Question posed by @landworkersalliance
I was inspired to be a landworker to be part of the change.
I love food; cooking, growing, eating and sharing it! All things I could do in an allotment at the weekends or in my back garden (if I had one). I also benefit from all the time spent outdoors.
But the reason I want to do this at scale, to put all of my time and energy into it, is because I believe it is something I can do to increase my community’s resilience and food security in the future.
I am scared. We know that we’re seeing a mass extinction. That our climate is becoming increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather events more certain. Thinking this paralyses me. Getting out of my head and into my body helps.
We have seen the consequences of our domimant industrialised system’s extractive approach to food production. Soil erosion, degradation, biodiversity loss, resource depletion and climate change. I have also seen, thanks to the work of countless determined organic and agroecological peasants and farmers, that another way is possible. We can grow food in a way that nurtures our local wildlife and soils. Food that is nutritionally rich and delicious.
With Brexit, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine we are all feeling the impacts on our supply chain. We need to support local food production, so that we can weather any storm that comes our way. And to me that’s worth the financial uncertainty.