last few months it’s clear that everyone, no matter what their role in the food sector, wants to see change. What is maybe more surprising is the extent to which there has been alignment across all the different stakeholders who have contributed to the workshops and the Advisory Board in the kind of food system they’d like to see. That shared vision has directly informed to the ten outcomes which Defra shared this week.

What’s next?

The next task is for Defra to set out how it intends to achieve those bold ambitions – and at IGD we’ll keep playing our part by bringing the sector together to share insights, ideas and expertise to help shape Government thinking.