Ocado Retail

Ocado Retail and Soil Association: Farm to Fork Partnership

The Soil Association charity is joining with Ocado Retail, the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket. This ground-breaking new partnership will drive positive change in the food and farming system. 

This is the Soil Association’s largest corporate partnership to date. And it has ambitious aims to:

1. improve animal welfare
2. develop nature-friendly farming practices
3. amplify voices

Ocado Retail has more than one million active customers and a longstanding interest in supporting local farmers and British produce. They are the perfect partner for us to drive widescale change in farming and healthy and sustainable diets.

As a charity, we know that we can’t make the changes needed on our own. We need to work with powerful players from across the sector, as well as reaching out to citizens and influencing policy makers.

Improve animal welfare

The idea of a good life for farm animals comes from the Farm Animal Welfare Council. This is the government’s welfare advisors who defined three levels of welfare:

1. a good life
2. a life worth living
3. a life not worth living

Most welfare standards concentrate on the bottom two levels. Examples include banning confinement or removing the tips of hen’s beaks to reduce feather pecking.

But the Soil Association and Ocado Retail want to go one step further. We want farmed animals to live in good environments, and have a relaxed, fulfilling and happy life. We want all farmed animals to have a good life, not just a life worth living.

With Ocado Retail’s support, and by collaborating with farmers, we’re going to set the bar for top level animal welfare. We will support farmers who already meet this bar to share their stories and market their produce. We want them to encourage the industry to recognise the benefits and build the evidence for better animal welfare.

Develop nature-friendly farming practices

The Soil Association has always understood the value of learning networks and working together, which is why we're growing Agroecology at Scale. We’re creating five demonstration farms across the UK to share knowledge of nature-friendly farming principles. They will focus on different areas of farming, from dairy to grain crops, and meat to fruit and vegetables.

These demonstration farms will show other farmers how to adopt more sustainable ways of farming. And these practices don’t just benefit the planet. They have been tried and tested to ensure that they are practical and profitable for the farmers too.

Amplify voices

We are one of the only charities working across the entire food system. We will use our unique position to amplify the diverse range of voices calling for change in the food and farming sector. With Ocado Retail, we will build a network of Farm to Fork Ambassadors. They will speak out and share their stories about the changes we need to see in farming, food and health.

The movement is already filled with outspoken farmers, chefs, activists, caterers, growers and educators. They each have their own audiences and circles of influence. We also want to amplify their messages towards the change that we need to see.

At the Soil Association, we know that we have ambitious aims. We want:

• a fairer and more sustainable food system for all
• a world where happy animals and healthy soils feed the world
• farmers to be paid fairly for their work

Only by working in partnership can we achieve these goals.