Food retailers fail to publish evidence on sustainable sourcing – Report
Date Published: 7th March 2023
A new report reviews retailers’ published commitments against Eating Better’s Sourcing Better Framework
There is little evidence that food retailers are driving more sustainable sourcing, according to Eating Better’s review of published information. While many retailers have committed to improving their sourcing, from reducing carbon emissions to improving biodiversity, there is little transparency on what they’re doing to achieve it.
Eating Better’s new report, ‘Sourcing Better Checked Out’, reviews the publicly available policies of 10 major retailers against 12 outcomes set out in our ‘Sourcing Better’ framework.
The review found no evidence that they are working beyond addressing single issues.
There needs to be evidence of policies on key areas from maintaining soil health, effective approaches to reduce local pollution potential from farming, supporting local biodiversity in farming landscapes or minimising impact on water scarcity.
Transparency is poor, progress across the different impact areas is uneven, and there are no commitments to reduce the amount of farmed animals or meat and dairy sold as part of efforts to lower emissions. The Eating Better alliance asks retailers to develop a plan to address each issue area and publish progress against targets.
Download the report here.