Republished from Land in our Names
“Stewarding our own land, growing our own food, educating our own youth, participating in our own healthcare and justice systems; this is the source of real power and dignity.”
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@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://landworkersalliance.org.uk/shop/leah-penniman/
