“For some of the farmers, it was their first time meeting vegans. This really shows that there is more that unites us than divides us and that the only way forward is together.”
This collaboration is essential to combat Big Ag (industrial-scale agriculture) and profiteering supermarkets. In India, farmer suicide rates have increased due to the prohibitive costs of pesticides such as Roundup.
Farmers using Roundup must fork out each year for the accompanying ‘Terminator’ seeds, unlike those using heritage seeds, which can be sown each year through seed saving. But the agricultural corporations of this world lord it over the majority of growers (and us) with policies that benefit the people.
In reality, both farmers and vegetarians are isolated and equally demonized. But it is these commonalities that have led to collaboration and sparked discussions about a just transition to a plant-based diet.
fundamental
Another grassroots movement is Assemble, a national network of people’s rallies held in cities as far away as Hull and Bristol.
Roger Hallam, co-founder of XR, said: Resurrection and Ecologist: “This is the next big thing. We have £100,000 in funding and 70 assemblies. independent candidate [during the 2024 parliamentary election in the UK were] “It is a way to build a new social movement against the environmental and social crisis.”
He added from prison after being sentenced to five years in prison in 2022 for helping organize the M25 gantry activity. “In the process, the ruling class will have the police knock on your door and lock you up for five years. . What should I do? Now is the time to unite and fuse the non-Labor left with the climate resistance space.
“We have a lot to learn from each other, and millions of people are asking for initiative and leadership. A program of dignity, compassion and survival. Significant reductions in inequality to finance emissions reductions and Earth system recovery. Anything less and all that remains is fascism and genocide.”
A solid, disciplined grassroots organization will pay dividends, but this time, it is this ripple effect and combination that will prove key as we put people before profits.
destructive
Also in the spring, another youth-led campaign, Everybody Eats, made headlines. A food bank manager who directly ate up supermarket profits by refusing to pay or taking items from the supermarket’s food bin and distributing them to nearby food banks was described as an ‘angel’.
Currently, around 15 million people in the UK suffer from food and fuel poverty. It is the world’s 6th largest economy. Everybody Eats has targeted supermarkets from Manchester to Hastings, sparking debate over Robinhood’s tactics.
But a year ago the governor of the Bank of England warned that we had reached ‘apocalyptic’ levels of food price rises. At the same time, UK agricultural productivity is expected to fall as climate heat and ecosystems collapse.
All this is on top of weak trade relations and shocking dependence on imported food. In the UK, only 60% of all food is grown domestically, and only 23% of fruit and vegetables are produced here.
The National Food Strategy recommendations put forward by the previous Conservative government detailed how broken our food system was and the devastating impact agricultural policy was having on our natural environment.
flourish
We need a resilient agricultural sector that can respond to the climate crisis. Instead, farmers have been pushed over the edge by a government focused on cheap imports for decades and a food industry racing to the bottom on low prices.
This is a safe and sustainable plant-based food system that delivers and prevents the worst-case scenario of climate collapse, thereby enabling farmers to transition to a realistic and sustainable food future.
It is estimated that more than 70% of agricultural land could be taken out of production and rewilded, restoring depleted soils while providing sufficient whole food for the UK’s growing population.
Rivers and oceans will be cleaner, and the air will also be cleaner. Wildlife and insects will return and thrive on stranded assets as the industrial scale of livestock farming and super trawling disappears like fossil fuels.
This author
Jan Goodey is an activist with Just Stop Oil. He works as an allotment gardener for the New Roots co-operative and as a community orchard worker for Brighton Permaculture Trust. Join Assemble’s weekly national briefings online Every Thursday at 7pm.
