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2025: the year of trust?

21/02/25

Author: Kendra Hall

4 minutes read

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Why trust will define food and farming success in 2025

Trust isn’t just important – it’s the glue that holds organisations, teams and customers together. People choose to buy from brands and individuals they trust and nowhere is this more vital than in food and farming. It’s no surprise, then, that trust has been identified as one of the three key macro-trends shaping the future of food in 2025. 

But why is trust so important in food and farming? And, more importantly, what can be done to improve it?

Traditionally, British consumers have placed a high level of confidence in farmers, viewing them as stewards of the land, experts in food production and caretakers of animal welfare. However, there is plenty of evidence that we have a lot of work to do…

AHDB’s recent consumer trust study found that 67% of surveyed consumers felt positively about British agriculture - widely celebrated as the highest figure for the last six years – and farmers were trusted by 76% of respondents (the second highest on the list). While these figures are encouraging, this also means that more than a third do not feel positively, and nearly a quarter of respondents do not trust farmers. 

A November 2024 consumer poll undertaken by YouGov on behalf of Twig (then called Reverberate PR) also highlighted that the UK food and farming industry needs to focus more on building trust. Some of the key findings include: 

  • More than half (53%) of adults in GB do not trust major food brands and supermarkets to tell the truth about how sustainable specific foods are
  • Half of adults (50%) in GB do not trust major food brands and supermarkets to tell the truth about how healthy specific foods are
  • A quarter (26%) of adults in GB do not trust British farmers to adhere to high standards of animal welfare. More concerningly, this rises to 42% of 18–24-year-olds.

It's also important to remember that trust cannot be taken for granted and must be actively maintained. Without it, the food and farming sectors risk losing public confidence, market share and, ultimately, their social license to operate.

What is Social License to Operate?

Social License to Operate ('SLO') refers to the public’s acceptance of an industry’s practices, based on trust, transparency and alignment with societal values – “do I trust you to do the right thing?”.

Unlike legal regulations that are formally imposed, SLO is an informal but powerful force that is earned when industries act in ways that reflect public expectations - and revoked when they do not. The consequences of losing SLO can be severe, ranging from increased government regulations to complete market exclusion, as seen in cases like the banning of live animal exports in Australia.

How trust is developed in food and farming

Research from the Centre for Food Integrity (CFI) suggests that trust in food production is built on three primary drivers:

  • Influential Others – Media, scientists, and social networks shape public perception.
  • Competence – Demonstrating expertise, providing data, and ensuring food safety.
  • Confidence – Aligning with shared values and ethical principles.

While all of these elements are critical, shared values (“Confidence”) are found to be 3-5 times more powerful in building trust than using facts alone, which means that we all must reflect on how we communicate with the public. 

Consumers need to know that members of the food system care about the same things they do – like sustainability, humane treatment of animals and food safety - before they will be receptive to industry data or scientific explanations. 

As U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt famously said, 

“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

So, what can we do?

I spent two years studying trust in food and farming as part of a Nuffield Farming Scholarship sponsored by AHDB and the Dartington Cattle Breeding Trust (read it here). After visiting dozens of people in a wide range of organisations and discussing what they were doing to improve trust through increased transparency, a few themes emerged: 

  • Dedication to authenticity and honesty by showing the ‘warts and all’ of food production or undertaking a philosophy of ‘Radical Openness’. 
  • Devoting resources to understanding and listening to the public, developing long-term strategy, measuring trust and other outcomes, and meeting targeted audiences where they already are.
  • A commitment to sharing values, not facts, when engaging with audiences and abandoning the idea that we must ‘educate the public’. 
  • The value of (and need for) wider industry support of and investment in those willing to engage.

The UK food and farming industries cannot afford to lose public trust. A loss of social license to operate would lead to increased regulation, declining consumer confidence, and a shift toward alternative food sources. To prevent this, the industry must prioritise transparency, align with public values, and foster open, meaningful dialogue. If done correctly, British agriculture can continue to be a trusted, resilient, and essential part of the nation’s future food system.

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