Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming advocates 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.

They represent around 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level.

How they work

They operate in collaboration with their membership and:

• -Facilitate the exchange of information to strengthen the work of the membership, and help promote their activities to the media and to policy makers.
• -Develop networks of members and allied organisations to devise and implement policies and practices on particular issues of common concern.
• -Advise and negotiate with governments and other regulatory agencies to ensure that legislation and policies on food and agriculture are publicly accountable and socially and environmentally responsible.
• -Encourage businesses to produce, process and market foods which are good for health and the environment, and to devise, invest in and maintain policies and practices that make sustainable food choices the easy choice.

They have an extensive range of publications covering their current and past areas of work. 

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. They 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.

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.