Author: Jennifer Allerton
Decorating the Magic Common Room in the Story Museum, the word “DETERMINATION” adorns an archway behind the panelists in the Emergent Generation Speakers Corner session on Reconnecting Town and Country. And it’s certainly a useful quality to have if you are someone trying to make your way into the world of food and farming without any previous connection to it.
I came into this session with a curiosity about what it is like to decide to be a farmer, and where to start once that thought first appears in your head. For Chloe Lucas, a paediatric nurse turned highland cattle farmer from Essex, the place to start was “anyone driving past in a tractor” – she would wave and flag them down as she was out walking her dog and start asking questions about how she could learn more about farming. Once she knew what she wanted, she went about finding out how to get there.
For a number of the speakers in this session, a conversation with a friendly stranger or a chance invitation to an event from a friend have led them down a path to where they are now. After returning from working in community gardens in Spain and Portugal, Stevie Beck got a message from a friend suggesting a trip to visit a local urban farm in Greenwich that she previously had no idea existed. That was Sitopia Farm, where Stevie now works as a Community Engagement Coordinator.
One of the themes that came across clearly to me as the panel were speaking was that of learners sharing their learning with others. Chloe started out during COVID-19 lockdowns asking “Where does my food come from? And why don’t I know?”, and once she started to learn asked “How can I bring my community along with me to understand the importance of food and farming?”. Similarly, Stevie recalls being asked once what her earliest memory of feeling connected to the natural world was and thinking, as someone who grew up in South London, of family trips “out to the country” to see bluebells in Surrey. Now she regularly speaks to school groups that visit the farm and gets to see them have early connections to nature, food and the land, only a few miles from their home.
When Sinead Fenton moved from London to rural East Sussex to take on a larger plot of land where she could grow organic edible flowers, there were things she learned that she hadn’t even anticipated. Experiencing resistance from the local community as a “townie” and an outsider, she said “I didn’t realise how long it would take to earn my place”. Now, she regularly engages in local community events, recognising the importance of these spaces for her neighbours.
The cycle of learning was continuing even as we sat there, these recent entrants into farming sharing all their lessons with us. Stevie told us of a conversation with a workshop participant learning about food systems and seasonal growing who asked “why don’t we know this?” – her response, which really resonated, was “someone is profiting from you not knowing.” We know that as a society our connection to our food is severely lacking. If we want to change this, we need “determination” to learn from each other and share what we learn so that we can rebuild connections, both to each other and to our land and our food.
About the author: Jen is a science and environment communicator, and a Youth Engagement Officer with Shropshire Wildlife Trust, born in Essex and based in Shrewsbury. In her work, she runs an Environmental Leadership Programme for 18-25 year olds in the West Midlands region, across extremes of rural and urban environments.
To learn more, check out this session in the ORFC archives.
Feeling inspired to share your ideas about new entrant farming and other real food and farming topics? Don’t miss your chance to submit a proposal or idea for ORFC 2027 – you can find out more by checking out our ORFC Session Submission Guide.