What we’ve learned, where we’re going, and why it still matters.
Jan 03, 2026Over the past three years, My Little Farm has grown from an idea into a living experiment in community-owned food and land. That growth has not been linear. We've made progress, made mistakes, and learned - often the hard way. We now know what it truly takes to build something that can feed families across the country and endure.
What hasn’t changed is the reason we’re here.
Learning by doing and adjusting course
In the early days, our instinct was to try to build everything at once: food, land, community, systems, access, experience. We moved quickly, stretched ourselves thin, and discovered firsthand how complex it is to farm regeneratively while also building a member-owned organisation.
Those challenges were real and painful; practical, financial, legal, and human. But they gave us something invaluable: clarity.
We now understand that food must come first. Not as a product, but as a system that shapes everything else. That clarity has allowed us to simplify where needed, strengthen our structures, and define clearer relationships between land, members, farmers, and partners.
We haven’t stepped away from the vision. We’ve learned how to build it better.
The first foundation: Sussex
Our immediate objective is now clear and grounded:
to secure 1,000 acres of farmland in Sussex, held in community ownership, to provide food sovereignty for our first 1,000 Founding Member households.
This scale matters. It allows us to farm properly, plan responsibly, and support a diverse set of enterprises without compromising land health or people.
It also creates the conditions for something deeper to emerge:
the potential for our first Sovereign Village, where land, food, home, and community are woven back together.
This is not an abstract future. It is a practical, place-based foundation, built step by step.
A movement held by people, not promises
Today, our community includes 250 Founding Members and 250 Community Members. That’s not a metric to celebrate lightly. It represents hundreds of households choosing to step toward responsibility rather than convenience.
What makes this possible is not scale alone, it’s alignment.
This project only works if we hold the vision together. Not as spectators, and not as customers, but as participants in shaping a different future.
Ownership here is not about exclusivity or profit. It’s about responsibility and resilience.
It means taking care of the land, of each other, and of the systems we’re building so they can last beyond us.
The long view remains
100,000 acres of farmland in community ownership across the UK.
Food security for 100,000 households.
Access to land, food, and housing through Sovereign Villages.
Transferable membership that can be passed on.
A form of generational wealth measured in quality of life and resilience.
Over the next 30 years, our direction is unchanged. What has changed is our understanding of how to get there. More patiently, more clearly, and with structures that support the people doing the work.
This is still a movement of people choosing to take responsibility for their future.
That hasn’t changed. We’re simply building it with wiser hands now.
Thank you for standing with us. Not just in the idea, but in the reality of bringing it to life.