The organization was founded on October 25, 1953, in Porac, Pampanga by Catholics with Christian democratic leanings, following the decline of communism in the Philippines.

[2] One of its founding members, Jeremias Montemayor, a lawyer,[3] developed an early plan for an agricultural cooperative organization called "Plows and Peace" which later developed into a plan for the organization.

[5] According to Roth, FFF was instrumental in passing a 1971 statute revising the government's approach to land reform.

[6] In October 1971, 500 farmers affiliated with FFF occupied land allocated Central Mindanao University.

[9] Crater argues that the basic aim of FFF in its early years was to ensure that every peasant farmer was "the owner of a family-size farm".