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There was a heavy emphasis on (a) making providing “Good Food for All” rewarding for SMEs today, and in the future (pathway 1); (b) creating a conducive framework for them to do so durably (pathway 5); and (c) getting the wider public to understand the value that they are creating (pathway 6). Underpinning all of this is that is the need for governments to create a supportive framework for SMEs in a sector where producers (i.e., smallholder farmers) tended to be in the informal economy and therefore invisible and unaccounted for. Governments have to also create legal frameworks that make i... Read moret easier for them to operate, transact, and access credit. There are peculiar legacy issues that could make it hard for SMEs to operate, like inability to collateralize leases on land. Governments should also make it easy for them to get themselves heard. All of this is fundamental to retain people in rural areas and reverse urban-rural migration that is depleting the sector. Going beyond, it is important to help bridge the digital divide and look at it in terms of arresting the lack of digital literacy in general and making stakeholders aware of the resources available. The next step would be to localize and maintain the data, and then rationalize and link multidisciplinary data together to make them understood. SMEs do not have the resources to do these alone, so they would need external help on this coordination. These will help SMEs operate better. Finally, it is important for consumers to appreciate what SMEs are doing, particularly as they make quality improvements. They should be educated to accept higher prices for better quality products. Read less

When talking about ways to make good food matter, participants raised questions and concerns about the definition of good food, as there were some clashes between plant-based manufacturers and agribusinesses who produce food the traditional way (in the sense of following ancient Chinese nature-positive methods). They believe that the concept of Good Food is rather arbitrary without a given context, and we need different voices in the market as well as more sound research and education regarding different products and their corresponding practices in the full value chain. There are also some di... Read morefferent views about the role of government when it comes to aiding SMEs. While most participants agree that they need more practical and implementable policies targeting directly and exclusively to SMEs, some participants urge that as companies, they shouldn’t be relying on assistance from the government. SMEs should focus mainly on strengthening their business acumen and participate in fair market competition, the mentality of waiting for positive external factors can be detrimental to the long-term growth of SMEs and the market as a whole. That being said, they do believe that the policymakers can and should do a better job at creating an equitable environment and leveling the playing field for SMEs and large corporations. Read less

Key points from SMEs in Agriculture and Processed Food Innovation and Production: 1.Increase more social education for biodiversity and biotech. 2.Call for more responsible capital to invest in long-term impact projects. 3.Bridge to corporations and build up trust in order to form alliances. 4.Co-develop the human welfare agriculture system in diverse groups. More technology should be involved in product design. 5.Data and industrial insights should be transparent at some level. More independent research needs to be conducted. 6.Help SMEs get financial support from the government. Compared wit... Read moreh large businesses and government-owned enterprises, SMEs have limited access to finance because many banks prefer to allocate their resources to large enterprises rather than to SMEs. 7.Create opportunities to communicate with other SMEs in the fields. This will help tackle difficulties on lack of information. With close collaboration, SMEs can have open innovation to ensure long term growth. 8.Increase market competition by working with NGOs or International organizations that promote public good. It will be a great strategy to highlight works done by SMEs while attracting potential customers. Read less

Key points from SMEs in Alternative Protein and Animal Welfare: 1.Target support at food SMEs a.Most SMEs participants in our breakout room believe that with more direct and practical support from the government agencies and international NGOs, they can purchase equipment and expand their production, and maybe offset some of the inherent problems with agriculture such as high initial capital input, long payback period and unpredictable risk factors. b.These supports can come in various forms such as infrastructure improvement, funding, business consulting, and technology know-how, but they mus... Read moret be direct, feasible, and easily accessible. c.Although China has made a tremendous effort in the past decades to focus on sustainable development. As a developing country, we still have a long way to go in terms of building a better food system, not only for the 1.4 billion people but the whole globe as well. SMEs in China are thriving, and they need more target support more than ever. 2.Make good food matter a.There are many SMEs in China making effort to build a better food system, whether it’s regenerative agriculture, eco-agriculture, animal welfare, or plant-based protein, we can see a significant increase in the number of SMEs in these fields, however, consumers are still speculating and not willing to change their behaviors right away, and contrary to popular belief, the Chinese market can be quite complicated and challenging. b.Consumers in China are often hesitant towards products from SMEs, and when it comes to food and agri-products, we are extremely price-sensitive. Good Food can be expensive, and we need to better guide them to make that justification. We need to keep educating the public, make sure the government is on borad as well from kids to senior people. c.We need more endorsement from the official authorities and researchers to further help the public change their eating habits and make better choice. 3.Reduce the cost of doing business a.Education is a luxury for a great number of farmers in China, therefore, they lack basic business knowledge, and doesn’t really understand or go along with a contract, this makes working with them almost like a gamble, which would result in a highly inconsistent and volatile supply chain for a lot of the SMEs who simply don’t have the scale and capital needed for a better solution. Read less

Key points from SMEs in Agriculture and Hospitality: 1.Support from a wide range of institutions and sectors is important a.from the top down: policy support and the development of regulations in the relevant markets are important b.from the bottom up: the promotion of food-related education and advocacy at a societal level is also important c.In addition, financial support is also needed in some cases * Although the focus of each SME is different within the framework of the food system; it is possible that through various forms of collaboration and the flow/exchange/sharing of resources acros... Read mores regions and sectors, SMEs may have a greater impact and also have the opportunity to have their voices heard by a wide range of authoritative and influential groups, government agencies, etc. Read less

All SMEs participants are assigned to 4 different groups, the background of these SMEs were categorized as Agriculture, Food education, Plant-based protein, Animal Welfare, Hospitality, Food Processing, and Production. Each group has a host of SMEs in different streams within the food systems. And the discussion is carried out by answering the questions: Which pathways are most important in the participants’ context? What is missing? What actions will advance them? How are they interdependent? Key points from SMEs in Agriculture and Food Education: 1.Increase the visibility of SMEs a.Leverag... Read moree national policies and relevant government departments to support eco-healthy food, food education, and SMEs 2.Reduce the cost of SMEs a.The price of food products is unstable because small-scale farmers have low productivity. The farmers could establish agriculture cooperates and supply their products in big amounts to SMEs. b.SMEs need more financial services and support c.Since farms are in remote areas, infrastructure needs to be improved to reduce operation costs. 3.Increase public awareness in terms of the sustainable food system a.single SMEs are not able to change consumer awareness on their own b.Promote food education 4.Promote cooperation and communication among SMEs in the food system. Read less

The findings are two-part. The first part revolves around current challenges SMEs are facing： 1.Lack of government support targeting directly to SMEs. 2.Lack of regulation regarding new food products and their exporting rules. 3.Lack of public understanding of the potential positive impact of a plant-based diet and lack of appreciation of better-quality food. 4.Discrepancy between the sporadic, inconsistent and often low supply from small-scale farmers and large demand. 5.Low education and lack of decent business practice from the small-scale farmers. 6.Policymakers are hesitant about new tr... Read moreends and practices that are nature-positive or help provide good food for all. 7.Inability to acquire sufficient funding or complete financial services. The second part is about how to better build these pathways and boost their role in providing good food for all. The pathways that were brought up the most are: 1.Target support at food SMEs 2.Elevate the voice of SMEs 3.Make good food matter Read less

The main focus of this dialogue is to pinpoint the challenges SMEs in China are facing, and how to tackle the challenges and boost their roles in providing good food for all. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are vital to our food economies, from bakeries to farm suppliers, coffee co-ops to digital start-ups. Each country is different, but SMEs often make up over 90% of businesses in the agri-food sector, creating half the economic value, providing more than half the sector’s jobs, and handling more than half the food consumed. Through the COVID pandemic, their tenacity and agility h... Read moreave sustained food supplies and access. Frequently overlooked, these everyday businesses make billions of decisions that shape our food systems. Only hand-in-hand with SMEs, can the world deliver good food for all. What pathways will enhance the contribution of SMEs to the food system? We asked this question of SMEs, their supporters and food system leaders. To prompt discussion, Wasafiri, curator of the Dialogues, offers six promising pathways to boost the impact of food SMEs. Which are most important in your context? What is missing? What actions will advance them? How are they interdependent? These pathways are: 1. Elevate the voice of SMEs 2. Reduce the cost of doing business 3. Reward positive outcomes 4. Target support at food SMEs 5. Democratise the digital food revolution 6. Make good food matter Read less

The focus of this dialogue developing more effective monitoring and evaluation for food systems transformation. Areas of focus included: • Identify critical gaps and challenges where stakeholders need new evidence or science to more effectively track progress against food system transformation goals. • Identify synergies among data used for monitoring and evaluation in different components of the food system.

The focus of this dialogue developing more effective monitoring and evaluation for food systems transformation. Areas of focus included: • Identify critical gaps and challenges where stakeholders need new evidence or science to more effectively track progress against food system transformation goals. • Identify synergies among data used for monitoring and evaluation in different components of the food system.

• Data collection needs to work for farmers. That might mean thinking of data as “data interaction” rather than collection – it’s a two-way process, and producers are at the front lines. Data collection and interaction methods need to develop basic levels of trust, especially because farmers are the decision-makers at the field level. • Data architecture and infrastructure is a recurring and critical problem in the food systems space. We need improved coordination across scales and methodology. One specific threat is proprietary data at the company or producer level, despite the cr... Read moreitical need to share data in a way that helps others. How can we develop models of social organization that make data-sharing more feasible? In addition, cross-use datasets, data storage, and data sharing across organizations, government agencies, and other users continues to be a critical challenge. Even in emergency situations like drought or famine, agencies struggle to effectively cooperate and data-share to effectively deploy response and aid. • We need to develop better adaptive management for data and evidence systems. Right now, most data systems are reactive rather than proactive in that they follow a pre-set model for collection and analysis. We need adaptive management of our data and evidence systems to ensure that they are responsive to the changing needs of the food system and ongoing food systems transformation. • To build effective data systems, we need to understand the end user. Who is data trying to influence? For example, there is limited appetite for consumers to drive change, but companies could drive change in the supply chain to have a larger impact on consumer choice. To translate data into effective decision-making, we need to understand who the decision-makers are, and what types of outputs they will listen to. • We need more refined metrics and data for measuring food transitions. There are extensive metrics and datasets focused on production, but there are less clear for the consumption side of the system. We need to discuss and refine the role of corporations in driving corporate transitions, food labelling systems, and purchasing patterns to better understand what drives consumer choice. There are a lot of data gaps in this field still. We also need further work on aligning data across scales and being able to integrate datasets and develop datasets that allow us to see a systems perspective. Read less

The focus of this dialogue was broad: using data for food systems transformation. Key areas of focus included: • Existing opportunities and challenges associated with large-scale datasets • Prioritizing the primary data users and primary data collectors so datasets work for them (i.e., how can we center farmers’ needs, as primary data collectors?) • Developing systems-level data sharing and data sets for systems-level change