Next Bite 2025: Resilient Agriculture Think & Do Tank

In another episode recorded live from Next Bite in Brussels, Matt sits down with Stéphane Durand and Damien Jourdain to ask a blunt question: Can Europe build a food system that still feeds everyone when the climate, politics and markets keep landing blows.

Damien starts with the farmer’s reality. Twenty years ago, a cereal farmer expected a big climate event every six years. Now he is hit once a year. A fruit grower near him has lost her harvest three years in a row for three different reasons. Heavy rain washed away pollen. A late frost burned blossoms. Then drought and sun scorch finished what was left. No fruit. No income. No time or money for new training or experiments.

For decades, globalisation and the Green Revolution created plenty of food, but at the cost of soil, water and fossil inputs. The result is a system that depends on fragile global chains and frequent shocks, while policies still reward hectares and inputs rather than outcomes. Farmers are treated as if they are the problem, even though many see themselves as custodians of land for the next 100 years.

The ResAg Think and Do Tank exists to ensure that talking is the start of the solution, not the end. Damien describes it as the “brain” that pulls together existing science and real farm experience, then points EIT Food’s programmes toward specific interventions. The priority list is clear: fix farmer income, help new farmers start with agroecological systems, and redefine productivity so it means healthy soils, stable yields and fair pay, not record use of fertiliser. 

Stéphane brings in education and storytelling. A One Health study with 1,000 children aged 7 to 11 showed that when you give kids real insight into how food is produced, they learn better and change how they behave. At the same time, the average farmer in the UK is 59 years old, 57 in France, so there is an urgent need to make farming attractive and understandable to a new generation. Connecting classrooms, farms and citizens becomes a core part of resilience.

Damien shares the example of Les Devaches in Normandy, a dairy brand built around organic, pasture based, regenerative farms. Farmers there have low input costs, long term contracts and a fair trade model that guarantees them the equivalent of two French minimum salaries. Their cows graze outside most of the year, feed is almost fully produced on farm, and the milk has higher levels of omega 3 and vitamin B12, less saturated fat and even lower methane. Clinical work has linked healthy soils to richer grass, healthier cows, more nutritious milk and, in breastfeeding mothers, better quality breast milk and infant microbiota.

The ResAg Think and Do Tank are on a mission.

Set a firm direction. Pick the interventions that really shift behaviour. Connect local landscape projects to European support. Tell better stories. From TikTok farmers to Jeremy Clarkson’s farm show, Stéphane argues that bold storytelling is no longer a nice extra, but a core tool for change.

Key takeaways

Resilience starts with farmers’ reality

Climate shocks that used to hit every six years now arrive yearly for many farmers. One fruit grower lost three full harvests in three years for three different weather reasons. You cannot ask for change in that context without first fixing basic security and income. 

Farmer income is the entry point

A century ago, households spent about 30 percent of their income on food. Today it is closer to 12 to 14 percent in Europe, and only around 7 percent reaches the farmer. Any serious transition has to start with fair pay, or you will lose farmers before any climate or biodiversity goals are met. 

Think and do, not think OR do

The tank is designed to collect existing knowledge, agree a clear theory of change, then plug that into EIT Food’s programmes, landscapes and partners. Reports are useless if they do not lead to contracts, training, finance and support on actual farms. 

Landscapes are the real unit of change

EIT Food’s regenerative agriculture portfolio works at landscape scale, with hundreds of farmers and local stakeholders in each territory. This is where mayors, citizens, cooperatives and processors already know each other and can redesign food systems that fit their soil, water and culture. 

Policy can help or quietly block progress

Wide, one size fits all tools like the CAP often push money to land area and inputs, not to outcomes that matter. The tank wants to bring local success stories into rooms with EU decision makers, so policies stop undermining place based solutions that already work. 

Education is a resilience tool

A One Health study with 1,000 schoolchildren showed that when kids understand how their porridge, pasta and chicken are produced, they learn more and change their habits. Bringing urban “eaters” back into contact with farms can shift demand, careers and voting patterns. 

A fair, agroecological model already exists

The Les Devaches dairy brand in Normandy pays farmers long term, guarantees them two French minimum salaries, keeps cows on pasture and cuts input costs. The result is healthier soil, healthier cows, more nutritious milk and even measurable benefits for breastfeeding mothers and infants. This is resilience you can measure, not a slogan. 

Storytelling is part of the work, not a side note

From YouTube farmers to mainstream shows about farming, culture is waking up to where food comes from. The think and do tank plans to use stories that reach citizens, funders and politicians, so resilient agriculture feels real, human and worth backing at scale.