Reflections for Funders Considering a Field-Building Approach

This report shares key insights from the Farming the Future (FtF) Field Building Programme (FBP), which ran from Spring 2024 to Spring 2026. This experimental programme distributed funding to 20 partner organisations working across the UK food, farming and land movements, with the aim of strengthening their work and the movement as a whole, by enabling greater collaboration across three broad fields of activity (Networks of Supply, New Entrants to Agroecology and Just Access to Land)

This report captures what we learned. From how funding is designed and communicated, to how trust is built between diverse partners, the programme surfaced valuable insights about what it takes to resource a movement effectively.

Whether you're a funder, practitioner, or movement organiser, we hope these findings help shape approaches that are more equitable, more connected, and better suited to the scale of change our food and farming system needs.