May 15, 20192 min read

Farming the Future: a collaborative and funded vision

We stand upon the precipice of great change for food and farming in the UK. It is time to act anew and work together to replace our outdated industrial food system for one built on equity, harmony and compassion, while renewing our relationship with the land and those that feed us. The only way this will happen is if we work together, in unison, as a movement.

Founded by The A Team Foundation and the Roddick Foundation, with support by Be The Earth Foundation, the fund supports a culture of collaboration between key organisations and individuals working to create a better food system within the UK. With the system’s thinking expertise of The Point People, invitations were sent to 40 NGOs and individuals to workshop systemic change.

We want to understand the Movement’s current needs and dreams and foster co-creative solutions from those involved. We see this as a vital step to bring into manifestation a system which is fully inclusive of all life and is built from the ground up.

In April, we arranged the workshop so that participants from the regenerative food and farming sector’s ecosystem could meet and share each other’s work. The outcome of this day was for the organisations to submit a grant proposal to the fund with a caveat that it is in collaboration with three or more organisations.

The workshop was a hive, rich with impassioned visionaries and intellectual fertility. The task for the day was to harvest prominent narratives from the group’s collective consciousness in order to mirror it back and say “hey this is what’s needed”. With so many stories already existing, combined with specific needs and wants, this was no mean feat.

We were very fortunate to have Vandana Shiva as our guest of honour. Vandana gave a sterling and rousing presentation of her vision for the future of food and farming, which you can watch below.

Vandana Shiva speaking in London on the challenges of the globalised food system and the need for an enlightened and compassionate agrarian renaissance.

The prominent narratives of the day look at how the Movement is to be more cohesive and thereafter amplified. To achieve this there are several areas that we need to target and barriers to overcome. The greatest narrative was around the need and power of storytelling. The fund has sidelined a budget for PR and creative work to push the work of the grant recipients further.

Additionally, Building the Movement (grassroots and public mobilisation) was spoken about in depth along with Policy, Distribution and Alternative Routes to Market, Consciousness and Connection, New Entrants, Leveraging Finance, and Land Reform.