How do we bring food system stakeholders together collaboratively, to agree a common goal, with a defined and measurable outcome, ultimately to improve the health and wellbeing of the population while reducing inequalities?
How do we support businesses (which are ultimately set up to serve their shareholders) to transition towards more sustainable and healthy diets, navigate the commercial and practical challenges, and be clear about the direction of travel from a public health perspective? What role do investors have?
We were delighted to speak to Rebecca Tobi in our Humans of Nutrition podcast to consider these big asks. Rebecca is a Registered Nutritionist and Senior Business and Investor Engagement Manager at the charity The Food Foundation.
You may have frustrations with the food system, the social inequities, the contradictions and challenges between what we’re ‘supposed’ to eat against the foods most accessible and affordable and those we most desire. You may lament “Why don’t we/they just…(do this / don’t do that)?” From a food business point of view, you may be doing your best to implement change despite various and complex challenges.
If you’re reading this, you are likely to be either a nutrition professional, or someone with an interest in nutrition and/or health related investments. So we have a head start over the rest of the population – but how well do we understand the complexity of affecting change in the food system? Do we even know who all the decision-makers and stakeholders are?
Stakeholders
Let’s start there – The Food Foundation works with a broad range of stakeholders in the food system including:
- businesses
- investors
- policymakers
- academics
- non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
- citizens
- and of course, nutrition professionals
Investors as stakeholders in the food system
Investors make interesting stakeholders in the food system – they take a much longer-term view than others e.g. policymakers or business leaders whose priorities can change by quarter, financial year or term in office, and (unsurprisingly), money – something investors tend to have a lot of, is quite an effective route to influencing! So investors can be essential stakeholders in the food system. But investing in the food system is not without risk.
Investor risk
Investment will be more attractive if food and health policy has some ‘future proofing’. This requires awareness of risk, of which there are 3 distinct types within the food system.
Direct risk
Climate change represents a good example of direct risk to an investor in a food company. Conditions like drought will impact crop yield, which impacts supply and product price – ultimately the future revenue of the business. On the opposite end of the scale, the recently coined ‘sogflation’ is another example of weather-related risk.
Transition risk
Transition risks are those that affect businesses that are ‘behind the curve’ in terms of, for example, adapting to changing regulation (think sugary drinks tax) or consumer preference (think demand for more sustainable food), or responsible business practice generally. If a food business does not keep pace, they risk fines and reputational damage – and losing investors.
Systemic risk
An example of systemic risk is a food system challenge that goes on to impact GDP and national economic growth. For example, many food businesses employ large numbers of people. Diet related ill-health presents a risk to this workforce, and by extension also to the business and its ‘investability’.
All of these risks must be considered for a healthy and sustainable business to flourish in the long-term.
Risk & the Role of Mandatory Reporting
The call for mandatory reporting from food businesses regarding disclosure around what proportion of their sales are coming from healthy and sustainable foods is not new. For example, consistent and transparent reporting of food data was a key recommendation made by Henry Dimbleby in his independent National Food Strategy review in 2021, however reporting is currently voluntary.
From the viewpoint of the investor who has capital to invest, access to reliable and consistent data is key. Mandatory reporting has the potential to be a ‘game-changer’, yet Rebecca asserts:
“..there is currently a really concerning lack of appetite in intervening in the food system.”
If we don’t know where we are, how can we make good decisions about how to get to where we need to be?
Opportunity in Disclosure
Rebecca claims
“Disclosure is a key step on the road to understanding where progress needs to be made.”
It may help facilitate better business decisions, which will also be attractive to investors and give leverage to government to hold businesses to account if necessary. The Investor Coalition on Food Policy was formed, with a focus on engaging with policymakers to try and ensure that there is more transparency and accountability in terms of how food businesses operate. Transparent disclosure is a crucial part of food system transformation. Some businesses are doing great work in this space, however at the moment it is not happening consistently or at scale, making it hard to identify which companies are taking action to transition their business practices and those that are not. This makes it difficult for investors to align their investments in the food industry with their responsible stewardship objectives, and difficult for policymakers to effectively design policies to accelerate change.
Beyond disclosure is target setting – where are we going with this?
In the UK the Food Data Transparency Partnership (FDTP) is a partnership between government, industry and experts and has been established to improve the environmental sustainability and healthiness of food and drink through better food data. A number of working groups have been established to share and test proposals as they develop. The latest publication provides an update on their work on environmental impact quantification, with updates on the other working groups, including health, expected later this year.
It is a fascinating time to be involved in the food system, and even more so when you start to think of things with an investor mindset. Nutrition professionals working across multiple sectors can and do (on a daily basis) certainly have an opportunity to really drive positive change in the organisations we work within – be they food businesses, government departments, academia or charities such as the Food Foundation where Rebecca works.
One thing is for certain – collaboration and working together are vital to rising to this challenge, both now and in the years ahead.
If you would like to discuss how Nutrition Talent could help your organisation with nutrition expertise to support your nutrition strategy, reformulation or data collection or analysis, contact us to arrange a discovery call.