Loading entries...
Collaborating with partners in places, we name the local, regional, and national barriers to transformation, and resource and share the practical, inspiring stories that show another way is possible. FFCC will develop this work in six places across the UK – we will share more on this soon.
Since our inception, FFCC has worked across all four UK nations and in regions within these nations, recognising that much of food and farming policy is devolved. We lead specific projects relevant to a country's political and policy landscape. We benefit from learning what works in these different jurisdictions and share this through hosting events across boundaries. You can find out more about our previous work below.
As part of our work facilitating citizen engagement in DEFRA's Good Food Cycle, a new food strategy for England, FFCC, alongside The Food Foundation, designed four place-based 'What Works Here Inquiries'. In Cornwall, York and North Yorkshire, Liverpool and Merseyside, and the North East, the Citizen Advisory Council set out to learn what national government can learn from the work already happening around the country – and how they can support this work to be even more effective. Their findings will feed into the government’s Good Food Cycle.
In Wales, FFCC is developing The Nature Service / Y Gwasanaeth Natur, a new initiative to support both people and nature, backed by over £460,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund alongside existing support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Working with partners across Wales, the initiative is building a national website and directory to make volunteering, training, education and career opportunities in nature restoration more visible and accessible to people from all backgrounds, alongside a research partnership with the Open University in Wales exploring how young people's participation in nature-based experience can be recognised and supported into further learning and employment. Together, this work aims to strengthen the participation, skills and workforce capacity needed to restore Wales's ecosystems and natural heritage.
In Devon and Cambridgeshire, FFCC ran pilot projects to develop and test a Land Use Framework, working with communities, landowners and local leaders to explore practical, place-based approaches to land use decision-making. The pilots showed that convening leadership, better use of data, engaging communities, and clear policies and incentives were key to an effective framework – findings that fed directly into national policy, with the government's Land Use Framework, published in March 2026, integrating many of FFCC's findings from our work piloting the framework at a local level.
In Cumbria, FFCC has incubated practical initiatives to help land-based communities adapt and thrive. The Upland Farmer Toolkit, developed with farmers and support organisations, helps upland farmers understand how changes to agricultural payments will affect their business, assess their financial position, and find practical ways to adapt and diversify their income. Meanwhile, FFCC's Cumbria inquiry convened over 50 organisations to scope a Land and Nature Skills Service (LANSS), producing a blueprint and prototype website to connect people with land- and nature-based training, coordinate opportunities across the county, and address workforce gaps left by the closure of Newton Rigg College — work now moving into its implementation phase.