The Landworkers’ Alliance is a union of farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers.

Feedback for us

If you have any comments, critiques, considerations, compliments, complaints, about anything the Landworkers Alliance is or isn’t up to, do let us know your thought. We love feedback, it keeps a system healthy. Please fill in this quick form.

Membership / Supporter / Donation Queries

Please contact Lauren.Simpson@landworkersalliance.org.uk

Requests for work, volunteering or internships

We are currently not recruiting for any roles but please read our newsletters for any announcements. We currently do not offer any volunteer or internship placements directly with the LWA, but keep an eye out in the newsletter or on the forum for any members looking for volunteers or workers.

Academic/Research Enquiries

Please look at the Agroecology Research Collaboration to see if it fits your area of research/work.

Membership Support / Advice

Currently the LWA does not have capacity or resources to help individual members or potential members on their specific projects, farms or programmes. We get a lot of requests for individual support and would love to have the time to respond to each request in full. We are fundraising for a new role for somebody to focus on membership support and services as we have identified it is a gap in our offering so please watch this space. Having said that, if your query is critical and urgent please email info@landworkersalliance.org.uk including the word URGENT in the subject header and it will get picked up and we can try our best to help.

Contacting Individual Staff

Please take the time to explore our staff page here to see who the most relevant contact for your enquiry is.

Our addresses format is firstname.lastname@landworkersalliance.org.uk

Please bear in mind we all work part time and have limited capacity to respond to enquiries outside our core areas of work.

You can also find information under the About Us header about branch and regional organising, and identity groups within the LWA membership.

Press/Media Enquiries:

For any queries relating to press please email press@landworkersalliance.org.uk

Merchandise/calendar Enquiries

For any enquiries to do with shop sales including the calendar please email merchandise@landworkersalliance.org.uk

To Include an Item in Our Newsletter:

You can fill in this quick form to submit it to be included in the next bulletin/newsletter. The deadline to submit is the end of Friday each week for the following week’s member bulletin. With the same form you can also submit to the monthly non-member newsletter which goes out in the first week of the month.

All Other Enquiries:

For any other enquiries that are URGENT please email info@landworkersalliance.org.uk with the word ‘urgent’ in the subject header and we will do our best to help.

Follow Us

Join us as a Member

Join our union of farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers to build a future where everybody can access local, healthy, affordable food, fuel and fibre from producers they can trust.

Benefits of membership include:

A Voice in your Union

Your participation shapes the future of the union. We are member-led and welcome involvement.

 

Business Help

We work with members to provide the resources to help overcome business obstacles.

 

Networks & Solidarity

Members build community through local and national events and online networks.

 

Training and Exchange

Members benefit from discounted and free mentoring, skillshare and traineeship opportunities.

 

Media and Communications

Members benefit from access to news, updates and opportunities, as well as opportunities to boost profile through our comms platforms.

 

Campaigning and Lobbying

We lobby all levels of government to improve the livelihoods of our members through proposals shaped by our membership.

 

Benefits from our Partners

Receive online discounts and benefits from our partners e.g. a discount with Permanent Publications when you join as a member

 

Why join the Landworkers’ Alliance?

As a member of the Landworkers’ Alliance you will be part of a dynamic, fast growing UK wide union and social movement that is working to improve your livelihood and create a better food and land-use system for everyone.
We are an independent, democratic and member-led union, run by producers for producers. All our policies, representation and training comes from farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers who have direct experiences of the issues we work on. This means you can trust that people representing understand your experiences and that you can influence our proposals and policies.
As well as working on the policy details to improve the situations of our members right now, we also have a bigger vision of a future where people can work with dignity to earn a decent living and everyone can access local, healthy and affordable food, fuel and fibre. We want to create a food and land-use system based on agroecology, food sovereignty and sustainable forestry that furthers social and environmental justice.

 

Who can join the Landworkers’ Alliance?

Membership of the Landworkers’ Alliance is open to individuals, partnerships, groups and organisations who support the principles of Food Sovereignty  and are actively engaged, or seeking to become engaged in farming, growing, forestry or other land-based work, including land-based crafts, conservation work, community landwork, food processing and retail. We welcome all members, young or old, experienced or new entrants from anywhere in England, Wales (Cymru), Scotland and Northern Ireland.
If you are not sure whether you are eligible for membership, have a look at our full membership criteria.
If you want to support our work but are not actively engaged in land-based work you can join us as a supporter or make a donation.

Membership of the Landworkers’ Alliance is open to individuals, groups and organisations in the UK that are engaged in landwork in any of the below sectors as part of earning their living. Plus any new entrant landworkers that are seeking landwork or access to land. By joining as a member you are committing to the principles of Food Sovereignty and Agroecology.

  • Agroforestry
  • Arable (grain, pulses, fibre)
  • Bees
  • Community landwork (e.g. working with people/volunteers in community gardens)
  • Conservation
  • Crafts (using materials from the land e.g woodturning, weaving, dying)
  • Crofting
  • Fisheries and aquaculture
  • Horticulture (herbs and flowers, seeds, soft fruit, top fruit, vegetables)
  • Livestock
  • Mushrooms
  • Processing
  • Retail (short local supply chain)
  • “We feel that the Land Workers Alliance is a hugely important part of building a sustainable food movement in the UK. It not only provides information and support to a body of people (farmers, growers, woodland and land workers) who often work in isolation, but represents and gives a voice to this largely under represented group of people. We are very grateful to the Land Workers Alliance for both your hard work and your inspiration.”
    LWA Member, Perthshire
  • “I cannot express enough the importance of the Landworkers Alliance – not only because of the support it offers small scale growers like myself and other family farms. But because it strikes right at the heart of all that is wrong with our global food system whilst offering very real and positive solutions.”
    LWA Member, Ceredigion
  • “I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I'd been having doubts about carrying on with all of it over the last couple of years. Post planning angst burnout, coupled with the sheer relentlessness of it all, and just overdoing things in general. Being part of LWA and associated activities has really helped with that. To reinvigorate, revalidate, and just to get amongst people who can reflect back, "yeah this is worthwhile work to do; you're not completely nuts".
    LWA Member, Devon

How do I sign up?

Just click on the boxes above to join as an individual, partnership or group. Alternatively, if you are not a landworker or aspiring landworker, Join us as a supporter by clicking on the supporters page.

How do I cancel my membership?

You can cancel your membership at any time by emailing our Membership Secretary on lauren.simpson@landworkersalliance.org.uk

What is La Via Campesina?

La Via Campesina is the global umbrella organisation of peasant, small-scale farmer and agricultural workers unions. It currently represents over 200 million producers through around 200 member organisations.

Who can be a member?

Membership is open to individuals, partnerships, groups and organisations who support the principles of Food Sovereignty and Agroecology and are actively engaged (or seeking work) in farming, growing, forestry and land-based work, including land-based crafts and food processing. See the yellow box above for a fuller list of landwork sectors.

When was the LWA established?

The LWA was founded in 2012 by a small group of farmers, growers and land-based workers’ who were frustrated by the lack of representation of small-medium scale agroecological producers in the UK.

What is Food Sovereignty?

Food Sovereignty is a framework for localised, equitable and ecological food systems that puts those who produce and consume food at the cente of decision making. You can find out more on the What We Stand For page of our website.

Will I be tied into a contract?

Your membership will automatically renew every year unless you choose to cancel your membership.

How big is the LWA?

The LWA is growing fast and currently represents over 2400 farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers around the UK.

What is Agroecology?

Agroecology is a framework for describing the knowledge and practices of food producers working in resilient and sustainable food and land-use systems. You can find out more on the What We Stand For page of our website.

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