The People's Food Summit 2022

On a chilly Friday in September, a group of 150 landworkers, food justice advocates, activists, volunteers and food lovers huddled together around the fire for the opening ceremony of the People’s Food Summit 2022. 

Attendees had travelled from Edinburgh, Cardiff, Portsmouth, London, Liverpool and more, gathering in a secluded spot in the Gloucestershire countryside with idyllic views across the county and the Malvern hills. 

We had come to feed ideas into the food sovereignty movement, broaden the base of those organising within it, build community, learn, and share food together. To facilitate this, the programme involved a three-part movement building workshop series with Navigate, system change games, as well as panel discussions on narratives and myths around food in the UK and on how to build a decolonial food sovereignty movement. We had speakers and workshop organisers from War on Want, the Future Narratives Lab, This is Rubbish, the Royal Veterinary College, the Urban Agriculture Consortium, the Landworkers Alliance, Friends of the Earth and the UK Youth Climate Coalition.  

On the Friday, we came together for a fire-side opening ceremony, a wonderful sit-down meal provided by Two Trees Catering, and drumming and singing workshops by the fire. We kicked off the Saturday with the first workshop from Navigate on visioning the movement we want to see, and with a session on organising for the Cardiff Good Food Good Farming demonstration which took place on October 15th. 

The rest of the day involved the panel discussions, an artist-led workshop on Viable Agri-Cultures and the second part of the Navigate series, exploring what challenges and blocks hold us back from being part of the movement we want to see, and how they can be transformed into seeds of possibility – scroll to the bottom of this page for some beautifully illustrated visual notes!

That evening, we also enjoyed an amazing performance by Three Acres and a Cow, who retold an alternative history of land rights in folk song and story. The Sunday involved the last of the Navigate workshops, focusing on what next steps were needed, alongside an incredible session with the London Freedom Seed Bank on linking food and seed sovereignty for just food futures.

Throughout the weekend, what struck most was the incredible array of people in attendance. There were those who had never been to a food sovereignty related event before, sitting alongside founding members of the UK food sovereignty movement, as well as those who were currently actively involved in campaigning on these topics day to day. It made clear that in order to reignite an anti-oppressive food sovereignty movement, everyone is needed, from all walks of life, all generations, all regions and all levels of experience and involvement. In fact, we cannot build a true resistance movement without this diversity, meaning our food sovereignty work must branch out beyond landworkers and reach more people than have ever been reached before.

In order to start reaching out to more people and action our learnings, some of our next steps for reigniting the food sovereignty movement involve exploring our theories of change, seeking a more in-depth understanding of the narratives that exist around food in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and building stronger alliances with the organisations we connected with for the summit on longer-term campaigning work towards food sovereignty. 

Most of all, we are excited to note that the People’s Food Summit is in no way the end of this movement-building work – in fact, we are only at the beginning. To get more involved, or tell us where you think we should go next, you can email jo.kamal@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk or follow the links below for more resources. 

Resources

• Panel discussion recording – What narratives exist around food in the UK, and how do we dispel them? – People’s Food Summit 2022 – YouTube 
• Panel discussion recording – How do we build a decolonial food sovereignty movement? – People’s Food Summit 2022 – YouTube
• Here is a drop box link with some of the powerpoints, photos, and visual notes from the weekend – please email jo.kamal@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk for credits.
• You can also sign up to the Food In Our Hands mailing list here: Landworkers’ Alliance (list-manage.com) and keep up to date with the Landworkers’ Alliance and Food In Our Hands Instagram pages.