Awarded £2,000

Funding to deliver three on-stand sessions at Groundswell 2024 on Farmers and Fashion, Delivering Farmer-led Research, and on How Chefs can lead the Farming Transition. By reaching new audiences amongst food, fashion, policy and academic sectors, Pasture for Life will both centre the farmer whilst showcasing the importance of agroecologically-farmed animals within the wider farming NetZero.

Key findings

• There is a lot of interest from the wider research community in the work Pasture for Life is currently engaged in, across both research and supply chain development. 
• Researchers do not always present data in a way that is meaningful for farmers (eg, total net farm income rather than profit per hectare). 
• There remains an unwillingness to collaborate in the meat supply chain, linked to competition for business and maintenance of a Unique Selling Point for some butchers. This potentially harms a growing producer interest, as they have fewer outlets for products.

Key recommendations for further research and/or activity: 

• Use influence as a research project partner to ensure outputs are meaningful for farmers to help inform better farm business decision-making. 
• Focus on supply chain development (for all products, including leather/fibre) in future projects and discussions to encourage wider engagement and more collaboration. 
• Re-visit the Scotland Supply Chain Round Table (a previous project) outputs to incorporate learnings in future workshops and relationship management.