Newsletter – September 2026
23 September 2026
This is our newsletter for September 2026. Please note that this page is not updated, so deadlines may have passed and links may no longer work. To receive future newsletters, please join our network.
September Webinar: Food Justice and Rights at the Centre of Food System Transformation
29 September 2026, 2-3pm
What do we really mean by a ‘just’ food system: fair outcomes, a genuine voice in decisions, respect for different ways of knowing? Why does injustice persist even where there is more than enough food to go around? And how do justice and resilience depend on one another, rather than pulling in opposite directions?
Professor Molly Anderson, a leading voice on the right to food in wealthy nations and a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), will set the scene and answer your questions. Bursary support to attend is available.
In case you missed them
Digest: Falling in Love with the Future – Imagination as a tool for resilience
Rob Hopkins closed our resilience webinar series in July explaining why food system transformation stalls: we are fluent in fear but cannot picture a future worth wanting. What changes if cultivating that longing becomes the goal?
Digest: Resilience by Design – What the National Audit Office report tells us about the UK food system
The report presents a sober assessment: the UK food system has coped remarkably well with recent shocks, but there are growing doubts about its ability to withstand more severe disruptions in the years ahead. These conclusions strongly resonate with the arguments set out in the Root & Reason Roadmap for Resilience published last October. Resilience cannot be treated as a specialist policy area or an afterthought; instead, it must become an organising principle for governance, investment and decision-making across society.
News from the wider agri-food sector
Events:
FAO Science and Innovation Forum 2026
12-16 October, Rome, Italy and online
This year offers a unique opportunity, as the overarching theme of the World Food Forum, and World Food Day is Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow.
This theme reflects the importance of harnessing science, technology and innovation to build agrifood systems that are more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. It highlights how forward-thinking on enabling access to life-changing innovations, combined with traditional knowledge and inclusive approaches, is critical to ensure that everyone has access to sufficient, diverse, safe, and nutritious foods, while safeguarding the planet for future generations.
AgriFuture Forum 2026
22 October, London
Join the National Farmers’ Union, the British Veterinary Ethnicity and Diversity Society and Culture Roots Collective as they continue their mission to create ethnically diverse, thriving agrifood, veterinary and environmental sectors that represent the national population, foster belonging and harness the power of diverse thought and experience.
At the AgriFuture Forum, you’ll hear powerful insights and lived experiences from people from the Global Majority, sharing ideas, opportunities and bold solutions to help make our sectors less exclusive and more open and equitable.
Wales Real Food and Farming Conference
18-19 November, National Botanic Garden of Wales
This year the theme is Growing Diversity and Diversification in Welsh food and farming. They want the conference to examine what diversity brings to food and farming in Wales, in the broadest sense: its strengths, benefits, and challenges across farming methods, species, foods, flavours, communities, people and voices, business models, approaches, different ways of problem-solving, and more.
The British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) Annual Conference 2026
2–3 December 2026, Aberdeen
The conference provides an excellent opportunity to share the latest advances in soil science, exchange ideas with colleagues from across the sector, and build new collaborations. The conference theme is ‘Soils at the Centre of Change: Innovation, Adaptation and Action’
Beyond the scientific programme there are a range of opportunities to engage with the UK soil science community – Sponsorship Opportunities, Exhibition Space, Side Events & Workshops, Start-up Innovation Pitches
Opportunities:
Defra – Farming Innovation Programme: Small R&D Partnership Projects Round 5
The aim of this competition is to:
- develop solutions with the potential to improve overall productivity, sustainability, resilience and move existing agricultural sectors to net zero
- ensure solutions have positive outputs for farmers, growers or foresters in commercially relevant situations
- develop new agricultural solutions by collaboration through engagement with end users and the UK research community in the innovation process
- accelerate adoption by ensuring knowledge exchange with the wider sector and other stakeholders
£13million available, closing date 14th October
NERC – Resilient economy and security through ecosystem transitions grants
This funding opportunity will fund interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary research on UK and international ecosystems. It will generate new understanding of:
- how, when and why ecosystems transition, reorganise or collapse, and how those transitions affect ecosystem functions and resilience
- how these changes affect economic prosperity, national security, and wider societal outcomes, and
- how transitions can be managed to minimise risks to people and society
£15million available, closing date 22nd October
NERC – Exploring the frontiers of environmental research 2026
This funding opportunity supports early-stage, curiosity-driven environmental research with the potential to be transformative. They are seeking to invest in our best researchers to pursue world-leading, truly novel, exploratory research projects, the outcomes of which could lead to a clear and significant advancement in knowledge, capability or application.
Projects should focus on exploratory or preliminary investigation that may inform future activities, such as longer-term research activity, a commercialisation opportunity or influencing policy. The proposed work should have the capacity to significantly reshape current and future thinking and introduce a new avenue of enquiry.
The proposed research must sit predominantly within NERC’s research areas.
£8million available, closing date 12th November
Resources:
Making Devolution Work for Food
Devolution is changing where power, investment and decisions sit. This matters for those working to make good food more accessible to everyone. Food partnerships hold the local intelligence and relationships that can help make those decisions deliver better food system outcomes.
In collaboration with Root and Reason Director Elta Smith, Sustainable Food Places have launched their toolkit ‘Making Devolution Work for Food’, exploring how food partnerships and Strategic Authorities can work together to deliver healthier, more sustainable and resilient places.
Check it out and feed in your learnings to keep this work dynamic
Farming For 5-A-Day: how resilient is the UK’s supply of fruit, veg and beans in a changing climate
Whilst the UK experienced wildfires and drought over the summer, it is still less vulnerable to climate change than many of its global suppliers of healthy staple foods like fruit, veg and beans.
We currently import 80% of our fruit and 47% of our veg and the worsening climate and nature crisis globally means this reliance on imports poses a growing threat to our food and nutrition security.
The government’s forthcoming Horticulture Sector Growth Plan is an important opportunity to help build a food system that’s fit for the future. This report from The Food Foundation lays out what should be included.
Tackling food security by futureproofing the UK’s diet
This research by Green Alliance has assessed four major risks to the average UK shopping basket: rising food prices, water scarcity, livestock disease and climate-related supply chain disruption. In each case, they found that diets high in meat increase exposure to these shocks and price volatility because meat production requires significant amounts of land, water and imported animal feed.
In this new analysis, they find that replacing 17 per cent of red and processed meat purchases every week with UK grown bean and pulse based meals could save households £95 a year and would contribute to major water savings and a healthier and more resilient UK food system.
Your input needed:
Food System Gap Index Survey
Planeatry Alliance are developing the Food System Gap Index, a new diagnostic that will feature in their next Food System Barometer, published at the end of this year.
Published twice annually, their Barometer tracks where momentum towards healthier, more sustainable diets is building and where it remains fragile. The Gap Index will take it a layer deeper, examining whether the conditions needed to deliver change are actually in place.
If you work anywhere in the food system please take 5 minutes to add your view. Your responses will help build a shared picture of where the biggest constraints sit, where different parts of the food system see things differently, and where there may be the greatest opportunity to unlock change.
The survey closes 30 September.