Advertising feature from McDonald’s

The food and drink industry is the UK’s largest manufacturing sector by turnover, bigger than the aerospace and automotive industries combined. Last year, the government published its new Food Strategy, which sets out a vision to create a sustainable and affordable food sector that will secure high-quality produce for generations to come. From the farms that produce fresh and delicious ingredients to the restaurants that bring it to your table, everyone across the industry has a role to play in making this vision a reality. In order to mitigate sharp rises in the price of essentials like fuel and animal feed, the industry is required to continuously adapt to make sure that producing the food we eat is profitable, viable for the long-term, and reduces the impact on our environment.

Industries across the UK and Ireland continue to grapple with the impact of inflation, and the agricultural sector is no exception. Unprecedented rises in the cost of fuel, feed and fertiliser are requiring farmers to adapt the way they operate. Add to this an increasing focus on sustainability and it is clear that farming life needs to continuously and rapidly evolve to overcome these challenges. One farming family who are working hard to do this are the Tizzards. Their dairy farm lies close to the Dorset coast and has been in the family for two generations.

The UK is home to a world-class agrifood sector, generating hundreds of billions in value, sustaining millions of jobs and providing much of the food that we consume every day. But with food shortages hitting supermarkets, an ongoing climate crisis impacting food production worldwide, and farmers facing unprecedented challenges, it’s clear we need to rethink and reshape how we produce and source our food. Businesses like McDonald’s are at the forefront of providing quality food, and they continue to work hard to support farmers to innovate and make their farming practices more sustainable, from helping improve productivity and efficiency to innovating throughout the supply chain to reduce the impact on the planet.

British and Irish farming has seen huge upheaval in recent years. From weathering the Covid-19 pandemic to navigating the transition away from EU payments, our agricultural sector has adapted quickly to meet the myriad of challenges facing the industry. As global gas, fuel and grain costs continue to rise, farmers are now also facing record levels of inflation affecting key inputs to the food production process, such as fertiliser. But as we look to the future, this is a sector with big ambitions. Emerging technologies are powering global transformations in data and connectivity across supply chains. Innovation is helping make progress toward net zero, all while protecting and restoring our natural environment.

During a visit to the UN, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told other world leaders he was ‘increasingly frustrated’ that efforts to tackle climate change were ‘nowhere near enough.’ At McDonald’s we believe it’s never been clearer that now is the time for us all, including businesses, to match our words with action. We’ve been serving communities across the country since 1974, and have a long history making a difference where it matters. From turning cooking oil into fuel for our delivery trucks to removing thousands of metric tonnes of plastic from our business, we’re committed to making a positive difference to our planet. But this moment in time requires us to accelerate our ambition.