Food

Food is at the heart of many of the world’s environmental, social and economic challenges. The issues – from soil health to public health and sustaining a growing global population on finite resources – are complex and cannot be solved in isolation.

As it stands, the way we produce, consume and value food is pushing the planet and systems we rely on beyond their limits. So how do we ensure we produce enough safe, nutritious and affordable food for everyone in just and regenerative ways?

We need to transition to thriving food systems that optimise health and nutritional outcomes while restoring key ecosystems, farming and fisherfolk livelihoods, and communities which we depend on. 

The world is responding to the need for sustainable nutrition built on just and regenerative supply chains. We’re seeing: 

• New products on our shelves – the explosion of plant-based eating in societies where animal protein has dominated;
• Value chains being reimagined with equity and fair trade at their heart;
• New investments and innovation, as well as growing support for agroecological and nature-based solutions;
• Regenerative agriculture enter the mainstream; and
• A growing understanding of the role of local food systems that can deliver sustainable communities and nutrition at pace, among other developments. 

This all makes for a promising transition, but is it really adding up? 

Food systems are at a crossroads. The transition will either be deep, deliberate and urgent – tackling the root causes of our challenges… 

…Or they will fall short, failing to maintain momentum and match the scale of change needed, with ‘solutions’ addressing specific problems in isolation. These ‘fixes’ will ultimately fail – going neither far enough nor fast enough, while simultaneously risking unintended consequences.

At Forum for the Future, we believe we need a socially just and ecologically safe shift to a food system fit for a radically different future. A thriving food system for people and the planet, balancing health and nutritional outcomes with restoration of natural ecosystems and farming livelihoods, on which we all depend. 

This must be underpinned by both climate mitigation and adaptation practices, with a focus on mainstreaming regenerative agriculture, enhancing resilience and transforming key supply chains that deliver from plant to plate, boat to bowl, crop to cup.

By 2030, we aim to have enabled a systemic, urgent transition in our food system to fulfil the needs of diets, livelihoods and nature. To do this, we are focused on three interconnected areas where we believe our skills, expertise and experience can make a real difference:

We work directly with ambitious organisations in the global food system on cutting-edge strategy development and implementation. We design, host and facilitate multi-stakeholder collaborations to tackle critical food system challenges.