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The prestigious City Food Lecture took place in-person at London’s Guildhall on 17th February and was also livestreamed to a large online audience.

The Keynote speaker was Ash Amirahmadi, Managing Director of the €1 billion Euros per annum dairy company, Arla Foods. The title was Food’s defining decade: finding a way to feed the world while protecting the planet.

Following Mr Amirahmadi’s speech there was an interactive Q&A session chaired by BBC Radio 4 Farming Today’s Presenter, Charlotte Smith. The panel was made up of Richard Clothier, Managing Director of Wyke Farms, Fraser McKevitt, Head of Retail and Consumer Insight at Kantar World Panel and James Lloyd Jones, Founder and CEO of Jones Food Company.
With over 20 years working in the food sector, coupled with his end-to-end supply chain knowledge gained from Arla’s cooperative milk sourcing model with over 9,000 farmers in Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the UK, Mr Amirahmadi was ideally placed to comment on the challenges and opportunities ahead for the UK food sector.

He majored on Arla’s strong commitment to the production sustainability of their products, which ranges from liquid milk to consumer brands and functional food ingredients. However, he said the focus for the most impact when it comes to sustainability lies with the “frontline” which is with farmers.

Mr Amirahmadi asked his fellow industry leaders, “what am I and my organisation doing to support farmers?” challenging everyone in a position to do so to challenge themselves to understand farming and farmers better. He added that Government also needed to back farmer by enacting consistent, coherent legislation to support them. Investment was also cited as crucial in his powerful speech. “Meaningful change can only be accomplished with adequate investment” adding that McKinsey had put a figure of $9.2 trillion needed for new infrastructure and systems to meet net-zero goals.

His call to the farming industry was to “convey the positive effects of animal-based food production on nutrition and the climate.” He added that this, and other communications to address the image challenge that the food sector has was what was needed to bring new people into the industry.

Turning to the pandemic, he said that the food industry needed to recognise the positive role it played in keeping the public fed in the midst of Covid disruption. “I believe that we have come out in a stronger place than before the crisis hit” and that the sector has learnt lessons that could help address the climate emergency.

The evening’s plenary proceedings ended with the Princess Royal’s address to the organisers – seven food livery companies. As always, her passion and understanding of the food sector was outstanding and thought-provoking, asking herself what a sustainable farm looks like for her own small farm.

The City Food Lecture is organised by the Worshipful Companies of Bakers, Butchers, Cooks, Farmers, Fishmongers, Fruiterers and Poulters. The 2022 Lecture was the 21st Event. This year’s events premium sponsor was Rathbones, Gold Plus sponsors were ABP, AC Goathams & Son, Compass, HSBC UK. The Gold sponsors were Eden Search, Noble Foods, Orchard World, and Roythornes Solicitors. Silver sponsors were the Agri-Epi Centre, Berry Gardens, Davy’s Wine Merchants and Up Sunny Side. The Bronze sponsors was Saffery Champness and media partner, the Fresh Produce Journal.