Soil to soul
Rhiannon talks about how one farm is aiming to provide a sustainable community-based model for food production in the UK.
Being able to afford to eat, let alone eat healthy food, is not a given in the United Kingdom (UK). In 2021, 9% of the population were estimated to be living in food poverty, with foodbank use rising by 128% from 2016 to 2021. As the cost of living crisis is worsening, the numbers of people living in food poverty is set to increase. Lack of access to nourishing food leads to a variety of poor health outcomes, such as psychological distress or metabolic dysregulation.
Cambridge CoFarm and sunflowers at the farm. Image credit: Rhiannon Osborne.
Spruce, a volunteer at the community kitchen I interviewed for this article, points out that “The COVID-19 pandemic made very clear to me how current political and economic systems fail at what should be their most central role: keeping people fed, housed, and healthy.” Seeing this failure all around me, I signed up to volunteer at my local community farm, CoFarm, and kitchen, the Cambridge Community Kitchen.
Globally and locally people are deprived of adequate food and nutrition. At the same time, our food systems are degrading the planet on a monumental scale. These two crises are connected—we cannot be healthy without healthy ecosystems. Indigenous peoples have known this for centuries. As Vivian Camacho writes in The Red Nation: “Health stems from Mother Earth.”
The structure of the global economy couldn’t be more at odds with this philosophy. Capitalism and imperialism promote the exploitation of workers and nature for profit alone, and treat humans as fundamentally separate to nature. This disconnected relationship is especially stark in modern agricultural systems: the power of capital trumps the rights of people and the planet; food sovereignty is neglected in favour of ‘free market’ international trade; and the rights and livelihoods of many small-scale farmers are disregarded to cater to the demands of multinational corporations. These companies are a major force behind unjust land grabs, often displacing indigenous people and local communities to make way for intensive agriculture.
All of this is intimately connected to our health, as Gavin Shelton, founder and chief executive officer of CoFarm, explains: “The more closely you look at climate change, biodiversity loss, and health inequalities, the more obvious it becomes that our food systems are currently the most significant driver behind each of these.” Intensive agricultural practices drive unsustainable land use, loss of biodiversity, and deforestation. The UK is 70% farmland yet one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. To add to that, food systems account for 34% of global carbon dioxide emissions.
“Capitalism and imperialism promote the exploitation of workers and nature for profit alone, and treat humans as fundamentally separate to nature.”
Cambridge CoFarm. Image credit: Rhiannon Osborne.
However, more farmers and small farms like CoFarm do things very differently—they grow food agro-ecologically. Agro-ecological practices prioritise biodiversity rather than monoculture, ensure soil regeneration rather than depletion, use natural farm management practices rather than chemicals, and support local ecosystems.
Before joining CoFarm I had never engaged in food production or learnt anything about farming. Many communities are cut off from nature: 1% of the population owns half of the land in England. People who are racially minoritised, living with a disability, or living on a low income have significantly less access to natural environments and green space. The disconnection between farming, nature, and community is something CoFarm also hopes to tackle: “Food and farming once formed the very fabric of our communities in the UK. Humans have a hard-wired need to be connected to nature—to the land.”
Agro-ecological principles of farming also include the social and political dimensions of food production and distribution. “CoFarm’s model of community-based agroecology seeks to enable that for people, actively bringing people together around a shared goal of producing great food with and for each other, in harmony with nature,” says Gavin.
The food produced at the farm is sent across Cambridge to community food hubs, including the Cambridge Community Kitchen (CCK). CCK makes delicious vegan food and delivers hundreds of free portions by bike around the community.
Cambridge CoFarm harvesting parsnips and cabbage. Image credits: Rhiannon Osborne.
Health inequities contribute to food insecurity. People who come to CCK for food often feel they have “fallen through the cracks of the system”. Spruce explains further: “Many of our recipients have complex health needs not being met by an austerity-drained care system, are migrants without recourse to public funds, . . . or are simply too busy and drained from their working lives to take care of their health in the way they would like.”
Food insecurity has been increasing due to rising inequality, poor wages, increased cost of living, and many other injustices. For many people, a strong feature of this inequality is the dehumanisation and lack of agency they experience when seeking help from the state and medical systems. Instead of recognising the systemic barriers to accessing nutritious food, the state blames health conditions on individual behaviours and choices. In doing so, it fails to acknowledge that its own policies often force impossible choices on people with very limited options.
Volunteers cooking in the CCK kitchen. Image credit: Rhiannon Osborne.
Solidarity, however, can be found through mutual aid, an approach radically different from the state’s—one built on principles of community support, equity, and connection. “Mutual aid is about equality and respecting autonomy. Nobody is just ‘vulnerable’ and in need of help. Nobody is a saviour,” says Badger, one of the co-founders of CCK.
Receiving food from CCK is about more than food, it’s about “being respected and human. No hoop-jumping or grovelling, no bureaucracy”. Spruce adds that “Mutual aid provides a model for us to take that love and care we have for one another and use it to develop more resilient communities.”
CCK’s success proves that radically different social arrangements are not only possible, but necessary and effective. The food provides nourishment, but so too does the sense of togetherness. One of my co-chefs reflects that CCK provides a “connection within the community that is harder to come by for some given the decline of many social spaces”. Her experience has provoked a new understanding of the value in community: “Being part of a project like this has shown me that the power of community and each individual’s will to take care of the people around them has the ability to transcend any systemic failures through caring for the health of the people”.
Posters at the CCK kitchen. Image credits: Rhiannon Osborne.
Working at CCK fosters much-needed hope in a better future for food systems: “Whilst it might seem like we are swimming against the tide, I believe we need more people on the land, sensitively caring for it and for each other,” says Gavin. Badger is also optimistic: “Being a part of providing for someone is a huge privilege, and it is a regular reminder to me of what we can achieve when we build networks of care—of what the world could be.” As we fight for systemic transformation, we can start by sowing the seeds to grow the world we hope to see right on our doorstep.