Speech: Karen Betts delivers speech at the 2024 IAgrM Alumni Dinner

Closing the event, Karen Betts, Chief Executive, The Food and Drink Federation, said:

“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

A quote that’s attributed to everyone from Hilary Clinton to an old African proverb.

I’m less interested in who said it, but the essential truth it contains.

“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

Because the food system is going somewhere.  It’s in a state of change and transition.  I hesitate to say ‘we’re on a journey’ – a much over used phrase.  But, nonetheless, I think we are.

For farmers, I wonder how that feels.  In farming, it seems to me, change is a constant.  Changes in what you plant, when and how; changes in how you care for your livestock, what you feed them; changes in what your customers want; change in what the weather serves up; change in what the market pays.

But bigger shifts are at play now too.  Quite fundamental movement in the tectonic plates on which our food system is built.  Changes in how you farm that are running in parallel to changes in what food and drink manufacturers – your customers, my members – produce and sell. Change in what consumers want, in what the world needs, in what you can farm, in what governments expect, in how you are taxed.  Change that turns on its head a good deal of what the food system has been doing, evolving and perfecting over the past half century or so.

This evening I want to take a moment to reflect on that change, on where we’re going and why.  On what ‘food systems change’ means – another oft used phrase.  And who owns that change – farmers? manufacturers? distributors? retailers?  government? Activists? Society more broadly?

Or all of us?  And are we going through that change alone? Or together?

So as Richard said in his kind introduction, I’m Karen Betts, Chief Executive of the Food & Drink Federation, the trade association that represents the UK’s food and drink manufacturers.  And I’m delighted to be here this evening.

I’m going to start my remarks with a brief word about FDF’s member companies – the food and drink manufacturers, large and small, who are farmers’ customers. 

Then I’m going to consider the change we’ve been through to get where we are today.  Change that on many levels represents astonishing success, even if that success is rarely celebrated or even acknowledged.

And then I’m going to give you my thoughts on where we go from here.  And I’d be delighted to hear yours too, over dinner, drinks or otherwise – I have no claim on wisdom nor common sense.

So a few words on food manufacturing.  To state the obvious, as manufacturers, we buy your produce.  We’re British farmers’ biggest customers.  We turn what you grow into pasta and sauces, cereals, ready meals, all varieties of bread and baked goods, tinned and frozen fruits and vegetables, crisps and chips, cakes and biscuits, yoghurts and desserts.  Collectively, our products offer the range of a varied diet, less the fresh produce that the farming community supplies direct to retail and hospitality.  Together, this huge range of nutritious, delicious, safe and affordable food and drink, available to shoppers everywhere, every day, is the envy of the world. 

Collectively too, food and drink manufacturing is significant in the UK economy – we’re 12,000 businesses in all, of which 98% are SMEs.  We employ nearly 500,000 people across every county, region and nation of the UK, and contribute £38 billion annually in gross value added to the economy.

Like farmers, we’re proud of what we do.  I see that in every company, in every factory I go to. The pride that comes from working with the produce farmers provide and turning it into everyday products that not only nourish and sustain but bring joy, pleasure and comfort to our lives.

So if we have a food system that nourishes and sustains, that brings joy and pleasure, that punctuates our days and nurtures our human relationships, what needs to change and why? And who’s directing this change?  And is there a cost, and if so who’s paying?

To answer those questions, I’m going to look back first.  Quite simply, and as Maya Angelou once said, “If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going”.

So where have we come from? 

The food system we have today has been built over the last 75 years.  In the face of food shortages and rapid population growth in the post-war period, farmers and food producers massively increased agricultural and manufacturing productivity, and so the availability of essential fresh produce and manufactured food and drink.

From a farming perspective, and put carefully for an audience I’m confident knows more about this than me, farming became more efficient - more intensive, more specialised, more mechanised, more embracing of innovation, technology and the advances of science.  New fertilizers became available, and new herbicides.  Crop yields went up.  Animal husbandry was transformed.  Food became more plentiful and affordable, and our nutrition improved markedly. All the while, customers –households and companies – became more demanding, for instance of consistent and standardised produce.

This transformation in farming ran in parallel to changes across food manufacturing.  The huge social and economic change of the post-war years shifted demand and manufacturers responded in agile and creative ways.  Women’s place in society was changing – some of that was driven politically, but at least as much was practical.  From the late 1950s, domestic washing machines started to become commonplace in the UK, and from the late 1960s, fridges did too.  Women were freed from the burden of shopping and cooking every day.  From the 1950s on, more and more women entered the workplace. By the mid-1980s, nearly half of working women were in full time jobs.  And by 2015, less than 30% of couples with children relied on one working parent, while over 70% of working-age mothers were in paid work. 

That change drove demand for time saving foods, which were convenient-to-prepare or ready-to-eat. Growing prosperity and new technologies bought women time – in canned soups, Angel Delight, TV dinners, microwave meals, fish fingers, frozen peas and Tupperware.  Rightly or wrongly – as we look back – if families didn’t have time to cook every night, they did now have the ability to buy foods that put a good, hot meal on the table, even if it wasn’t homemade.  More recently, food manufacturing has responded to the growth of out-of-home – supplying restaurants, takeaways and on-the-go food and drink, as well as specific products for those following different diets, like allergen free, meat and dairy free.  And trade in food and drink has grown alongside our desire for global foods and counter-seasonal produce.

Arguably food and farming’s great success has been in responding to social change with an ever-evolving range of food and drink for the home and on the high street, that supports the way people want to live.  What’s more, food and drink has become more affordable over time. ONS data tells us that the share of household budgets spent on food and drink in the UK has fallen dramatically over the last fifty years.  In 1970, UK households spent a quarter of their budgets on food alone, compared to 11% in 2020.  At the same time, our food and drink has improved in taste, quality, safety and nutritional value.

Those decades of change are how we’ve got to where we are.  Decades of ingenuity, innovation and transformation achieved through the sheer hard work of the farm to fork sector.

So, so far so good?  Well, some of what we’ve done so well has created new problems. 

For example, we now know that while food is more plentiful than it’s ever been, vulnerable people and communities – even in the UK – have high levels of food insecurity and poor nutrition leading to both hunger and obesity.  Statistics overall tend to hide the large variations in people’s experience that means, despite all our advances over the last 50 years, that healthy, sustainable and diverse diets still aren’t accessible to everyone.

Or take fertilizers.  The advances made in the past hundred years have greatly improved crop yields and agricultural efficiency.  But these fertilizers need careful management to avoid damaging downsides, such as soil degradation or run-off polluting fresh water and marine habitats.

And then there’s the food system’s contribution to biodiversity loss, water overconsumption and greenhouse gas emissions.  In fact, the combination of these three things is now lowering crop yields and limiting our ability to feed a growing planet.

In short, however well we’ve managed the past, it’s now widely acknowledged that progress has brought with it problems.  And that food systems change is going to be crucial in addressing climate change and in ensuring that everyone, all over the world, has secure access to sustainable sources of food into the future. Innovating and adapting how we grow and process food is critical to this, alongside how we address poor diets.  COP 29, which opens next week in Azerbaijan, will be discussing precisely this, as the UN’s annual COP meetings increasingly turn their attention to food systems change.

So something, as they say, has got to give.  We know we cannot go on as we are.  Change is upon us.  But, as I said earlier, whose change is it?  And are we going alone or together?

To digress for a moment, in another life I would have been a polar explorer.  For a while when I was younger, I was fascinated by it.  The closest I got was doing field research on the retreating glaciers of southern Chile.  But Robert Swan is a real-life polar explorer, and he memorably said that “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

And in that is my answer to the question about who owns the change.  We do.  We can’t leave it to someone else to lead us.  Government, who we often look to, doesn’t grow crops, make food, distribute or sell it.  We know and understand what we do. And between us, we’re best placed to work out how to shape our food system’s future in responsible, realistic and workable ways.

And in that, I’ve answered my other question too.  Are we going alone or together, fast or far? Sure, the clock’s ticking and time’s of the essence.  But the path ahead is also far from clear.  So, in my view, we need to go together and we need to go far.

And if we do that, where are we going?

To my mind, our goal is food systems change.  Change that ensures that, overall, we’re creating a sustainable – economically and environmentally – and healthy food system for the UK and globally. 

There are four pathways we need to navigate to reach our goal.  They’re distinct but interlinked, and we must progress along each simultaneously and iteratively, rationally and reasonably, over time, ensuring measurable change is visible as we go.

The four pathways are:

• • One, food security, supply chain resilience and fairness – where we ensure supply chains nationally and internationally are robust, shock-proof and sustainable; and take into account the projected rise in the UK’s population from 68 million now to 78 million by 2050;
  • Two, environmental sustainability, where we farm our land efficiently and effectively while evolving and innovating to drive down emissions, restore nature and biodiversity, conserve water and energy, cut down on packaging, bear down on food waste, and create a truly circular economy;
  • Three, healthier diets, where we help everyone, in all communities, whatever their circumstances and whatever their resources, to follow diets with more fruit, vegetables and fibre, and less fat, salt and sugar; and
  • Four, investment and productivity, where we drive investment into our agri-food industry to invent the industry of the future. In this, we need to address how we finance change – how we attract the funds, structure and incentivise them. We need to achieve a downpayment on change that’s equal to the task ahead, and which manages when and how costs reach consumers.

None of this is easy.  Each aspect will ask difficult questions of us, individually and collectively –   

• • What can we do to cut down on waste, given a third of global food production is wasted while people still go hungry?
  • How do we invest more in technology and in upskilling our workforce? Can AI help us to find the right scientific solution or the right technology?
  • How do we agree a fit for purpose land use strategy?
  • What new crop varieties help, for example, to reduce water use? Or to withstand heavy rain? 
  • What are new methods of crop protection?
  • How do we develop better global market information?
  • How do we change consumer habits, and shift everyone towards healthier diets?
  • How do companies communicate with consumers about what’s in their food, where it came from, and how it was produced. What’s the role of labelling, clear information, and countering misinformation?

I don’t know the answers to these or many other questions.  But I do know that they’re in our gift.  And that together, we can find the answers and we must find them.  That we can shape our food system of the future.  We’ll need new partnerships with the government, with the competition authorities, with regulators, with banks and capital markets, with consumer groups and NGOs, as we open different constituencies to change, what it requires of everyone, and its pace.

But most of all, we’ll need new partnerships with each other.  Across the actors in our food system. 

When I look back, I see the power of ingenuity and progress.  And when I look forward I see that too.  What’s new in looking ahead is I see the power of partnership.

Ladies and gentlemen, I see our food system going far.  And I see us all – as partners – going together.

Thank you.