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.

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Trainings

Agroecology Training & Exchange Network

We are working to develop a UK wide agroecology training and exchange network between farmers, growers, forests and land-based workers practicing agroecological farming and land-management. This network is aimed at filling some of the gaps in training for agroecology as well as inspiring innovation and best practice by peer-to-peer learning and exchange.

See the calendar for upcoming events or contact your regional coordinator for groups in your area.

 

Farmer-to-Farmer Groups

Farmer-to-farmer groups create opportunities for low-cost peer-to-peer exchange. A number of groups have been set up around the country and we are working to develop more. Groups generally get together at the beginning of the year to decide on who will be hosting sessions and what topics they will look at. The groups then meet up at members farms on a monthly basis to explore the topics, share experiences and look at practical examples.

Farmer-to-Farmer groups are simple to organise and do not require significant running costs. They are an effective tool for sharing experiences and driving innovation and cooperation.

 

Mentoring

A mentoring relationship between experienced practitioners and new entrants in the first years of running a land-based enterprise is extremely valuable and can have a significant impact on the development of the business and the success of the new entrant. We are working to develop mentoring schemes that partner experienced practitioners with new entrants for farm visits and support in setting up enterprises and troubleshooting in the first years.

Information about mentoring opportunities will be accessible to LWA members as they become available

 

 

Traineeships

On-farm traineeships, where new entrants work alongside an experienced farmer, grower or forester for one or two seasons, are an important entry route into land-based work and play the role of an informal apprenticeship for many people.

We are working with members offering traineeships to improve the coherence of training provided and to group members in the same area together to provide collective delivery of theoretical elements to organise farm visits and exchanges. By doing this we aim to improve the training experience and ensure that the quality of training is high.

Farm Start Network

 

To help overcome some of the obstacles facing new entrants to farming, the Landworkers’ Alliance is working with member organisations running ‘farm-start’ and ‘farm-incubation’ projects around the UK to develop a network of best practice and encourage the development of new opportunities.

Farmstarts provide an important opportunity for people to test their farming and growing ideas in a protected environment, whilst building the knowledge, skills, confidence and experience to progress to their own farm or market garden. By providing access to land, markets, equipment and training, farmstarts take much of the financial risk and stress away from new entrants in the crucial early phases, allowing them to focus on working out what kind of business suits them best.

Farmstarts are an important entry route into farming, and fill a gap in opportunities for new entrants. For most people, taking on a farmstart opportunity will follow on from some form of training and on-farm work experience, and will give them a few years in which to test their ideas for real before making further steps to start their own business on long-term foundations.

To support the development of more farm start sites we have produced a guide and set of case studies to provide some best practice guidelines, based on the experiences of established organisations. Alongside this handbook we have established a network of farmstart organisations that can share experiences and support one another in the spirit of mutual aid and solidarity.

Resources:

Our guide to setting up a farmstart can be downloaded here

See the calendar for upcoming farm start events

Connect with organisations offering farm start opportunities in our forum

Seed Sovereignty Network

 

The Landworkers’ Alliance are working with other organisations to build a Seed Sovereignty Network in the UK. We aim to increase the production and distribution of UK grown, agroecological seed in order to improve the sustainability and resilience of farming and growing.

We organise trainings in on-farm seed growing and events to build relationships between farmers working with farm-saved agroecological seed.

See our calendar for upcoming events

 

Political Training and Movement Building

 

We organise trainings for groups of members to build skills and knowledge in influencing political decisions and policy making, and in organising and movement building.

Our political trainings are focused on building a stronger understanding of the history of agricultural policy and the ways in which political and policy decisions can be influenced. We aim to build members confidence in working with decision makers and the media.

Our movement building trainings are aimed at building skills in union organising, facilitating meetings and organising events, as well as understanding the history and objectives of the Landworkers’ Alliance.

See the calendar for upcoming events or contact us if you are interested in organising a training in your area.

 

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