Our Common Ground marked the halfway stage of the first phase of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission inquiry.
To understand what challenges the food industry, farmers, and the countryside face we’ve reviewed hundreds of policy proposals, hosted expert discussions, and cycled right round the UK to meet people in their communities.
This interim report takes what we’ve learnt and sets out the five themes for further work to achieve our ambitious vision for the future of the countryside:
1. Meeting our global obligations: in which we connect our changing place in the world with our responsibilities to combat climate change and transform farming systems.
2. Securing the value of land: in which we connect mediating the multiple needs and demands on land use with novel financial instruments to make this work.
3. Good work for a thriving economy: in which we connect shifting patterns of work in a changing economy with people’s aspirations for meaningful work and rich lives.
4. Good food for healthy and flourishing communities: in which we connect the ways that food is grown, produced and eaten, with the effects on people’s health and wellbeing.
5. More than money: in which we connect all the resource flows through rural economies with ways to revitalise rural democracy.
Note: this report was originally published on the RSA website (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), which hosted the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission between November 2017-April 2020.
