This article was originally published on the Wicked Leeks blog here.
It’s August and the land around me is a chlorophyll-hungry yellow. Our seeds are struggling to germinate and many of our young winter cabbage plants have already died in the unrelenting heat. As I’m sure many reading this will agree, I believe that regenerative farming is part of the solution to mitigating climate change. However, there is the looming question of who will carry UK food production forward into an uncertain future; is farming a desirable career for younger generations?
In 2020, I left a full-time job in London to work in farming at the age of 26. I don’t come from a farming background and didn’t grow up in the rural countryside. After volunteering on food growing projects around London since 2016, I left the city during the pandemic to pursue my passion for food growing and completed an agroecological farming traineeship with The Landworkers’ Alliance in 2021.
I love this work – there are few experiences quite like bringing in the hay at sunset, seeing lambs being born or growing food on biodiverse land alongside others that understand the importance. Over the last two years I’ve seen a growing movement emerging of people who want to work in farming, and many of them are between the ages of 20 and 40.
The idea that most young people want city jobs and bags of cash isn’t true – many of us want simpler livelihoods where we can connect to nature and play an active role in reshaping the future of food and its impact.
However, there are still socioeconomic barriers that make a career in farming inaccessible for many. Additionally, until we have land of our own many of us rely on seasonal work that usually dries up in the winter because many farms can’t afford to pay us (or themselves) a proper income.
Getting access to even small parcels of land in the UK is difficult, and making a liveable income from food growing in a world where cheap food is seen as the norm makes it hard for all farmers, but especially for new entrants.
It is not due to a fear of hard work that young people are struggling to get into or continue farming, it’s these systematic issues and a broken food system that has not served farmers well for some time.
Despite this, a growing number of people under the age of 55 (the average age of UK farmers) want to help create a food system that reflects our values and want to work on farms that align with them, too.
However, while experienced farmers want workers and new entrant farmers want work, there is sometimes still a disconnect between these two groups – we need to work together to close this generational gap. Across all areas of agroecological farming in the UK, we need to focus more on what unites us than what separates us – if we are to make farming a more inclusive, appealing sector for future generations then we need to collaborate better to do so.
Through more interaction, knowledge sharing, and support we can understand one another better and lessen the loneliness that plagues many farmers. From large family farms to newly established one-acre market gardens, we are all connected through our passion to create a prosperous future for both people and the planet through food. System change can often be a long and hard road but working together will only get us there faster.
Get into farming
Jobs are often posted on The Landworkers’ Alliance and Organic Grower’s Alliance website, The Soil Association Marketplace and Roots to Work.
Useful resources can be found through The Landworkers’ Alliance, Ecological Land Co-operative, The CSA Network, The Organic Growers’ Alliance and similar organisations – please feel free to add any projects or organisations that might connect us all better in the comments below.