Food Systems in Common: Council Farms, Agroecological Food Sovereignty, and Public-Common Partnerships

This is a report about democratising Britain’s food system and producing good quality, nutritious and affordable food while repairing the country’s damaged ecosystems. The report proposes that local authorities, farmworkers and community groups should work together to implement public-common partnerships to ease a transition away from today’s socially and ecologically unsustainable food system towards ways of providing foods, fuels, and fibres that create abundance for all human and non-human life. 

The report claims that England’s council farm estate is an ideal starting point for a wider transformation of Britain’s food system away from ecologically destructive ‘conventional farming’ methods and towards socially and ecologically regenerative food systems rooted in the principles of food sovereignty. 

Key findings: 

• A transition towards agroecological food production is needed in Britain to meet biodiversity and climate targets.

• Britain’s food system transition must be part of a globally just green transition, which means it must be guided by the principles of food sovereignty rather than food security.

• Public-common partnerships are a suitable institutional form to build food sovereignty in Britain.

• England’s council farm estate should be repurposed to provide proof of concept of agroecological food sovereignty in Britain. 

• Agroecological food sovereignty, implemented through PCPs, provides numerous social and ecological benefits, including providing nutritious locally produced food, increased biodiversity, employment and training opportunities, ecological goods that can contribute to the green targets of local authorities, and a deepening of community democratic control.