"Along with Government, farmers, growers and manufacturers, retailers need to take a leading role in ensuring metrics are used effectively to guarantee both food producers and consumers have access to accurate data, information and insights."
- Duncan Pollard, head of sustainability and stakeholders engagement of Nestle, said the last two decades had seen a multiplicity of different approaches to measuring progress on sustainability and communicating that to consumers.
He said: "This has clearly led to a burden upon farmers who are often asked to report to different approaches and standards, and also brought a confusion with consumers given the range of labels being used.
"We support any attempt to bring a convergence to how we can assess performance and especially where there is a rigorous farmer-led approach.
"We would certainly look carefully at this and indeed any approach that is making a difference on the ground and can bring value along the whole chain from farmers to consumers."
- Philip Hambling, head of food and farming of NFU, agreed it was important to have a standardised approach to how sustainability is measured.
Mr Hambling said: "It must take into account factors such as carbon sequestration on-farm.
"Thousands of farmers will have already done some form of carbon footprinting, but experience shows using different models can result in big discrepancies in results.
"It is crucial everyone in the supply chain is able to use comparable metrics and tools to ensure consistency and better inform business decisions.
"In our net zero report, we highlight the need for single integrated measures which capture a range of agronomic and environmental factors and we continue to urge the Government to further its work in this area."
Who is interested?
Defra is trialling the framework on 25 farms while it develops the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme, and the SFT is advocating that annual audits become a precondition for receiving payments.
The Welsh Government is also working on a similar scheme which would involve annual sustainability audits.
The SFT has also been in discussion with certification bodies and food manufacturers, while ‘significant interest' is being shown by the banking and accounting industry, which wants a common way to assess investment in sustainable agriculture.
Mr Holden said: "Retailers are the one category which have not really engaged. They all have an interest in maintaining their own branding. The farming community has to take it back into its own hand.
"It is possible we will need legislation to ensure it happens. The key to this scheme is adoption by Government."
Going global
The SFT plans to take its idea to the global climate change conference, COP26, due to be held in Glasgow in November, with big ambitions.
Mr Holden said: "We need an international framework which would inform trade and sustainable food production, the equivalent of a climate change agreement, food collaboration throughout the world.
"It seems so obvious to me that is what we need to do and what better way for the UK to lead the world."
Mr Holden hopes the framework could be used in future trade talks too.
"Why do we not agree that international trade should be framed in relation to sustainability, so if our farmers are producing food to higher environmental standards than the US and the US wants to [export] food to our market, we should be [negotiating] a tariff or tax payment so our farmers are not disadvantaged.
"We do not want to have a spat about chlorinated chicken, we need to think much bigger than that."
Certification bodies in the US and Australia are eyeing up the framework and the European Commission is also interested.
