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The UK’s only pooled fund for the food and farming transition.

About Us

Farming the Future exists to grow, strengthen and connect the UK’s agroecological movement. We are supporting an emerging food and farming system, one with a fairer economic model and stronger social fabric.

Farming the Future was co-founded in 2019 by the A Team Foundation and the Roddick Foundation to strengthen collaboration among organisations working towards a fair, sustainable and resilient post-Brexit farming system in the UK.

Since then, Farming the Future has grown into the UK’s only pooled fund and movement catalyst dedicated to accelerating the transition of UK farming and food systems.

Our work is rooted in trust-based philanthropy, relational giving, and shared power — embracing practices such as participatory grant-making and sociocracy to ensure transparency, inclusion, and collective impact.

To date, we have welcomed over 15 donor partners and distributed more than £3 million in funding to 100+ projects involving 130+ partner organisations.
We believe a just and thriving food future is possible when agroecology flourishes, power is shared, and everyone’s right to good food is upheld. As a collective of funders and members of the agroecology movement, we work to nurture the people, practices, and partnerships that make this transformation possible.

By deepening trust-based funding and fostering genuine collaboration, we help build a resilient, connected movement—one capable of shaping food systems that centre care, equity, and wellbeing. Together, we are creating the conditions for thriving communities, regenerative landscapes, and living economies where both people and the planet can flourish.
Rather than tweaking the practices of unsustainable farming systems, agroecology seeks to address the root causes of problems in a holistic way to create long-term solutions and transformation. This includes an explicit focus on the social and economic connections within food systems, as well as environmental wellbeing, including a focus on the rights of women, youth and marginalised peoples within these systems, fair livelihoods for farmers, democratic ownership of resources like land and seeds, and fair access to nutritious food for citizens.

It is a proven solution to building climate resilient livelihoods and food systems.

Together we have:

119 initiatives

Funded

140 partners

Supported

How we work

We are a funder intermediary and movement-building organisation, created by philanthropy and the agroecology movement we serve.

We listen and respond to the evolving needs of the agroecology movement, working collaboratively, innovatively, and with trust, while sharing our learning across the sector.
We work with movement leaders to resource and build the infrastructure, partnerships, and capacity that connect and sustain the agroecology movement.
We connect funders with impactful initiatives, ensuring resources reach where they are most needed, while advocating for long-term, aligned investment in agroecological transformation.

Funded Collaborations

Our Vision

Co-initiated by the A Team Foundation and the Roddick Foundation in 2019, Farming the Future is the UK’s only pooled fund and movement catalyst dedicated to accelerating the transition for UK farming and food systems.

Together with our network, we are growing a future in which agroecology flourishes, power is shared, and the right to good food is upheld for all. Together, we are supporting the people and practices that make this transformation possible.

We are working for a world where farming plays a regenerative role - environmentally, economically and socially - where biodiversity thrives, local economies are resilient, and food producers are recognised and valued. Through collaboration, care and courage, this vision is not only possible - it is already unfolding.

Farming the Future funds collaborations to build a fairer and healthier food and farming system.

We support connection, relationship building and convening as well as partnerships, networks and campaigns which lay the vital groundwork for resilient, democratic food systems.

Our partners’ work has spanned strengthening supply chain networks and building seed sovereignty to organising migrant worker rights alliances and amplifying youth voices in farm knowledge exchanges, as well as bold policy campaigns to shift the dial on damaging practices. What inspires us most is the collective energy and innovation these collaborations embody - rooted in care for land, community, justice and nature.

Together, we are weaving an alternative food system which is diverse, regenerative, inclusive and grounded in care and equity.

See all our funded collaborations.

What We Fund

Our values serve as the foundation for collective action, mobilising diverse hearts and hands to champion change across food and farming.

Participatory

Our Ambassadors shape our funding strategy and are the sole decision-makers for funding decisions.

Collaborative

Lasting change is rooted in connection. We fund partnerships, convenings and collective action.

Responsive

We listen deeply, adapt to emerging needs and shape our strategy in dialogue with the movement.

Accountable

Our Ambassadors - embedded in agroecology and food sovereignty - guide our decisions with wisdom and lived experience.

Relational

Strong relationships are the soil in which the movement grows. We nurture connection and care.

Everyone has the right to good, nourishing food and the right to participate fully in the food system.
Farmers, growers and producers are central to our future and should have safe, healthy work conditions and fair pay.
People should be able to access and participate in stewarding the means of production - e.g. land, seeds, tenure, water - and financial capital - e.g. low cost loans and crowdfunding.
Diversity is essential to the resilience of ecosystems, communities and ideas. All voices should be valued and included in the food and farming movement through active outreach and equitable opportunities to participate and share knowledge.
Just as farmers nourish their soil, their produce should nourish communities through local supply networks that strengthen food resilience and connection.

What We Believe

Participatory

Our Ambassadors shape our funding strategy and are the sole decision-makers for funding decisions.

Collaborative

Lasting change is rooted in relationships. We fund partnerships, convenings and collective action.

Responsive

We listen deeply, adapt to emerging needs and shape our strategy in dialogue with the movement.

Accountable

Our Ambassadors - embedded in agroecology and food sovereignty - guide our decisions with wisdom and lived experience.

Relational

Strong relationships are the soil in which the movement grows. We nurture connection and care.

Our values serve as the foundation for collective action, mobilising diverse hearts and hands to champion change across food and farming.

01 The Right to Food

Everyone has the right to good, nourishing food and the right to participate fully in the food system.

02 Dignified Livelihoods

Farmers, growers and producers are central to our future and should have safe, healthy work conditions and fair pay.

03 Equitable Access to Resources

People should be able to access and participate in stewarding the means of production - e.g. land, seeds, tenure, water - and financial capital - e.g. low cost loans and crowdfunding.

04 Diverse Representation

Diversity is essential to the resilience of ecosystems, communities and ideas. All voices should be valued and included in the food and farming movement through active outreach and equitable opportunities to participate and share knowledge.

05 Flourishing Local Food Systems

Just as farmers nourish their soil, their produce should nourish communities through local supply networks that strengthen food resilience and connection.

Our Guiding Principles

Our beliefs articulate the systemic change we seek — food and farming systems that are resilient, regenerative, and rooted in fairness for people and the planet.

Everyone has the right to good, nourishing food and the right to participate fully in the food system.
Farmers, growers and producers are central to our future and should have safe, healthy work conditions and fair pay.
People should be able to access and participate in stewarding the means of production e.g. land, seeds, tenure, water, and financial capital e.g. low cost loans and crowdfunding.
Diversity is essential to the resilience of ecosystems, communities and ideas. All voices should be valued and included in the food and farming movement through active outreach and equitable opportunities to participate and share knowledge.
Just as farmers nourish their soil, their produce should nourish communities through local supply networks that strengthen food resilience and connection.

How We Work

Participatory

Our Ambassadors shape our funding strategy and are the sole decision-makers for funding decisions.

Collaborative

Lasting change is rooted in relationships. We fund partnerships, convenings and collective action.

Responsive

We listen deeply, adapt to emerging needs and shape our strategy in dialogue with the movement.

Accountable

Our Ambassadors - embedded in agroecology and food sovereignty - guide our decisions with wisdom and lived experience.

Relational

Strong relationships are the soil in which the movement grows. We nurture connection and care.

Our
People

Ambassadors

We work alongside a group of visionary leaders from across the food and farming sector - people deeply rooted in agroecology, food sovereignty, and justice.

With strong commitments to collaboration and movement building, our Ambassadors help shape our funding strategy and decide who we fund - helping us shift power and stay accountable to the communities we serve.

Deidre ‘Dee’ Woods is a food & farming actionist, Landworkers Alliance coordinating group member, and co-founder of Granville Community Kitchen in NW London. Dee is at the heart of holding Government and the regenerative farming movement to account by ensuring that social justice, racial equality, and gender parity, is engrained within the food system.

Dee Woods

Granville Community kitchen

Jo (they/she) is a commercial food grower and political organiser mobilising on anti-oppression and liberatory work within the agroecology movement. They have a background in decolonial research and organising towards racial justice. They are a co-director of compost and soil cooperative Compost Mentis, and are currently growing food at an agroecological vegetable farm in Hampshire.

Jo Kamal

Commercial Food Grower and Political Activist

Julie is Director of Growing Communities: a London-based social enterprise set up in 1996. Their box scheme, farmers’ market, urban farms, wholesale arm (Better Food Shed), and an expanding network of Better Food Traders work to transform food and farming through community-led trade. She sits on the Bridging the Gap programme board, the LEAP investment committee and is active in the Fruit and Veg Alliance.

Julie Brown

Growing Communities

Sean is the executive director of Organic North- a Manchester-based wholesaler of fresh produce and wholefoods. Organic North support hundreds of growers, both domestically and internationally and their driving ambition is to help make organic food as accessible and affordable as possible. Sean is also active within the Fruit and Veg Alliance and is a long-standing member of the Manchester Food Board who look to offer strategic leadership on how food can be used to bring about positive, meaningful and lasting societal change.

Sean Ruffell

Organic North

Clare is a social artist, urban farmer and cook who co-directs food and arts community organisation Squash, rooted in Liverpool 8. Clare is committed to effecting positive participatory change in her neighbourhood and beyond, through community-lead regenerative urban agriculture, arts & design and enterprise. Clare’s work is centred on Squash’s seasonal programme of land-based, creative participation, and the ‘100-Year Street’, a nature-lead, long-term community design plan.

Clare Owens

Squash Liverpool

I'm a farmer reimagining my practices and place within our food system. I’m an advocate for agroecology. Why should we ‘turn here for nature, continue straight for everything else’? I love the productivity found between binaries, from which a more beautiful, complex and diverse food system emerges. A human scale system in which trust, relationships and community are the currency.

Fred Price

Grower

We work alongside a group of visionary leaders from across the food and farming sector - people deeply rooted in agroecology, food sovereignty, and justice. With strong commitments to collaboration and movement building, our Ambassadors help shape our funding strategy and decide who we fund - helping us shift power and stay accountable to the communities we serve.

Dee Woods

Granville Community kitchen

Deidre ‘Dee’ Woods is a food & farming actionist, Landworkers Alliance coordinating group member, and co-founder of Granville Community Kitchen in NW London. Dee is at the heart of holding Government and the regenerative farming movement to account by ensuring that social justice, racial equality, and gender parity, is engrained within the food system.

Abby Rose

Vidacycle & Farmerama Radio

Abby is a farmer, physicist and soil health advocate. She co-founded Vidacycle Tech, who develop observation-focused apps like Soilmentor, to help build ecology, profitability and beauty on farms around the world. She is also the co-creator of Farmerama Radio, an award-winning podcast sharing the voices behind regenerative farming.

Jo Kamal

Commercial Food Grower and Political Activist

Jo (they/she) is a commercial food grower and political organiser mobilising on anti-oppression and liberatory work within the agroecology movement. They have a background in decolonial research and organising towards racial justice. They are a co-director of compost and soil cooperative Compost Mentis, and are currently growing food at an agroecological vegetable farm in Hampshire.

Josiah Meldrum

Hodmedods

Josiah is the CEO of Hodmedods, a business that works with British farmers to produce and market pulses and grains. Hodemedods are advocates of short and transparent supply chains for food system resilience and safety. It’s is Josiah’s belief that creating more diverse farming systems and diets are key to a healthier and more sustainable future.

Julie Brown

Growing Communities

Julie is Director of Growing Communities: a London-based social enterprise set up in 1996. Their box scheme, farmers’ market, urban farms, wholesale arm (Better Food Shed), and an expanding network of Better Food Traders work to transform food and farming through community-led trade. She sits on the Bridging the Gap programme board, the LEAP investment committee and is active in the Fruit and Veg Alliance.

Sean Ruffell

Organic North

Sean is the executive director of Organic North- a Manchester-based wholesaler of fresh produce and wholefoods. Organic North support hundreds of growers, both domestically and internationally and their driving ambition is to help make organic food as accessible and affordable as possible. Sean is also active within the Fruit and Veg Alliance and is a long-standing member of the Manchester Food Board who look to offer strategic leadership on how food can be used to bring about positive, meaningful and lasting societal change.

Clare Owens

Squash Liverpool

Clare is a social artist, urban farmer and cook who co-directs food and arts community organisation Squash, rooted in Liverpool 8. Clare is committed to effecting positive participatory change in her neighbourhood and beyond, through community-lead regenerative urban agriculture, arts & design and enterprise. Clare’s work is centred on Squash’s seasonal programme of land-based, creative participation, and the ‘100-Year Street’, a nature-lead, long-term community design plan.

Fred Price

Grower

I'm a farmer reimagining my practices and place within our food system. I’m an advocate for agroecology. Why should we ‘turn here for nature, continue straight for everything else’? I love the productivity found between binaries, from which a more beautiful, complex and diverse food system emerges. A human scale system in which trust, relationships and community are the currency.

Core Team

Meet the people who bring Farming the Future’s mission to life.

Bonnie Hewson

Director

Bonnie brings extensive experience in building community power and advancing fairer food systems at both local and national levels. She has contributed to the development of initiatives including the Real Farming Trust’s Loans Enlightened Agriculture Programme, the Community Supported Agriculture Network, Bristol Food Producers, and London’s first Capital Growth project. Bonnie is passionate about connecting people across different parts of the food system and enabling resources to flow with trust, supporting those working to create a more equitable and resilient food system for all. She takes a holistic approach, understanding that systemic change emerges when people, communities, and resources are aligned and working together.

Ashley Erdman

Head of Programmes

Ashley joins Farming the Future with a background in social and environmental justice campaigning. She brings experience on a range of issues including challenging corporate power, food systems, right to water, international debt, gender, and climate justice. Prior to joining Farming the Future, she was the Research Lead for the Public Interest Research Network (PIRC) helping social movements create effective narratives for change. She is particularly interested in taking a holistic and systemic approach to creating change, understanding that everything connects and we are far more effective when we work together.

Bonnie brings extensive experience in building community power and advancing fairer food systems at both local and national levels. She has contributed to the development of initiatives including the Real Farming Trust’s Loans Enlightened Agriculture Programme, the Community Supported Agriculture Network, Bristol Food Producers, and London’s first Capital Growth project. Bonnie is passionate about connecting people across different parts of the food system and enabling resources to flow with trust, supporting those working to create a more equitable and resilient food system for all. She takes a holistic approach, understanding that systemic change emerges when people, communities, and resources are aligned and working together.

Bonnie Hewson

Director

Ashley joins Farming the Future with a background in social and environmental justice campaigning. She brings experience on a range of issues including challenging corporate power, food systems, right to water, international debt, gender, and climate justice. Prior to joining Farming the Future, she was the Research Lead for the Public Interest Research Network (PIRC) helping social movements create effective narratives for change. She is particularly interested in taking a holistic and systemic approach to creating change, understanding that everything connects and we are far more effective when we work together.

Ashley Erdman

Head of Programmes