Groundswell's vision for food and farming

IGDs Social Impact team was delighted to attend Groundswell this year, with representation from our Environmental Sustainability, Resilience and Health teams. Across two days of discussion, debate and knowledge sharing, it was clear that regenerative agriculture continues to gain momentum as a key part of the transition towards more sustainable, healthy and resilient food systems.

While Groundswell remains firmly rooted in farming, it has become an important broader forum for shaping conversations about the future of food attracting an increasing number of government figures. Three themes particularly stood out for the team: the growing role of nature markets and private investment, the opportunities and challenges of scaling regenerative agriculture through large food businesses, and the debate around making regenerative agriculture the norm rather than a consumer-facing label. These themes and their implications for the future of food, farming and society are explored in more detail below.

DEFRA: the market-making state and farms as natural capital businesses

Groundswell isn't just a trade show, it's increasingly where government sets out its stall too, with the Secretary of State and the DESNZ climate minister also in attendance. This year that included Will Lockhart OBE, Defra's Deputy Director for Nature Markets and Investment, who used a talk at the festival to lay out the department's thinking on voluntary nature markets. It was great to see the agenda outlined in front of the farmers and food businesses these markets are meant to serve.

The framing is explicit: England's natural environment was valued at over £1.5 trillion in 2023, generating more than £36 billion in economic benefits annually, yet Defra argues public spending alone cannot restore nature at the scale required, making private capital essential. This year, DEFRA published new standards with the British Standards Institution covering carbon, biodiversity and nutrient markets - building on last year's overarching standard into what Defra calls the most comprehensive suite of nature market standards in the world. Without consistent, trusted rules for measuring outcomes, investors can't compare projects or trust that credits mean anything. Defra's own call for evidence found investors want long-term certainty and government help de-risking early investment through blended finance - this isn't government stepping back, it's government positioning itself as the central player that makes private money comfortable entering the market, as seen with the launch of the Big Nature Impact Fund.

The opportunity is here, but unlocking it requires certainty, integrity, and a government prepared to be a genuine partner in making these markets work.

That's the question worth sitting with. With health, defence, housing and infrastructure all competing for Treasury attention, Defra's budget looks vulnerable, and voluntary nature markets read as a way of crowding in capital that doesn't depend on the department's own spending power. Whether that works depends on scale of capital and where it comes from. Supply-chain insetting has real limits: margins across food and farming are already thin, and with clear public pressure to keep food prices down, asking retailers and processors to fund nature recovery through the chain can't be the whole answer.

With agriculture covering 68% of England's utilisable land, farmers are cast as nature's stewards almost by default. But nature's benefits - clean water, flood mitigation, carbon storage - accrue well beyond the farm gate, which highlights the case made at Groundswell: these markets exist to pull in money from beneficiaries who sit outside the food system entirely but who benefit from it.

That same logic plays out at farm level, where Defra's farming roadmap increasingly frames farmers as business owners managing a portfolio of assets, not just food producers. Baroness Batters' farm profitability review underlined how thin margins on primary production often are – with farmers looking towards land value as the more reliable long-term return, driven by improving natural capital: soil health, biodiversity, water quality.

Defra's Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment work is meant to give this a measurement backbone. But the judgement calls - which actions to prioritise, which markets to enter, how to sequence investment against cash flow - sit with individual farm businesses navigating a genuine mindset shift in this changing world.

Big business, ultra-processed foods and regenerative agriculture: collaboration or contradiction?

One of the strongest themes running through Groundswell was the growing tension between regenerative agriculture's core principles and the scale, investment and market reach of major food businesses.

Discussions on expanding UK pulse production highlighted the opportunity to better align regenerative farming with healthier diets, but also the practical challenge of creating reliable demand and supply chains that give farmers the confidence to diversify production. A discussion around increasing consumption of UK-grown fava beans also served as a timely reminder that, regardless of sustainability credentials, taste and affordability remain the two biggest drivers of consumer food choice.

Chris van Tulleken's packed-out session, with attendees spilling outside the tent, reflected the growing prominence of concerns around ultra-processed food systems, arguing that they are simultaneously driving poor human and planetary health.

These themes came together most visibly following Nestlé's announcement that York-made KitKat will incorporate regeneratively grown British wheat through a partnership with Wildfarmed, alongside wider investments in regenerative dairy and other commodities. For some, it demonstrated how large manufacturers can use their purchasing power to provide farmers with the long-term investment, market certainty, knowledge and support needed to accelerate regenerative practices at scale. For others, including speakers in later sessions, it illustrated a fundamental contradiction: can regenerative ingredients meaningfully transform products and businesses that remain closely associated with ultra-processed foods?

The reality is that delivering healthier, more sustainable, resilient and affordable diets while ensuring farmers receive a fair return will require significant investment and collaboration across the supply chain. Much of this investment cannot realistically come from farmers alone, making partnerships across the supply chain essential. For industry, the challenge is not simply to source regeneratively, but to ensure those sourcing commitments sit alongside healthier product portfolios, transparent reporting, long-term farmer partnerships and continued innovation that delivers on taste, affordability and nutrition. Groundswell made clear that investing in continuous improvement, not perfection, will be essential to securing the future of farming and food.

Making regenerative agriculture the norm and not a label

One of the most thought-provoking discussions at Groundswell brought together Andy Cato, co-founder of Wildfarmed and a leading voice in regenerative agriculture, Stephen Cronk of Mirabeau wine, Sarah Vachon from the olive oil sector, and Charlotte Di Cello, Commercial Director at Waitrose. It was particularly interesting to hear perspectives from three very different food and drink categories alongside a major retailer, with part of the conversation exploring whether regenerative agriculture should be promoted directly to consumers through packaging, and what this means for brands, retailers and citizens.

A key takeaway from the discussion was that success should be less about branding regenerative agriculture and more about making it the norm. Consumers already face an overwhelming amount of information on packets, and purchasing decisions are still primarily driven by value for money, quality and convenience. Health may also be a factor, while sustainability considerations often come further down the priority list. Against this backdrop, the term regenerative agriculture remains language that resonates far more with farmers, food businesses and sustainability specialists than with the average shopper.

Rather than creating another label or claim for consumers to interpret, the panel discussed the importance of focusing on outcomes and embedding regenerative practices throughout the food supply chain. The ambition should be for food that supports nature, improves soil health, strengthens farm resilience and provides nutrient dense products to become the standard.

For businesses, regenerative agriculture remains a priority for driving positive environmental and social outcomes. However, the goal is not to create a niche category or premium proposition that sits apart from mainstream food production. Instead, success will be when regenerative farming becomes business as usual and simply the way food is produced, rather than something that needs to be marketed separately on packaging.

Conclusion

One of the strongest messages from the festival was how interconnected these challenges have become. Health, resilience and sustainability cannot be tackled in isolation, and many of the conversations highlighted the role regenerative agriculture can play across all three. From supporting biodiversity and improving environmental outcomes, to strengthening farm and food system resilience and potentially enhancing the nutrient density of food, regenerative approaches offer opportunities to deliver multiple benefits across the value chain.

Scaling regenerative agriculture is the ultimate team sport. Everyone has a shared objective, and everyone has a role to play in achieving it!