If you missed our annual network gathering last month, you can now watch the key presentations on YouTube, by clicking the names of our three distinguished and very thought-provoking speakers below:

• Sue Pritchard is a farmer and chief executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission.
• Judith Batchelar OBE is deputy chair of the Environment Agency and former brand director for Sainsbury’s.
• Navaratnam Partheeban OBE is a farm vet and founder of the British Veterinary Ethnicity & Diversity Society.

Key points from Sue’s presentation:

• This year offers “the most auspicious moment for decades” for food system change, given the number of elections around the world. We need to ally with others and create “an unstoppable movement for change”.
• We need to get better at storytelling, captivating imaginations, and communicating a compelling (and better) version of what the future could look like – this story must mean something to those we are talking to, e.g. farmers. Peer-to peer-conversations for farmers is really important, and so farmer voices need mobilising.
• Amongst the dark media space, conspiracy theories, populism etc, it is really important that we create space for ourselves and the best version of the future.
• We also need to “start telling the truth” about farming’s impact on the environment: Farmers have public support now, but this might shift if more was known about impacts.
• FFCC research shows citizens want government intervention in the food system to create healthy and sustainable diets, including increased support for agro-ecological and agroforestry, and greater regulation of the environment.
• Food system change has been rising up the political agenda – local communities and farmers are forging ahead, and big actors in supply chains are shifting priorities.
• But change is also being slowed down by lobbying, unrest and populist politics, farmer sentiment against net zero, supply chain rigidity, misaligned policy levers and academics pulling in opposite directions.

We’ll be sending out key points from Judith and Theeb’s presentations over the next couple of weeks too, so keep an eye out. 
You can also watch past webinars here and listen to our podcast here. Follow AFN Network+ on Twitter/X and LinkedIn.