A new line for sustainable food that encourages retailers to compete on sustainability rather than just price could create a new driver for the agricultural system, agri-food data provider Agrimetrics has predicted.
Dave Lawrence, the newly-appointed chair of the company believes consumers would welcome a sustainable food line in supermarkets. It would also offer a third way between conventional and organic farming, he thinks.
“Paradoxically, a big problem with food at the moment is that it is too cheap,” said Lawrence, who heads up the big data platform. “This means that producers simply cannot afford to invest in trying to do things they believe would be better for the long term.”
Lawrence added: “If retailers can compete on something other than price, there is an opportunity to reward growers on factors other than yield. This could include, for example, taste, which creates a premium product, or resilience to adverse weather, which would assure continuity of supply.”
The former head of R&D for Syngenta believes metrics based on strong scientific evidence would create a virtuous circle in the agri-food value chain to support best practice, adding that government has a role in rewarding producers for sustainable practice. He sees particular potential for this as Britain prepares to leave the EU.
Lawrence said: “If we leave the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) there is an opening for a model that would recompense producers for measures that look after soil health, environmental health and biodiversity in a way that CAP set out to do, but in practice does not.”
Agrimetrics supports the agri-food industry by pulling together publicly funded datasets to improve access to existing information. According to the company, if you want sustainability in commercial food production, you have to be able to measure it through an agreed set of metrics on issues such as soil health, environmental health and water usage.
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