Landworkers’ Alliance South-East and Community Food GrowerS Network Urban-Rural Connection Event 10th October 2022
Community Food Grower’s Network London
Organised By: Facilitated with support from: Resisting, Learning, Growing
On 10th September Community Food Growers Network (CFGN) and Landworkers’ Alliance South East (LWA SE) came together to run an event at Devil’s Lane Market Garden, Liphook, exploring urban rural connections.
Around 30 people attended the event. Some were CFGN members, some LWA members, some were members of both, and some were interested in joining and getting more involved.
The theme of urban rural connection was explored through thinking about resources, care, collaboration across movements, and practical forms of cooperations across urban rural boundaries.
An important aim of the event was also to make organisational decisions regarding the collaboration between the two groups and the definition of the LWA SE group in relation to London.
This summary zine provides an overview of the sessions and the decisions we came to.
Initial Landing Session and Welcome circle
We began the day sat in a circle under a tarp we’d strung up between trees that morning After a grounding exercise and short welcome, we shared the purpose of the day: to energise both groups, strengthen the collaboration between them, and build stronger connections between urban and rural food systems as well as wider movements.
We gathered the veg people had brought for our collective soup in the middle. Finally, we each reflected on our intention for the day through a ritual using winter broad beans to represent power and potential.
LUNCH!
We had a delicious lunch of soup prepared by April at Ed’s Veg using all of the veg that people had brought. Vegan and cheese scones were also brought by a local baker and Ed offered a tour of his farm during the lunchbreak.
The aim of this session was to continue conversations about the collaboration between LWA SE and CFGN and the structure of LWA with respect to London and the South-East.
Everyone was first asked to share what they loved about organising in urban and rural areas. We then discussed concerns about collaboration.
The first part of the proposal was to merge LWA London and LWA SE, as LWA London wasn’t active. This would then mean LWA SE would continue their collaboration with CFGN to ensure both urban and rural members of LWA were supported and to strengthen both groups by connecting up urban and rural food systems organising.
We did a spectrum line and unanimously agreed to merge LWA London and LWA SE.
We then discussed how we could turn our concerns into criteria for an amazing collaboration between the two groups.
Session 1: Opening up a Space
for Urban and Rural Collaboration
Session 2: Parallel Sessions
LWA Horticulture Campaign ‘Growing the Goods’
The aim of this workshop was to share the vision for what the LWA Horticulture Campaign is aiming to achieve, update members on progress, and inspire grower members to support the campaign. The workshop began with a visioning exercise to imagine the food system of 2035. Bee then described the advocacy work she has been doing on behalf of agroecological growers over the last four years. She highlighted the opportunity that the Horticulture Strategy for England provides for us to make the case for agroecological growers to have a greater role in growing fruit and vegetables for to meet UK demand.
Rebecca Laughton Hari BylesLWA Horticulture Campaign ‘Growing the Goods’
Mapping a needs-based Resource Flow System in the South-East
Hannah Leigh Mackie
Active Hope: How do we face the mess We’re In
Mapping a needs-based resource flow systems in the SE
This session asked: What resources do we have available to us already amongst our networks? and what do we need in order to thrive as a collective and as individuals?
Through group discussion they identified a diverse range of resources available and also a diverse range of needs. They started thinking about ways to connect that up using platforms but also through physical spaces to connect people up
Active Hope: How do we face the mess we’re in?
This session takes its name from the book ‘Active Hope’ by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. It offered a space for participants to process and hold feelings of grief, anger, numbness, fear, and anything other responses they had to the many unfolding injustices of the climate crisis.
The group reflected that an important part of political transformative work is to share common ground of the pain and trauma of living in the world right now and that can actual be useful and resourcing by doing it together.
Session 3: Parallel Sessions
Creating Practical Urban Rural Connections
We decided on three topics which were developed in breakout groups:
• Getting food into London to reach social justice projects, use existing distribution networks
• Farm tours between urban and rural, models and toolkits for farm tours, communicating farm tours between groups.
• Resource mapping and library of things, database that maps available spaces and things considering, high tech and low tech models, also needs and speculative how we want to reimagine use of resources.
Building Solidarity Across Movements
In this session, participants discussed how they could work together across movements, and the different roles that rural and urban landbased projects might play in this. Global Women’s Strike joined to speak about their work, including the campaign for a care income, and their work with natural farmers in Andhra Pradesh.
Care was a central theme in the discussion, seen to connect to everything and all the work different projects do Care income or expanding the way we see care to all kinds of transformative justice work and land work.
Nicki Carter + Global Women’s Strike
Creating Practical Urban-Rural Connections Building Solidarity across Movements
Resisting, Learning, Growing
Harvesting/Closing Circle
We wrapped up the day by hearing from all of the sessions throughout the day. We then finished by returning to our initial intentions through another ritual, this time focusing the energy of our collective intentions into our broad beans which were then returned to be split between Ed’s Veg and a growing project in London to be planted in the winter. This represented the nourishing and growth of our collective intentions over the coming months to create beautiful, equitable and powerful urban rural collaborations
Dinner
After a full and long day of session we were served an incredible bounty of food. An incredible Greek inspired feast cooked by Ed’s cousin followed by singing around a campfire late into the night.