Building an anti-racist farming movement with Leah Penniman

The Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) and Land In Our Names (LION) are excited to be hosting a webinar with Leah Penniman from Soul Fire Farm to explore how we build an antiracist farming movement in the UK.

Some of our most cherished sustainable farming practices – from organic agriculture to the farm cooperative and the CSA – have roots in African wisdom.

Unequal access to land is particularly stark in Britain, where land ownership is often inherited, and concentrated into hands of a few wealthy (white) individuals and families. Little research exists on the racial demographics of land ownership but we do know that 1% of the population own more than 50% of the land in England alone, with 30% of land in the hands of the aristocracy and gentry. In the UK, ‘BAME’ communities are 60% less likely to be able to access green space and natural environments than their white counterparts. (Natural England).

Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol farmer, author, mother, and food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for over 20 years. She currently serves as founding co-executive director of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a people-of-color led project that works toward food and land justice. Her new book is Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land.

Through programs such as the Black-Indigenous Farmers Immersion, a sliding-scale farmshare CSA, and Youth Food Justice leadership training, Soul Fire Farm is part of a global network of farmers working to increase farmland stewardship by people of color, restore Afro-indigenous farming practices, and end food apartheid.

Some of the questions we’ll be exploring during this webinar are:

– How do we build an antiracist farming movement in the UK?
– What is the ground work we need to do to make this possible?
– What can we learn from the work that is being done in the US?
– How can farms build justice into their existing work?
– What can it look like for Black and Brown people and PoC to be farming on their own terms?
– What can allies do to support this work?

The event will be hosted by Josina Calliste from LION and we will also have a number of other people joining for the Q&A after Leah has talked.

Tickets

This webinar is being run as a fundraiser to support the work that LION are doing to address land justice in the UK. As a result we are charging £5 for LWA members/people involved in LION and £7.50 for non members for tickets. However, we also want to make sure the webinar is accessible to everyone so there are a number of tickets also available for free to those who are short on funds. We have also added an option for a £10 ticket if you wish to make an additional donation to LION.

If you are purchasing multiple tickets, please email steph@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk with additional email addresses for participants.

Ticket sales will close when the event reaches capacity and 24 hours before the event takes place. You will receive a link to the webinar approximately 12 hours before the webinar takes place. Please contact info@landworkersalliance.org.uk if you have any questions or have not received your link by this point.

To buy your ticket, follow this link: https://staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk/shop/leah-penniman/

About Land In Our Names (LION)

LION is a Black-led, grassroots collective committed to reparative justice in Britain by securing land for BPOC (Black people and People of Colour) communities.They want to mobilise a network of BPOC land stewards, striving for access to land and affirming the right to grow and live in safe, sustainable communities. You can find out more about LION on their website: https://landinournames.community/

About the Landworkers’ Alliance

The LWA are a union of farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers with a mission to improve the livelihoods of our members and create a better food and land-use system for everyone. They work for a future where producers can work with dignity to earn a decent living and everyone can access local, healthy and affordable food, fuel and fibre – a food and land-use system based on agroecology and food sovereignty that furthers social and environmental justice. You can find out more about the LWA on their website, including how to join as a member or supporter: https://staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk/

Farming While Black

You can also buy a copy of Leah Penniman’s book Farming While Black to learn more about the work at Soul Fire Farm. We recommend ordering through your local independent bookshop or buying from a platform such as Hive that supports independent businesses. The book is also available from Amazon and Blackwells.

The publishers have donated 10 copies of the book to this event to be available as solidarity gifts. We would like to make 5 copies available to BPoC people who are unable to afford the book, and 5 copies to organisations who would like to explore antiracism work within their organisation, and who are committed to the book being available as a resource to their staff. Please get in touch with steph@landworkersalliance.org.uk if you would like to apply for one of these copies, but please note we are unlikely to be able to fulfil all requests.

Image credit: Rush Jagoe