An independent charity, we were set up in 2017 to help shape the future of food and farming, land use and the countryside. Our purpose is to bring together people and ideas from different perspectives to find the practical and radical solutions which also tackle the climate, nature, health and economic crises of our time. We curate the latest research and evidence, involve citizens in deliberations, and tell the inspiring stories of people taking action in their businesses and communities.
We are working together for a world where healthy food is everyone’s business, farming is a force for positive change, the countryside works for everyone and resources flow to where the work is needed.
One of our most ambitious projects to date is a major project involving citizens in the big questions about food. 345 citizens from all four nations have now taken part in the UK's largest ever deliberation on food. Hundreds more are starting their own conversations. Ahead of the publication of the final The Food Conversation report in 2025, a new (interim) report and Citizen Manifesto reveal what we have learned so far.
Our report, Farming for Change, which modelled an agroecological future for the UK, was well received when it launched in 2021. It attracted significant attention across national media and online and continues to be one of the key reports about the agroecological transition cited today. We continue to publish new evidence and research and convene leadership around these issues with a regular series of symposia attracting key farming leaders throughout the year. We are also amplifying farming and rural voices through our #FarmingVoices project.
We first developed the idea of a Land Use Framework in our seminal report Our Future in the Land. The commitment by the government in 2022 to publish a Land Use Framework is one of a number of tangible outcomes from this report. We are now working closely with colleagues in government and civil society to ensure the learnings from our work to test a Multifunctional Land Use Framework in Devon and Cambridgeshire helps shape next steps for government. We are also developing a resource and community of practice for those engaged in the reality of delivering Multifunctional Land Use Frameworks on the ground.
A lot of the policy and action in our field is devolved. Our country directors in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland lead specific projects relevant to their country’s political and policy landscape. We benefit from learning what works in these different jurisdictions and share this through hosting events across boundaries.
Baroness Rosie Boycott, House of Lords
FFCC is a mission-led organisation. We are hugely grateful for the confidence placed in us by our generous funders, and to work with them in service of our shared missions and purpose. Our core work as well as some specific projects are funded by Esmée Fairbairn
Foundation, the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund (now the King Charles III Charitable Fund), the Rothschild Foundation and the Aurora Trust. In addition, we have benefitted from a gift from Animula to support The Food Conversation, and the AFN Network+ supporting our land use work.
We started off life in November 2017 as an independent inquiry led by a group of influential Commissioners. We commissioned research and sought practical solutions - including an innovation national bike tour to hear direct from citizens. This work formed the basis of a landmark report, Our Future in the Land, which was widely supported by ministers and welcomed on both sides of the aisle. Thanks to the success and impact of that report, we became an independent charity in April 2020.
The cross-cutting activities of Aligning Leadership and Citizen’s Voices are designed to increase political impact and to inform and support the work of FFCC’s core goals: to make healthy food available for all, farming a force for change, a countryside that works for everyone, and money flow to where it is needed. Central to our approach is the value we place on real and practical work around the UK, which is enabled by our country directors and presence in all four countries.
Lord Hague, The Times
We convene leaders to foster and grow consensus on complex, contested and novel issues across programmes and the devolved nations. This consensus helps to generate shared commitments, innovative and practical ideas and build the critical mass necessary to achieve change.
Our Farming Leadership symposia series brings together leading figures in farming, food and land use. They meet to share ideas and work together to tackle the key issues facing the sector.
Commissioning, curating and communicating research and evidence strengthens scientific consensus and establishes practical, robust pathways for change. It also gives confidence to policymakers and helps reinforce a mandate for change.
Our research has helped to shape the debate about agroecology (both its potential to feed the nation and economic arguments for farmers), affordability of food, natural capital and land use policy.
We incubate new approaches that help develop capacity in communities and businesses, and showcase real world exemplars of change in action.
The Food Conversation is putting citizens at the heart of food systems debates and, alongside the work of our partners, changing the way politicians and businesses are engaging with issues around food, farming, land use and inequalities.
We listen to and amplify citizen and practitioner voices, especially the seldom heard – and collate and amplify evidence of their desire for action on climate, nature, health and the economy.
Our #FarmingVoices project is shining a light on the perspectives of farmers and rural communities, bringing their voices to the table for a healthier, fairer and more sustainable farming future.
Denise Bentley, Founder of First Love Foundation and FFCC Commissioner
The FFCC Farming Leadership Group has curated four symposia tackling the intractable issues in farming. These rich discussions – inviting expert speakers, farmers and business leaders – focus on key topics around the transition towards more sustainable practices in UK food and farming.
Our inaugural event focused on 'Financing the Transition to Agroecology'. 'Creating Fair and Equitable Supply Chains' explored how to distribute risk and profit within the system more fairly. 'From Food Security to Food Resilience' debated the urgent need to shift from a food system based on maximising short-term production to one with more capacity to adapt to challenges such as climate change.
The discussions confirm the importance of building resilience: a headline summary was rapidly distributed to attendees at major political events, and the resilience theme received a higher profile in media and academic conversations around food and farming.
Henry Dimbleby, House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee
We first proposed the idea of a Land Use Framework in 2019 in Our Future in the Land, and have since built a broad alliance around the proposal. The House of Lords Committee on Land Use in England, the Royal Society’s Living Landscapes report, the Glover Review and the Geospatial Commission’s Finding Common Ground report have echoed our findings and in turn been instrumental in building momentum.
In our report on our Land Use Framework pilots in Devon and Cambridgeshire in June 2023, we included ‘Multifunctional’ in the title to emphasise our core principles and the differences between how we approach a LUF (as a governance process focused on delivering public value) and how others do. The report was well received by interested parties and partners. The report, and its accompanying Rough Guide to the Multifunctional Land Use Framework, has been viewed over 4,000 times.
The House of Lords Land Use Committee and others have drawn on this evidence to call for a Multifunctional Land Use Framework.
The government’s LUF was due to be published by October 2023, then by the end of the year, and then finally by summer recess 2024 – but was stymied by the election. We continue to work with government ministers and key officials in Defra, to argue for an approach led by principles and practices that is ‘guidance for decision makers’ rather than a prescriptive strategy. We continue to be a leading expert voice in the media and online.
Helen Browning, Soil Association
As regenerative and agroecological approaches gain traction in Northern Ireland’s farming communities, the Growing Innovation Network (GrowIN) network continues to facilitate collaborations and the sharing of experience, ideas and knowledge between farmers. Funding from the Aurora Trust (formerly Ashden Trust) has made it possible to have sufficient resources to deliver effective network engagement.
The FFCC’s GrowIN team delivered the Farm Biology campaign as a three-part series of online discussions with farmers covering soil, pasture and livestock – and shortlisted 11 students for the Innovation Competition with the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (sponsored by Germinal) to seek out innovations from the next generation of farmers, land managers and entrepreneurs in the sector.
After relaunching the steering group as a collaborative enterprise, joint funding bids strengthened relationships with organisations such as the Nature-Friendly Farming Network and National Trust, and enabled us to deliver valuable events such as Farm Carbon Training and Trees on Farms. Over the next three years, GrowIN will continue engaging with stakeholders, providing educational campaigns, fostering innovation and organising regular events for knowledge exchange and skill development.
For each of our work programmes, we produce research and reports, as well as short films, podcasts, blogs and other rich content designed to involve citizens and specialists in telling stories and in providing arguments and evidence.
The full range of reports and publications can be found in our publications library.
