Sustainable Food Cornwall has secured funding for three years to continue and expand a programme helping farmers and growers to improve soil health, produce more local food and build resilience to climate change.
Funding from Cornwall National Landscape’s Farming in Protected Landscapes programme will enable SFC to develop its successful Joining the Dots initiative until March 2029. Since launching in 2025, Joining the Dots has supported community growing projects across Cornwall through habitat surveys, soil analysis and practical nature recovery projects.
The first phase has already delivered benefits for nature and food-growing communities, including: 238 new trees planted, 12 wildlife ponds created, 47 nest boxes installed and 844 perennial plants planted. Together, these interventions are creating more habitat and biodiversity while supporting healthier growing environments and helping farms and community growing spaces become more resilient to climate change.
The new funding will build on this work by expanding peer-to-peer learning between community growers and larger agroecological farms, launching an Agroecology in Education pilot linking local growers with three schools, and mapping the food system across parts of the Cornwall National Landscape, beginning in Penwith.
Sophie Bailey, Community Growing Development Worker at Sustainable Food Cornwall said, “Researching the different ways in which small scale horticulture can deliver disproportionate benefits to landscape protection, nature recovery and food production through modest interventions has been as inspirational as it has been informative. We are so grateful and excited to be able to build on the first phase of Joining the Dots to involve larger farms while continuing to support smaller growers who are excluded from other funding streams.”
Veronica, Coordinator at Camel CSA who participated in the first phase of Joining the Dots said “Over the last year we received invaluable support from SFC regarding soil testing which then led on to us joining an excellent workshop with Symbiosis Soil at Loveland. Following that, we were very grateful to receive funding for biochar to enable us to increase the microbiology, aeration, nutrient and water retention in our soil. Once we’d worked out how to inoculate it, we then held a workshop for our volunteers and applied it to 18 of our veg beds. So far we are very pleased with the results.
Among other things, we were also granted fencing to deer proof our fruit trees which has made a big difference to our orchard. We are very fortunate to be able to work with SFC as they are great to work with and always offer good advice and support.”
The expanded programme will also offer business development support to help community farms become more financially resilient while continuing to provide affordable, locally grown food. The schools’ pilot will give young people hands-on experience of growing food and understanding farming approaches that work with nature.
By connecting community growers, agroecological farms, schools and other organisations, Joining the Dots aims to strengthen Cornwall’s local food system — helping people share knowledge, improve land for nature and produce food in ways that are better equipped to respond to a changing climate.
Community growers, farms and organisations interested in taking part are encouraged to get in touch.
For community growing network and training enquiries:
Hetty Ninnis – [email protected]
For habitat surveys, school partnerships and project enquiries:
Sophie Bailey – [email protected]
Sustainable Food Cornwall is Cornwall’s food partnership working to make our food system better for the health, climate, nature, culture and economy of one and all.
A National Landscape, in law an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty AONB, is a designated exceptional landscape whose distinctive character and natural beauty have been deemed precious enough to be safeguarded in the national interest. They are protected under law with the same status as National Parks, and they look to protect, conserve and enhance these exceptional landscapes, to ensure they are managed to benefit present and future generations.
The Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme forms part of DEFRA’s national Agricultural Transition, but is delivered locally by a dedicated team at Cornwall National Landscape.
