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How UK retailers can protect standards without exporting unsustainable risk back to farms

Daily News Briefing

SIDE BAR: Future of Food - London - 10/02/2026

What UK delegates should listen for:
• How UK retailers can protect standards without exporting unsustainable risk back to farms

• Whether “farm transition” is being funded properly, and where the money actually comes from

• How affordability is reshaping specifications, formats and sourcing decisions

• What operational levers matter most: data quality, forecasting, assurance, contracting and supplier incentives

GAVIN HODGSON (SAINSBURY’S)

Gavin Hodgson, Director of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Horticulture at Sainsbury’s, brings the UK retail “reality check” to the Future of Food agenda. His lens sits at the point where standards meet scale: farm viability, sourcing integrity, consumer affordability, and the day-to-day operational discipline required to convert net-zero ambition into measurable progress across complex supply networks.

Gavin Hodgson, is positioned where strategy becomes execution. His remit spans the supplier relationships and category mechanics that determine whether sustainability targets are deliverable at pace and at scale. That makes his contribution especially relevant to UK food industry leaders balancing three pressures at once: tightening standards and assurance, the economics of farm viability, and consumer price sensitivity in a still-fragile demand environment. Expect a practical view of what it takes to move beyond statements and into systems—data, incentives, contracting, specification discipline, seasonal constraints, and supply continuity—while aligning retailers and producers behind emissions reduction, nature outcomes and long-term supply resilience.

Speaker Panel - Future-proofing food - 16:05 - Tuesday February 10 London

Faced with regulatory pressure, consumer expectations, climate risks, nutrition concerns and supply-chain vulnerabilities, food manufacturers and foodservice companies must rethink how they source food. How are they introducing robust strategies, and developing resilient supply chains to ensure healthy outcomes?

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