Drawing on insights from systems thinking, this Nuffield Farming Scholarship report proposes a participatory approach to support more inclusive and context-sensitive policy development. Rather than offering a singular solution such as a wholesale transition to agroecology, it argues that by encouraging a diversity of perspectives, valuing lived experience, recognising different forms of knowledge, the policy process could support incremental yet cumulative change across the agrifood system even in the absence of complete consensus.
Defining the problem is the problem. In agri-food systems, what may appear to be a straightforward technical challenge, producing enough food to feed everyone is, in fact, shaped by a complex web of competing values and priorities. While there tends to be agreement that our current agrifood system is not serving us well, there is rarely consensus on exactly what needs to change, let alone how change should happen.
Through conversations with farmers, policymakers, researchers, and food system advocates, this study tour explored the challenges facing our current agrifood system, with a particular emphasis on the policy process and how it can help address these challenges. While the initial intention of this work was to focus on policies to support a transition to agroecology, it became evident early into the research that many of today’s pressing issues, including climate change, biodiversity loss and human ill health (the triple threat) are not only complex but also highly contested. As such, they cannot be resolved through a one-size-fits-all approach, whether that involves prioritising particular production systems, investing in technical fixes, or even attempting to achieve full consensus. In fact, the limitations of binary thinking, such as organic versus conventional, land sparing versus sharing, plant-based versus animal-based, or local versus global are polarising debate and stalling progress.