Societal Outreach
As part of Farming, the Biggest Job on Earth, we regularly engage in community events & industry initiatives. Celebrate farming through our impactful community events to insightful industry gatherings
An Evening for the Biggest Job on Earth
During the Spring of last year, a chef, NGOs, civil servants, educators and farmers came together to share food and perspectives at a dinner to discuss the future of sustainable food and farming. Brought together by BASF, the diverse group called for three areas of impact – the need for education to address the disconnect between food and farming, the encouragement of consumers to consider their role in sustainable food choices and the need to change the narrative around fresh vs processed foods.
Hosted at FarmED, a community and education site in Oxfordshire founded by Ian and Celene Wilkinson in 2021 which aims to explore ways to combine all farming approaches for a more sustainable and healthy food system, the venue provided the ideal backdrop to the first ‘Biggest Job on Earth’ dinner. Throughout the evening, guests heard from unique voices sharing their challenges and opportunities for the future of food production.
Sarah Bell, Farmer
“For me, the challenges are complex, ranging from the increase in urbanisation and warehouse construction and resulting water run-off. Planting trees as a licence to continue to pollute, non-production interventions for land use and renewables schemes making communities hot under the collar. As farmers we also need to be providing year-round, long-term employment, to deal with forced land use changes resulting from the climate and responding to what society wants from land.”
Ben Ebbrell, SORTED Food
“Our hope is that [SortedFood] inspires and shares information with our community and we hope that a nugget of information will encourage them to share what they have learnt and make a different choice. We are a group of friends who met at secondary school, and we listen, distil, curate, and connect with our community.
“However, when we look outside our world, I could become very negative, very quickly, because of the food choices that the world imposes, fast versus fresh food and the widening ‘say versus do’ gap.”
David Hughes, Professor of Food Marketing at Imperial College London
“Food price inflation is running at 19% and energy inflation is also still high, the same happened in 1973 when there was a harvest collapse in Russia and Ukraine. Food price spikes are the victim of the market, and the issue of heat versus eat will last another 18 months.
“The result is people have to make the decision to eat less, or eat less healthily, for example an Aldi loaf costs 49p, a frozen pepperoni pizza, 70p. There is a misconception that fresh food is more expensive, a six-pack of Tesco apples sells a single apple at 16p, and a single British apple at 18p.”
Livio Tedeschi, President BASF Agricultural Solutions
"Farming is the biggest job on earth because it's not only about productivity, it is about biodiversity, it's about climate change, how to resist it and prevent it.
"I think we see that there are multiple ways to do that and it depends on needs of different people and groups and countries.
"We passionately believe that farming is the biggest job on earth, and we are deeply committed to continuous learning on how our innovation and how our business can contribute to a brighter future for agriculture."