University of Reading and Sustainable Food Trust KTP 24_25 R2

A single, standardised framework for measuring the environmental and social impact of farms is being built on a rigorous scientific foundation. The problem is that the world lacks a consistent, credible way to compare sustainability across different farms and food systems. Without a shared metric, efforts to reduce emissions, protect soil, or improve animal welfare remain fragmented and hard to verify. The Global Farm Metric Framework aims to fill this gap, but its current methods need stronger scientific underpinning to be trusted and adopted at scale. If this work succeeds, the framework could become a global benchmark. Farmers, food companies, and governments would use the same yardstick to measure progress—making it possible to reward sustainable practices, target investment, and track the transition to sustainable food systems with real data. This is not a project with immediate consumer-facing results. Its impact will be felt in supply chains, policy decisions, and agricultural markets, quietly reshaping how the world defines and measures sustainable food production.