Our five-year commitment to deliver quality food and a sustainable future.
At M&S, we back British farming and always have done. For decades, we’ve partnered with British farmers to deliver exceptional quality food while championing the highest standards of animal welfare and care for the environment.
Through our Plan A for Farming 2030, we’re working in partnership with our farmers to build a resilient, sustainable environment that gives our farmers long term confidence and security, ensuring brilliant quality ingredients and food security for generations to come.
Ongoing commitment to sourcing 100% British on key proteins like Beef, Chicken, Pork and Eggs, whether fresh or ingredient, plus investing to extend the season of key British produce with our growers.
Our journey so far:
We partner with over 9,500 UK Select Farmers, building trusted, long-term relationships. These partnerships give farmers the confidence to invest, innovate and grow.
All Beef, Chicken, Turkey, Pork, Milk, Whole Eggs, Salmon and Trout is British, regardless of whether sold fresh or as an ingredient.
All Fresh Lamb is also British and M&S offers produce from UK farms as much as possible across its Foodhalls. M&S has strategic relationships across key supply chains - Oakham Gold Chicken, Eggs, Salmon, Sea Bass & Bream, Milk Pool, Honduran Prawns and Wagyu and Angus Beef - these are unique to M&S delivering marketable points of difference.
M&S works with growers to extend the season across British produce like Strawberries, Blueberries and Asparagus.
Our ambition for 2030
Farming is more challenging than ever before and that’s why we’re not just sourcing British. We’re working with our farmers to set the standard for what British farming can be.
Over the next five years, we’ll be working to support British farmers with long-term strategic relationships to make sure we have incredible British food on our shelves for years to come.
We plan to expand our strategic farm relationships to more of our supply chains.
Enabling the right environment
We need the government to commit to domestic food production, pulling every lever across planning, infrastructure and investment to back British farmers.
We would like to see a legally-binding target to increase the % of food eaten in Britain that is farmed or grown here.
All British products available on shelves will come from farms using regenerative practices.
Invest £2.5m over next five years in trials with suppliers, farmers and growers to find innovative solutions to sustainability challenges.
Our journey so far:
Over 70% of our food emissions come from agriculture, so we’re working with farmers to tackle the challenge head-on through our Plan A commitment to be net zero by 2040.
Our £1m Plan A Accelerator Fund helps suppliers and farmers trial cutting-edge, low-carbon technologies.
Projects include:
Precision pollination to deliver more and better quality strawberries.
Net zero wheat.
Methane measurement in Aberdeen Angus cattle to support low-carbon breeding.
Ensuring all British growers dedicate at least 5% of land to nature.
M&S is the largest customer of Wildfarmed Flour, regeneratively grown wheat.
Our ambition for 2030
Our new Farming for the Future scheme supports farmers and growers to measure and improve their impact on biodiversity, soil health, water and carbon.
We don’t have all the answers but we’re working with our farmers, growers and trusted specialists on how we can support the industry to maximise the opportunity of regenerative farming.
Over the next five years, we will make available £2.5m in grants to our food supply chain as part of our Plan A Accelerator Fund to find innovative solutions to key sustainability challenges.
Enabling the right environment
We need more support for farmers to access proven technologies that increase sustainability and profitability. That means shifting agricultural Research & Development funding away from universities and towards the farming frontline and replacing complex government grants with simpler incentives and allowances.
Collaborating with farmers on industry-leading M&S animal welfare, quality and farming standards.
Our journey so far
M&S is widely recognised as a leader in animal welfare, topping the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) and Crustacean Compassion rankings.
M&S offers more RSPCA Assured products than any other UK supermarket and building on a twenty year relationship, M&S and the RSPCA are developing new standards, with the first update to come early in 2026.
M&S was the first retailer to deliver its commitment of offering only slower grown chicken under its fresh brand Oakham Gold and remains the only retailer with RSPCA Assured chicken due to its ban on thinning.
Our ambition for 2030
Our M&S Select Farm standards go above and beyond industry norms and we’re working with the RSPCA to raise the bar even further across species.
Introducing new standards:
Angus Gold - A premium integrated Aberdeen Angus beef standard that guarantees exceptional eating quality, high welfare and a lower carbon footprint.
Enhanced Milk Pool - An evolution of M&S’s pioneering dairy scheme, to deliver high welfare, nature-friendly farming practices and improved staff and community engagement.
Enabling the right environment:
We need a shared national commitment to sustainable and resilient farming, built by education from the classroom to the boardroom on modern farming and how food arrives on families’ plates. And our high national standards need to be reflected in both the food we import and the trade deals that we strike with other countries.
Long-term support in place for M&S Select farmers and the wider industry because people power our food system.
Our journey so far
We have long term, multi-generational relationships with many of our farmers.
We are committed to paying our farmers a fair price, e.g. our milk pool where we pay a cost of production plus model, so farmers have the security to invest.
M&S has been a key partner of the Royal Countryside Fund since it was founded in 2010, contributing over £300,000 to support 4,500 family farms and 500 community projects across the UK.
M&S recognises our farmers at the Select Farm Awards hosted at the three key agricultural shows each year.
Our ambition for 2030
We want to inspire more people to see farming as a career of innovation, impact, and purpose.
While M&S does not endorse financial products, we are proud that Oxbury Bank has introduced preferential lending terms for farmers in the M&S Milk Pool and Angus Gold Beef schemes, recognising M&S farmers are leading the way in producing quality food while managing nature, the environment and people.
Enabling the right environment
We need businesses, schools, colleges and universities to show young people the opportunities in farming and provide them with the skills and experience to succeed, partnering with industry on apprenticeships and training schemes.
The Latest News
Our most recent ESG press releases and updates
M&S Launches “Plan A For Farming” And Calls On Government To Set National Food Security Target
