Goal: To make organic affordable, available and accessible to everyone in the UK.
The need
In the UK, 16% of species are facing extinction, agriculture contributes over 10% of GHG emissions, and being an unhealthy weight is the leading risk factor for illness.
These issues are inextricably tied to intensive farming and poor diets. Organic offers a solution for reaching net zero targets, protecting nature, boosting public health and providing secure livelihoods. Yet, in the UK, organic is not affordable, accessible or available to everyone, and is often inaccessible to those who would benefit from it the most. We are leading
Project objectives
a movement, bringing together all organic stakeholders to make organic food a standard, rather than a privilege, and accessible to all members of society. Over the next three years, we will approach this challenge through the levers of understanding and increasing affordability, increasing public procurement of organic, and improving supply chain efficiencies.
Affordable: Identify and promote targeted interventions to reduce the retail cost of organic.
Available: Create opportunities to increase public sector organic consumption and spend, connecting local organic producers directly with food procurers and caterers.
Accessible: Convene organic sector stakeholders across the entire supply chain to advocate with a collective voice.
Why we’re best placed
The Soil Association is the UK’s leading authority on organic farming. We have 80 years of experience in advocating for sustainable agriculture practices and work to support organic on farms, in schools and across government policy. We have been working within the public sector for over 20 years, normalising healthy and sustainable diets through our Food for Life programmes, with over 1 million healthy and sustainable meals served to our Food for Life Served Here (FFLSH) standards every day.
Of these meals, approximately 30% achieve the ‘Silver’ and ‘Gold’ award levels of the scheme, which includes a minimum spend on organic: 5% for Silver and 15% for Gold. We are uniquely placed to bring together different stakeholders across the supply chain, having strong relationships with caterers, suppliers, and policymakers.
Project activities
A research project with sector-specific workshops and roundtables focused on the key factors driving prices from farm to fork, including the role of market forces and production costs. Our aim is to better understand what drives higher prices for organic food and offer recommendations to make organic more affordable.
Empower public sector caterers to incorporate more organic into their menus and budgets by increasing support around supply chain access and development, menu reformulation, and cost savings. Our three-year aim is to double annual organic spend through FFLSH to £15m by scaling the programme and increasing the number of Silver and Gold accredited caterers by 50%, representing an additional 45 million meals per year containing organic.
Engage producers across the arable, dairy and horticulture sectors by sharing practical and market advice and supporting marketing cooperatives to address sector-specific challenges to accessing organic supply chains, including in public procurement. Our aim is to engage and empower 50% of the organic sector.
How you can help
A gift of:
£6,200 could provide policy makers with annual impact reports, sharing supply chain data insights.
£10,000 could enable the creation and dissemination of a report on the Economics of Organic.
£51,300 could fund an Expert Advisor, specialised in at least one of our key sectors of arable, dairy or horticulture, to engage and convene producer groups in Year One.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this proposal. For more information please get in touch on 0117 914 2442 or email development@soilassociation.org www.soilassociation.org
