Sustain is a powerful alliance of organisations and communities working together for a better system of food and farming, and cultivating the movement for change.
Together, we advocate food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture, and promote equity.
How we work
Working in collaboration, we:
Develop networks of people and organisations to devise and implement projects and campaigns, and to provide a platform for recognition and replication of pioneering work.
Run highly effective and creative campaigns, advocacy, networks and demonstration projects, aiming to catalyse permanent changes in policy and practice, and to help equip more people and communities with skills as change-makers.
Advise and negotiate with governments, local authorities, regulatory agencies, funding bodies and other decision-makers to ensure that legislation and policies on food, fishing and agriculture are publicly accountable and socially and environmentally responsible.
Read more about the benefits of being a member of the Sustain alliance.
Our values
- Collaborative action
We bring people and organisations together across the food system, working in alliance and partnership to create fair, healthy and sustainable food and farming. - Trusted expertise
We are leaders in food system change, using clear and honest knowledge grounded in lived experience, practitioner know-how, evidence and policy insight to guide our choices and advocacy. - Connected care
We act with compassion and responsibility, recognising historic and current harms, and championing food and farming systems that nourish the interconnected wellbeing of people, nature, and communities. - Fairness together
We stand up for justice and equity in how food is produced, traded and accessed, promoting agroecology and working to ensure everyone has a voice and is treated with dignity. - Courageous change
We speak up boldly for a better food and farming future, challenging harms and injustice while inspiring meaningful action on solutions that bring long-term, positive change for people and the planet.
Find out more
Sustain trustees share their routes into sustainable food and farming
The short documentary hears from trustees Shefalee Loth, from Which?; Dr Kawther Hashem from Action on Salt, Sugar and Healt; Jyoti Fernandes, from Landworkers Alliance and Raksha Mistry from the Soil Association. They speak about challenges and opportunities in their roles and sectors, from access to land to perceptions of being a woman of colour, and touch on cross-cutting issues in food justice and public health.
VideoDr Kawther Hashem from Action on Salt, Sugar and Health. Credit: Sustain
“We are entering a decade in which we must achieve a radically different way of organising ourselves and organising the food system: one that restores nature, averts catastrophic climate change and ensures that everyone can live and eat well.”
Kath Dalmeny, Chief Executive of Sustain, speaking at Sustain’s AGM in December 2019
Membership
As an alliance, Sustain literally is its membership. Membership is open to national organisations which do not distribute profits to private shareholders and which therefore operate in the public interest. The organisations must be wholly or partly interested in food or farming issues and support the general aims and work of the alliance.
History
Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming was launched at the UNED-UK hosted Healthy Planet Forum on 17 June 1999. It was formed by merging The National Food Alliance and the Sustainable Agriculture Food and Environment (SAFE) Alliance, both of which had been established for over 10 years.
Funding
The alliance is independent from the agri-food industry and is funded from grants (from charitable foundations and government or government related sources), membership subscriptions and sales of publications. We also undertake paid contract work, where the results of the work will further the alliance’s purpose. No funding is accepted from any source which would compromise, or appear to compromise, the alliance’s principles.
Structure
The alliance is a registered charity (no. 1018643) and company limited by guarantee (no. 02673194). It is governed by its membership which meets annually. The membership elects a Council of trustees who meet quarterly to guide the work of the alliance, subject to approval by the members.
Each Sustain project or policy campaign is advised by a working party comprising relevant member organisations and other experts.
