Lifting the bar

It asks us to redesign the system itself: pricing, convenience and shelf design must make healthy, sustainable choices easy and natural. Consumers choose what is easy, familiar, tasty and affordable. The insight is simple: do not overcomplicate it. Price parity, recognisable products like balanced meat and dairy, and taste are key. The rest will follow.

At the same time, there is a tension: we need to raise the bar, but not so fast that we lose people along the way. Not everyone can clear the full hurdle at once; taking the first step already matters. 

Real change starts there. Not by lowering ambition, but by making that first step reachable and creating a pathway to go further, gradually, yet decisively.

From belief to practice 
For me, this lesson did not appear overnight. Over twelve years ago, in the Metropole Region Amsterdam, I helped design a circular transition programme. The idea was simple, yet powerful: align supply and demand from the start. Organise waste streams, processing and circular procurement simultaneously, set clear goals, identify obstacles, and bring together those people (and their respective organisations) who could move in unison.

This way, choices become almost unconscious as the default shifts. It means creating space for those willing to step forward. For those who go beyond what is “just the way it is”, step outside the norm, and occasionally feel a bit like Don Quixote. It can feel lonely at times. Crazy, even. But together, it becomes lighter. Bolder. That is where a movement begins.

That experience shaped what we now call the Foodvalley Practical Approach. Built on transition theories but adapted to context, it is designed to work in practice. It requires movement, entrepreneurship, and a safe, trusted environment where people dare to share, collaborate and advance together. That environment is what we consciously build together.

And it is also how we approach lifting the bar: not as a leap, but as a journey. Step by step, making progress tangible, achievable and scalable.

A growing movement
And it works. At Innovation Insights, 170 partners (from farmers and family businesses to start-ups, supermarkets, scientists, and chefs) came together around one urgent question: how can we raise the bar, together? And no, it does not start at our events. But those events and meet-ups do play an important role in the bigger movement. Openness, trust, curiosity, and sometimes vulnerability form the foundation. When the right people align around a shared goal, momentum builds. Messy on the outside, but deeply intentional at its core.

Lifting the bar in practice 
For us this takes many forms:

Landscape approaches in regenerative agriculture: helping farmers transition while demand and finance evolve alongside them.

Plant Protein Forward: bringing retailers and farmers together to co-create products that deliver on taste, affordability, and quality. And to keep experimenting when things do not work straight away.

Eating environments: experimenting with positioning and presentation to make sustainable choices the natural default.

Upcycled4Food: bringing together manufacturers, tech providers, foodservice, and retailers to build viable upcycled ingredients and products, ensuring the total market grows, not just a single product.

Always with one goal: scaling.

Final thought
The real work is simple: do not overcomplicate it. Do not make it a “thing”. Just make it better. And lift the bar. Together, step by step, bringing others along the way. Because transformation rarely happens in one big leap. More often, it is the result of many small, intentional steps that gradually redefine the norm.

Just like the sausage rolls in the photo: as indulgent as ever, but now made with a hybrid filling of seaweed and less meat. Proof that even small changes can move us forward without compromising on taste.