Blog Post

New Foundation Farms and 3LM join forces

Sheila Cooke • 14 November 2024

New Foundation Farms Ltd (NFF) and 5 Deep Limited (5 Deep) have come together to create an organisation that can support a scaled transformation to regenerative farming and land management. 

5 Deep’s 3LM division, which is the Savory Network hub for the UK and Ireland, will become part of NFF as will its Bart software platform. Christopher and Sheila Cooke will join NFF’s board of directors and Sheila will become a co-CEO of NFF.


NFF co-founder Mark Drewell says, “
This is about two organisations deciding to create greater impact by coming together. If the 20th century was all about competition and the green revolution focussed on yield powered by chemicals, the 21st century is all about collaboration and health: healthy food produced in healthy ecosystems by healthy farm businesses.”


3LM are leading experts in nature-based regenerative farming and land management. They have developed a powerful software system called Bart which digitises ecological health assessment and reporting. It is starting to be licensed around the world to other Savory hubs for
Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV). NFF brings skills in enterprise design, planning, development and finance to transform the food and farming sector. The two organisations are merging to combine ecological literacy with artificial intelligence in order to accelerate and scale the regeneration of soils through the production of food and fibre.


Commenting on the deal for 5 Deep, Christopher Cooke says, “We are delighted to  join forces with NFF. We have spent ten years developing 3LM and Bart to the point where we are ready to scale. The team at NFF are the right people for us to work with to make that happen. We share the ideals of mutuality, reciprocity, regeneration and abundance, and see the potential to move beyond incremental change to a new paradigm informed by holistic approaches to build better farming businesses.”


New Foundation Farms under the 3LM brand will continue to act as a Savory Institute partner servicing UK and Irish farming clients with the Savory Institute’s gold standard programmes of holistic management education and mentoring,
Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV), and Land to Market. NFF is injecting resources to support the growth of the existing business.


This deal, which has taken place for an undisclosed sum, is a sign of the growing maturity of regenerative agriculture businesses. It is one of the first examples of two companies combining forces through a corporate M&A integration.


“This is just the start”, says Drewell. “It’s about nature, health, resilience and sovereignty in our food system as a new foundation for a better world in which we humans can move from destroying the natural world, to being a positive keystone species that helps all life flourish on our planet.”


Contacts:


Mark Drewell

Co-CEO New Foundation Farms Ltd

md@newfoundationfarms.com 


Sheila Cooke

Co-CEO New Foundation Farms Ltd
3LM Hub Leader

sc@newfoundationfarms.com 



Background:


3LM, or Land and Livestock Management for Life, was developed as a business division and brand within 5 Deep Limited by Christopher and Sheila Cooke as the Savory Network Hub for the UK and Ireland from 2016.
www.3lm.network.


Watch this video to learn about the Bart system. 


New Foundation Farms Ltd was founded in 2019 to develop scalable interventions in food and farming .
www.newfoundationfarms.com

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