After almost a century of industrialised agriculture, we’ve found ourselves in a precarious position. We’ve ended up with a food and farming system based on just a few varieties of specialised crops and animals; but with this specialisation comes great risk. Now, in the face of intersecting environmental crises – from global warming to soil degradation and biodiversity loss – we need to (re) build diversity to build resilience. This session will hear from landworkers, food-makers and seed savers who are working to revive agrobiodiversity from the grassroots – in our fields and orchards, on our plates and in our guts, and in the soils, ecosystems and communities that sustain us.

2. ORGANISING FOR MIGRANT WORKERS’ JUSTICE IN THE UK

Thursday 4th January 2024, 1pm-1.45pm

Speakers: Catherine McAndrew

Last year, in collaboration with other labour rights and farming organisations, the Landworkers’ Alliance produced a report looking into the structural drivers of labour exploitation in the UK’s industrial horticulture sector, and how supermarkets are reaping the rewards of this exploitation. The report revealed how the new UK seasonal worker immigration scheme is facilitating worker exploitation, and provided workers with a platform to recount their experiences of both abuse and resistance. In this session, Landworkers’ Alliance’s Catherine McAndrew will present the findings of this report and put forward a course of action for improving working conditions in British farming.

Chair: Dee Woods. Speakers: Sofía Monsalve Suárez, Yali Banton-Heath, Daniel Stanley, Courtney Scott

2023 saw food prices in the UK skyrocket. Combined with a spike
in energy prices, the cost of living for families across the UK rose dramatically, pushing countless families deeper into poverty. Meanwhile, supermarkets continued to generate enormous profits. Hiding behind a cost-of-living smokescreen, they hiked up their prices and handed out billions in shareholder profits, all the while attempting to persuade us that price increases are an inevitable result of factors outside of their control. Are we living in a cost-of-living crisis? Or a more entrenched corporate greed crisis? Join our panellists to explore the ways in which we can inform public understanding about the entrenched corporate control of our food systems, what can be done to change the narrative around food inequality, and how we can begin to place the blame firmly at the door of those at the top of the supply chain.

The UK imports 85% of its fruit and 43% of its vegetables. Countries we import from are already experiencing the impacts of climate change, while financial pressures are causing UK growers to leave the sector. Yet, across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, market gardens are attracting new entrants, supplying local communities, integrating productive systems with biodiversity, sequestering carbon and engaging with the public.

This session will launch the LWA’s new report ‘Horticulture across Four Nations’, which explores the contribution that agroecological horticulture could make to reducing our reliance on imports and building a more resilient, fresh produce sector. Growers featured in the illustrative case studies in the report will speak about how they are contributing to making this vision a reality, and what their respective governments could do to help.

6. BUILDING A GLOBAL PEASANTS MOVEMENT: 10 YEARS OF LWA AND 30 YEARS OF LVC

Friday 5th January 2023, 11am-12.30pm

Speakers: Jyoti Fernandes, Morgan Ody, Anders Behrend, Chukki Nanjundaswamy

As food and agriculture became globalised, peasant organisations from the Global North and South came together and founded the global peasants’ movement, La Via Campesina (LVC), in 1993. La Via Campesina is now over 30 years old, unifies over 200 million peasants around the globe and comprises of over 180 member organisations. It continues amplifying the voices of peasants worldwide, fostering solidarity among diverse communities, inspiring hope and advocating for just and inclusive food systems. Ten years ago a new member organisation of LVC has been founded in the UK: the Landworkers’ Alliance, a union of farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers. Panellists in this session will explain how the peasants movement works and manages to build unity within such a big diversity.