Good food, for everyone, forever: funding through an agroecological lens
Working with The National Lottery Community Fund, the Food Ethics Council interviewed many people across the UK who are helping to reshape our food system, gaining insights that draw on both lived experience and professional expertise. We heard powerful ideas alongside urgent challenges, but one message came through again and again: environmental action cannot be separated from efforts to tackle food insecurity and poverty.
Most attempts to tackle food insecurity, environmental degradation and widening inequalities in the UK have been delivered through siloed funding streams and short-term interventions. Yet food sits at the intersection of all three. How food is grown, traded, accessed and eaten shapes health outcomes, community wealth and the resilience of our ecosystems. If we are serious about long-term change, funding approaches must embrace this interdependence, recognising that real progress only happens when these challenges are addressed together.
Maybe not surprisingly, our interviews, research and analysis led us to the recommendation to fund with the explicit aim of supercharging an agroecological food system. That’s because agroecology is a way of producing food that works with natural systems, supports healthy soils and ecosystems, and strengthens communities and local economies, rather than relying on short-term fixes.
The changes needed are complex, but at the heart of this work is a simple but powerful idea: good food, for everyone, forever (originated by food & farming expert and writer Colin Tudge).
“at the heart of this work is a simple but powerful idea: good food, for everyone, forever. ”
‘Good food’ is about more than calories. It means food that is nutritious, culturally appropriate and supports health and wellbeing. ‘For everyone’ means food that is accessible and affordable, while protecting dignity and ensuring fair livelihoods for the people who grow, process, transport and sell it. And ‘forever’ reminds us that food must be produced within nature’s limits, caring for land and water and contributing to a climate-safe future.
Agroecology provides a practical framework for turning these values into action. Drawing on well-established principles, such as those set out by the UN FAO, funders can assess proposals through a systems lens rather than focusing narrowly on outputs and outcomes, distinguishing between projects that only alleviate symptoms and those that address root causes. In funding terms, this means looking for work that is designed to create lasting change over time, rather than short-term activity alone.
Criteria to underpin this might ask: Does this work strengthen local food systems and shorten supply chains? Does it contribute to the right to food and uphold dignity for all, including people accessing food support? Does it take a preventive approach to food and climate injustice rather than a quick fix?
The National Lottery Community Fund brings extensive experience to this work. Over many years, it has supported communities and organisations in working together on environmental action, tackling complex challenges in ways that reflect local needs. This funding builds on that foundation and signals a clear ambition to support even bigger, longer-term solutions.
Two examples illustrate this powerfully: Bridging the Gap and Bang in Some Beans. Both are delivered through partnerships of organisations from different parts of the food system, with systemic aims that address environmental damage, tackle social and health inequalities, and create opportunities to build community wealth. These examples are illustrative and are not intended as a template for the only types of projects that could be supported.
Agroecology is about how food is grown and about expanding routes to market and improving people’s options. Lasting change will not come from insisting that individuals make better choices within a system stacked against them. Nor will it come from producing more food, however sustainably. Change happens when people are surrounded by better options: community food hubs, cooperatives, public diners, and community-supported agriculture that make healthy, sustainable food the norm.
Funding can play a catalytic role here by supporting transitions away from emergency food aid towards dignified, community-powered models, and by encouraging procurement practices that build local wealth. So, while emergency food support remains vital in the short-term and is supported elsewhere by The National Lottery Community Fund, this funding focuses specifically on addressing the longer-term structural issues that drive food insecurity in the first place.
Many grassroots organisations are already showing what is possible. Greater focus is needed on investing in the enabling conditions for change and replicating and spreading what is already working.
The National Lottery Community Fund has a unique and powerful opportunity to help lead in shaping this future. Through this funding, agroecological thinking can take root and grow, unlocking social and environmental benefits that reach far beyond food alone.
Everyone deserves the security of knowing where their next meal will come from, but to also have confidence that it is nutritious, affordable, and good for nature and the climate. While we are not there yet in the UK, this work offers a hopeful and practical pathway towards a fairer, healthier and more resilient food future.
By Beth Bell and Dan Crossley, Food Ethics Council
Click here to be taken to the National Lottery Community Fund website to find out more and apply for this funding.
Climate Action Fund – Food Systems Online Information Session
Tuesday 17th February 2026 – 1:00 – 2:15pm
This webinar by the National Lottery Community Fund will share information about the Climate Action Fund – Food Systems which launched on 14th January 2026. The session is for organisations and partnerships that meet eligibility requirements and are interested in applying for this funding.
Note: the Food Ethics Council were involved as consultants and advisors to this new fund, but any questions about this funding opportunity should be addressed directly to the National Lottery Community Fund team.