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The Better by Half Roadmap refreshed
25 September 2024
We are excited to release the updated Better by Half Roadmap, Eating Better’s guide for achieving nutritious, healthy and sustainable diets across the UK, with a focus on less and better meat and dairy. This revision builds on its creation in 2019. It is a reflection of our shared objectives as an alliance, formed through collaboration between our 68 member organisations.
Governments Producers Retailers and manufacturers Food service Financial institutions and investors
News
Key to sustainable plant production is fair pay and accessibility
2 September 2024
Eating Better’s Better by Half roadmap calls for producers to maximise UK-based plant production in a sustainable way. Key to this is paying growers fairly and embedding accessibility across the business. We spoke to Sean Ruffell, Managing Director of Organic North in Manchester, about how they are supporting farmers and supplying organic produce to businesses across the UK.
Producers Retailers and manufacturers Food service
News
Are we being fed on a diet of greenwash?
23 March 2023
Maddy Haughton- Boakes, Campaigns Advisor at the Changing Markets Foundation introduces their new report ‘Feeding us Greenwash’, which lifts the green veil and highlights the extent of greenwashing by food companies and how consumers respond to these environmental claims.
Governments Producers Retailers and manufacturers Food service
Films
Building a better local food economy
22 November 2022
‘Producing, Buying and Serving Better’ is the latest film by Eating Better, highlighting the exemplary work taking place in Scotland. This is an inspirational story that can help other local authorities, producers and retailers see the potential of local food systems.
Governments Producers Retailers and manufacturers
Films
Producing and Serving Better Dairy: Mossgiel farm and East Ayrshire Council
4 August 2022
“I’m truly sorry man’s dominion has broken nature’s social union.”
Robert Burns, from the poem “To a Mouse” (on turning up her nest with a plough)
Living and working as a farmer at Mossgiel farm in East Ayrshire in the late 1700’s, Scotland’s Bard, Robert Burns, captured in this simple line from his poem, “To a Mouse,” our connection with nature and our ability, with destructive practices, to break that union.
Today Mossgiel Organic farm is a very different place, an inspiring model of better dairy production, where nature is being restored.
Producers
Films
Producing and serving better dairy: Mossgiel and BaxterStorey
1 August 2022
Mossgiel Organic in Ayrshire is the model of better dairy production. It’s transitioned from an intensive system to one which is certified by Eating Better member, Pasture for Life and SOPA (Scottish Organic Producers Association), while working closely with another alliance member, The Soil Association. Farming in tandem with nature with fewer animals and inputs, as called for in our Better by Half roadmap, the herd of 45 Ayrshire cows are milked once a day and the calves stay with their mums, being weaned at 4 months, when they start eating grass and herbal leys. The focus is on the highest standards of animal welfare, boosting biodiversity and producing a premium product, which is in high demand.
Producers
News
New study: EU can cut its methane emissions by over a third with measures in agriculture
16 June 2022
As the UK’s civil society was coming to terms with the lack of ambition of its government’s National Food Strategy, which according to the Committee for Climate Change “will do precious little to tackle emissions from agriculture which is now one of the most serious contributors to climate change”, alliance member Changing Markets launched a new study looking at how much different measures can contribute to methane reductions in agriculture. The study confirms that policies promoting healthier diets could lead to the biggest methane cuts in the EU.
Blog for Eating Better by Nusa Urbancic, Campaigns Director at the Changing Markets Foundation
Governments Producers
News
Nature Friendly Farming Week: celebrating nature-friendly farming across the UK
26 May 2022
The Nature Friendly Farming Network’s (NFFN) first annual Nature Friendly Farming Week (16-20 May) celebrated nature-friendly farming for five full days, where nature-friendly farmers took part in daily themes to share their experiences online using the daily hashtags.
Producers
News
World’s largest meat company JBS increases emissions by 51%
27 April 2022
To tackle climate change we urgently need to transition away from industrial livestock production
Producers
News
Earth Day: protecting the planet, nature and our own health with better food systems
22 April 2022
How many people know that even if we ended fossil fuel use tomorrow, without making significant changes to our global food system, we would still be heading towards catastrophic levels of warming, far beyond 1.5 degrees?
Governments Producers
Case Studies
Producing better dairy
7 April 2022
Certified by Pasture for Life, award winning, Organic dairy farm Mossgiel in Ayrshire is “working with nature, not against it.”
Producers
Case Studies
Producing better meat
31 March 2022
Certified by Eating Better members the Soil Association and Pasture for Life, award winning Eversfield Organic in Devon is an example of a business putting the focus on “less and better” meat.
Producers
Case Studies
Harnessing more opportunities for plant production in the UK
31 March 2022
Award winning Hodmedods is a small but growing, independent UK business founded in 2021, which has harnessed the opportunity to produce and sell more beans and pulses.
Producers
News
World Soil Day: Healthy soils are the life force of a thriving farm business
3 December 2021
Healthy soils are the life force of a thriving farm business. Yet despite its ubiquitous presence on every farm across the UK, our soil is being destroyed 10 times faster than it’s being created...
Producers
News
Living with Cows in a Net Zero Future
17 November 2021
Eating Better took part in an event during Nourish Scotland’s “Recipes for Resilience” at COP26 called “Living with Cows in a Net Zero Future”.
Producers
Films
Producing Better - our first ever brand film
10 September 2021
‘Producing Better’ is the first in our trilogy of Eating Better films which aim to bring our “Better by Half” roadmap to life, showcasing the businesses and organisations that are putting sustainability at the heart of their operations...
Producers
News
Taking the pulse of plant protein production in the UK
13 May 2021
Hodmedods leads the way on getting more home-grown pulses into British kitchens.
Producers
News
Half a million chickens on one farm - is this really agriculture?
12 May 2021
During my research into intensive chicken farming across Herefordshire and Shropshire I encountered many modern poultry units over the last few years. And as I have walked close to the massive metal clad ‘sheds’, each of which stretches over 100m, one question has kept nagging at me: is this actually farming?
Producers
News
Organic livestock's antibiotic use is four times lower than the UK average
15 April 2021
Alliance member, Alliance to Save our Antibiotics, recently published a new report that shows that organic livestock farms certified by the Soil Association use far fewer antibiotics than the UK average. The survey, covering over 200 farms, found that the organic farms used less than a quarter of the amount of antibiotics used on non-organic farms.
Producers
News
World Water Day: Protecting our precious waterways with climate and nature-friendly farming
19 March 2021
Rivers and streams are the blue arteries of our landscape. The freshwater that flows through them is the lifeblood that sustains our food and farming system, pumping the soils in our fields with nutrients to grow crops and feed grazing cattle.
Producers
News
Decarbonising agriculture: more “green gas” or “less and better” meat?
8 February 2021
Anaerobic digestion plants promise to digest the huge volumes of manure and slurries produced by UK livestock farms, and produce biomethane for the gas grid as well as fertiliser for crops. However, they may actually drive more and worse meat production, says Martin Bowman of Feedback.
Producers
News
Reflecting on livestock controversies: perspectives from civil society and researchers
22 September 2020
New FCRN report 'Where do NGOs and researchers want to see more research on livestock and protein?'
Producers
News
Five reasons why now is the right time to improve chicken production
27 April 2020
Following the launch of ‘We need to talk about chicken,’ we asked ffinlo Constain to explain how broiler chicken production could be dramatically improved, and why now is the right time to do it.
Producers
News
Stepping up to the challenge - COVID19
2 April 2020
In this article we share some of the action being taken by alliance organisations, farmers, restaurants and many others to step up to the challenges presented by COVID19.
Producers Retailers and manufacturers