< Back to Main Blog Posted: May 2024

The Hope Farm Statement

By James Perry, co-Chair

When we started COOK 27 years ago, we went to the central London markets for our ingredients: fish from Billingsgate, meat from Smithfield, and veg from the greengrocers at New Covent Garden. We figured it was the best way to get great quality, which was all we cared about.

It’s no longer how we shop. These days, we try and get as close as possible to the farmers who provide our main ingredients. And we’ve come to realise we need to care about a lot more than just quality.

It’s why last week COOK signed The Hope Farm Statement. It calls for a radical change to the way the government approaches food and farming and is signed by big food companies, farmers, non-profits and campaigners.

We’ve collectively realised our food system is causing big problems for society. In our country both nature and human health are suffering. The food industry simply has to change.

At COOK, we’re incredibly proud of our supply chain. We invest a lot in higher welfare animal husbandry and nature-friendly farming practices. But as we’ve learned more about the food system, we’ve come to see how deeply embedded the problems are. We cannot hope to solve these issues alone. The “market” in which we’re a miniscule player is simply unsustainable. And, despite our best intentions, it means therefore we will be unsustainable, too.

Paul Polman is somebody who understands the power of markets all too well. As CEO of Unilever for more than a decade, the market wasn’t always supportive of his efforts to shift the company towards sustainability. Since leaving, he’s become a campaigner for faster action to combat the climate crisis.

Last year, at a series of meetings at his home – Hope Farm – Paul gathered a diverse group of people from across the food system to debate what we could do to change the status quo.

We agreed the system we have is the one we wished for, and designed, in latter half of the 20th century. It does exactly what we asked of it: provide plentiful, cheap calories. But it also ignores the consequences for people and planet. Now it needs redesigning urgently.

The Hope Farm Statement sets out the basis for an alternative food system in the UK. One which continues to provide plentiful, affordable food while also protecting and regenerating nature, health and our rural economies.

The support it has from across the food spectrum – Nestle, Danone, the RSPB, the Food Foundation, the National Trust and so on – shows it’s not about narrow interests. We all believe we can transform our food system to be regenerative and healthy for both people and planet. But we can only do it if we work together.

We are, indeed, hopeful. Now we need the next government to get on board.

Read the Hope Farm Statement and how your organization can join the signatories here.