Know your food,
thank the farmers.

The Urban Agriculture Consortium has run for five years and is drawing this chapter to a close. We continue, in the lull, as a collaborator in two research projects: one exploring institutional barriers to upscaling agrecology in the UK for health and net zero, funded by AFN+ for which we are creating an Evidence Pack and Policy Briefing, and one funded by Farming the Future ending in autumn 2026, working with pioneering Landed Community Kitchens in the north of England, prototyping new ideas and new economic and social relationships and models for kitchen-farmer coalitions that can bring nutrient dense, locally grown food to diverse communities to be cooked and shared in justice-orientated, solidarity building spaces. You can read more about these here: www.urbanfoodjustice.org

“Citizens want ambitious action for greener, healthier, fairer food and farming… *”

UAC has been working with partners across the UK to explore and promote new ideas and practical solutions which will amplify and accelerate the development of agroecological, resilient food growing in urban and peri-urban areas.

We started off talking about urban agriculture and, by working closely with place-based and thought-challenging partners, soon evolved and expanded our scope to encompass and align with agroecology, new economic ideas around provisioning and land justice, concepts and frameworks such as Agroecological Urbanism, Permaculture, regenerative design the Commons and the Three Horizons. We articulated what a diverse typology of urban agriculture could include and shouted about what we believe are the ten most promising areas of work that funders and policy-makers need to pay attention to and resource.

Find out more about the things we have surfaced, supported and championed here.

There is a rapidly growing consensus that the current food system needs radical change, and a tangible, growing excitement that such systemic transformation is possible through the joined up actions and reimaginings of an ever growing network of interconnected practitioners committed to learning the value and practice of open collaboration based on shared values.

Though the politics of our communities seems increasingly divisive, underneath it all, we are all seeking effective ways to be seen, heard, and to meet our own and each others needs well. It is not so much a question of left or right than of provisioning – meeting our needs. The fallout of late-stage capitalism is (and will be) messy. When our deep human needs for food, warmth, security, feeling healthy, connection, clean water, meaningful work, play, and confidence that our grandchildren will thrive, are not met by market or state – those entities we are inculturated and organised to be dependent upon – we flounder, we anger, we blame a scapegoat, we’re a bit lost. We are not taught that the system is designed to create winners and losers, and we don’t know (and have no ancestral memory of) what it would look and feel like to work together to meet our own needs. Culturally, most of us in the UK have never been empowered or resourced to do that.

So we must learn to be okay with discomfort, get better at regulating ourselves, have a go at co-regulating and collaborating as groups, as communities, and play at being courageous and trusting in these things, the things that transcend the structures and narratives that keep us apart and at odds.

What we have discovered in these five years of UAC is that food can be the catalyst for transformation on so many levels – whoever we are, whatever our privilege or circumstances.

If we want to live, we have to look at what we put in our bodies, where it comes from, the soil that nourishes it and the people who grow it. If we want to thrive we also have to look at how good food is shared, distributed, accessed and, importantly, enjoyed; the taste, the smell, the company, and the way it makes us feel. Then we cant help but think about the way our thriving depends completely on the thriving of all the people and beings who bring us our food, and we start rooting for pollinators, nematodes, cooks, seasonal workers, climate stability, whole functioning ecosystems and seasons, and systems that are fair, just and transparent, that keep going, that are dynamic and adaptable, and are participatory and healthy. We have forgotten that we are the key collaborators in our own wellbeing and nature is our friend and teacher.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of the UAC journey, may it ripple out through you in many foreseen and unforeseen ways.

If you’d like to support us, please get in touch!

* from The Hope Farm Statement, May 2024

Picture above is of La Ferme Du Bec Hellouin, a flagship Permaculture farm in northern France. https://www.fermedubec.com
See Resources page for their 2015 report on their Permaculture Market Gardening and Economic Performance with in depth figures.