How a Suffolk Agroforestry Farm Is Fighting to Stay in Community Hands
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📰 The quick summary: Wakelyns, a 56-acre Suffolk agroforestry farm that has spent over 30 years proving that farming can support biodiversity, community, and food production at once, is raising £1.2m to transition into community ownership and secure its future.
📈 One key stat: The UK government’s carbon delivery plan aims to convert 10% of farmland into agroforestry by 2050, making farms like Wakelyns a direct model for national agricultural policy.
💬 One key quote: “Wakelyns is an incredibly rare living laboratory. From a research perspective, it’s only 30 years old. It’s going to get more useful. If it goes, it will be such a loss,” said Carrie Phoenix, executive director of Natural Habitat.
1️⃣ The big picture: Wakelyns is a 56-acre agroforestry farm in Suffolk, England, that has operated since 1992 as a pioneering alternative to industrial agriculture. Founded by plant pathologist Martin Wolfe, it combines organic crop growing with rows of productive trees, hosting 10 micro enterprises and attracting farmers, schoolchildren, and researchers from across Europe. Unlike the monocultural farmland surrounding it, Wakelyns supports rare birds, diverse crops, and a thriving community of people working directly with the land. Now run by Martin’s son David Wolfe and his wife Amanda Illing, the farm must raise £1.2m to transfer into a charitable community benefit society, or risk being sold on the open market.
2️⃣ Why is this good news: Wakelyns proves that farming can simultaneously produce food, restore biodiversity, support livelihoods, and build community on the same piece of land. As the first commercial lentil grower in the UK and a model for agroforestry now embedded in national government policy, the farm offers a practical, replicable blueprint for regenerative agriculture at scale. Its network of micro enterprises shows that land can generate economic resilience without sacrificing ecological value, attracting farmers from the Netherlands and Ireland who are looking to learn. A successful transition to community ownership means this living model will be protected and accessible for generations of farmers, researchers, and children to learn from. With the UK government actively incentivizing agroforestry transitions, Wakelyns’ continued existence gives the country a proven, long-running example to point to.
3️⃣ What’s next: Wakelyns has launched a community share offer to raise the £1.2m needed to buy out the co-owner’s half of the farm and establish a charitable community benefit society. David Wolfe is donating his own share to the society, meaning public investment directly determines whether the farm survives in its current form. If the fundraising target is not met, the farm will need to be sold on the open market.
Read the full story here: The Guardian – ‘Living laboratory’: Suffolk agroforestry farm seeks community ownership to survive
