Fear of failing - what does it look like across the food system?
- Farmers are blocked from taking risks in changing to more nature and climate friendly ways of farming due to the thin margins they work on, and many cannot afford to risk a poor harvest or lower return from the market for their produce. Failing means a possible loss of contract, financial instability and (very precious and limited) time wasted.
- Retailers similarly, despite operating on big returns have fine margins, are afraid to take risks due to any possible threat to their market share. Some worry that increasing the cost of meat and dairy by sourcing better, or changing ranges or recipes to be plant forward, could risk customers and their reputation. Within retailers, sustainability teams can feel the pressure managing many competing priorities.
- People across society are poorer than ever before; time poor, financially poor, and more mentally fatigued. The ability to diversify their food shopping, compete with an unhealthy food environment and drive the necessary demand side changes is therefore severely hindered. Without a safety net, whether financial or communal to support, we are collectively asking too much of people to fix a system they cannot change alone.
- Politicians are scared to take risks for fear of backlash, creating a narrowing of the political landscape and a move further away from progressive policies that are needed to fix our food system. Lip service on ‘systems change’ is even disappearing, replaced by a focus on growth above all and demeaning language towards ‘climate zealots’. Government policy is rightly identified by many as the key lever to drive the changes we need to see in food, but what happens when the calls for progressive policy are met with a fear of change and resistance to take on corporate control of food policy?
- And finally NGOs, those whose sole mission is to take on the challenges with food and to try and make the world better, are afraid to fail. To fail means more than personally failing; hotter summers, wetter winters, more expensive food and increased poverty. With the pressure increasing with every year passed towards our net-zero deadline, this sense of pressure will only increase, increasing the risk of burnout. Embedding principles of justice into our collective work and challenging who we are as NGOs can be another fear, something we at Eating Better are tackling head on with our Nourishing Justice workstream.
Reframing failure
Failing and getting things ‘wrong’, whatever that looks like for farmers, retailers, politicians or NGOs, is an obvious pressure. But what happens if the risks that are needed pay off? What would happen if these groups took a leap of faith and didn’t fall into an abyss of failure? This could mean leading the way on plant-based proteins in retailers like Ahold Delhaize and Lidl, setting ambitious food policy or a farmer switching to nature and climate friendly farming for the long-term benefit (examples needed).
The belief of ‘learning by failing’ is as old as time. In our personal lives, generally people accept that making a mistake isn’t the end of the world and this is how we grow, learn a new approach and succeed the second time (or third, fourth, etc…). So how can we apply this to changing food systems?
We must all be braver, take these challenges head on. But we must also recognise the power imbalances in our food system and advocate that those with power and influence must step up, be the leaders we need to create a different story about our food system. We have the answers and ideas for changing, as set out in Eating Better’s Better by Half Roadmap, but we need to see them enacted. Our leaders must take the leap of faith and try something different. The status quo will not save us, only a new approach will, and the risks are more than worth taking.
