Waitrose’s commitment to Sustainable Agriculture highlights the relationships between Waitrose, its suppliers, growers of fresh produce and research providers concerned with the sustainable production and supply of food products.

The key aims of this portal are:

1. To enhance the communication of ideas, developments and enthusiasm between Waitrose, its suppliers, growers of fresh produce and selected research providers
2. Raise the profile of food security and sustainability issues
3. Exert a positive impact by working together as an industry
4. Increase young people’s interest in food issues
5. Drive science into farm performance through increased funding and Waitrose engagement
6. Communicate possible scientific solutions based on outputs of the Waitrose Farm Assessment

On these pages, details can be found of current research partners and members of the Waitrose Agronomy Group, who have together worked to define our research agenda.

Waitrose and its suppliers are well aware of the potentially deleterious impact on the environment of some components of the food supply chain. In partnership, they work hard to minimise such impacts while attempting to maximise both food production and quality and the delivery of other ecosystem services.

Here we highlight some of this work to both inform interested parties of the impact of our knowledge business partnership and to spread best practice between Waitrose suppliers and growers.

We hope that a greater understanding of the successes of farming in the UK and elsewhere in the world, and of where food comes from and how it is supplied, might help us – as a community – to address the food-related challenges faced by increasing numbers of people on the planet.