Learning in Action

From the importance of peer-to-peer relationships in achieving ongoing engagement and change, to the usefulness of sharing the difficulties of trying something new, there is much to be learned from the voices in this book.

The Field Guide for the Future is a glimpse of all the extraordinary, innovative and brave things happening on farms, in businesses and in communities all around the UK. These stories have helped shape the RSA Food, Farming and Countryside Commission’s practical framework for change in our final report — Our Future in the Land.

Sometimes the distance between policy and practice can seem a long one.

Everywhere we went we found people enacting an approach to their work and in their communities in unassuming, straightforward and pragmatics ways.

Learning in Action

In the practical framework for change in ‘Our Future in the Land’ we talk about the leadership needed to work on the critical issues in front of us, a new approach which:

• Acknowledges with humility that leaders in the past have not had all the answers — or else we would not be facing the challenges we do.
• Is genuinely curious, inquiring and open about where possible solutions might come from — not advocating more of the same.
• Collaborates with other leaders wherever they are — from the grassroots to established positions, young people and elders.
• Appreciates the importance of diversity, inviting people with different perspectives into respectful dialogue, keeping the concerns of the whole system in view.
• Focusses squarely on the actions needed, sticking with the challenge of working through real tensions and dilemmas.
• Learns fast, in cycles of action, reflection, learning, and adaptation.

We also talk about supporting and resourcing the practical actions for change. Whilst people often have the personal qualities to lead, they do not necessarily have the resources to help them — the tools, the finances, the technologies, the support. Nonetheless, people are getting on and doing things.

So what do they need, and how can we help?

Using social media for new ways of meeting…

“I wouldn’t have been begun to make any of these changes [to no-till farming] if I hadn’t been on Twitter. It was the platform that put me in touch with the people who were doing this around the world. Twitter and YouTube were initially the two biggest learning tools, and since then I’ve started reading books”. (George Hosier, Wexcombe Manor Farm).

Social media has proved an invaluable resource for many of the people featured in this field guide — providing inspiration and connections to movements trying new things; helping producers connect with customers and other opportunities; and reducing feelings of isolation. Where, in cities, social media often feels like noise, for those living sparsely in the countryside, those opportunities to connect to similar voices have great value. Oli Baker at Mora Farm says, “Social media, particularly Instagram, has become a useful tool for the small farm movement, connecting an otherwise lonely and often isolating profession”.

…as well as valuing peer to peer relationships and meeting face to face…

“But perhaps the single most valuable thing we did was to take members of our three communities to Scotland to see community land projects first hand — seeing what other communities had achieved.” (Chris Blake, Skyline).

Whilst social media is offering opportunities, Dr Iain Gould of the Lincolnshire inquiry reminds us that, “Providing a hot lunch in a welcoming environment is a simple step which creates a friendly and convivial ambience for informal discussion and networking”. The value of talking to people and developing relationships has recurred as an effective tool for change. The power of sharing challenges and concerns is belied by the simplicity of bringing people together — enhancing wellbeing, learning and building energy and engagement.

Peer-to-peer relationships too, as simple as visiting others to see what they have achieved, are not to be underrated. On the simple step of talking to people, Harriet Bell of Old Parsonage Farm says, “People often worry that it’s not a productive enough use of their time but in my experience, it often results in unexpected but very beneficial outcomes”.

…and new and diverse voices bring fresh insights and new possibilities… ‘

‘The Commission believed that providing an opportunity and space for local stakeholders to fill with their own ideas and insights would tap into local needs in a way that national work cannot do. Holding those spaces open and trusting that the right thing emerges can feel nerve-wracking at the start, as each party looks to the other for direction.’ (Josie Warden, Devon inquiry).

There is a rich abundance of voices — all speaking from different places and from different experiences — as well as numerous examples of how diversity of voices can enrich the formation, operation and adaptation of initiatives and practice. The Northern Ireland and Devon inquiries had their agendas shaped by local stakeholders, and found their inquiries improved because of this. For the Skyline project, which took an inclusive approach to land stewardship, the practice of listening rather than telling allowed them to build a sense of trust and hopefulness in the possible.

… helping to see and work with the whole system…

“Part of the reason is that Teesdale is dominated by big landed estates, so there’s a lot of relatively impoverished tenant hill farmers. You don’t have lots of assets as a tenant, just your livestock. Perhaps that had something to do with it. In my time in farming one of the big changes has been that the support payment has moved from the tenant’s asset, which was their livestock, to the landlord’s asset, which is the land. It’s called decoupling”. (Richard Betton, Waters Meeting Farm).

Change is complicated and problems are interconnected: Richard Betton highlights that the precariousness of being a tenant farmer without assets is an essential factor for understanding the wellbeing of farmers. Whether protecting the wellbeing of tenant farmers, or getting an urban food growing project off the ground, understanding the system is important.

For Stephen Balfour in Aberdeen, taking a ‘whole systems approach’ to urban growing means engaging a variety of sectors along the supply chain. Faced with changing a system, shared principles can be useful tools for creating purpose across sectors: part of the cross-sector partnership in Aberdeen is operating with shared principles of ‘equality, cooperation, collaboration and partnership, mutuality and reciprocity, recognising that everyone has something to offer’.

…taking risks…

“I realised that the problem is the whole economics of it. Food is expected to be cheap and you cannot grow quality food cheaply. We don’t really get enough money for the food we produce. And we take no government subsidy. It’s more trouble than it’s worth for what we would get. We absolutely do make a living. We just work very hard at making it”. (Liz Findlay, Nantclyd Farm).

This field guide is a testament to leadership that comes out of people being brave enough to try something different. We’ve seen multiple examples of people going against incentives — farmers putting social and natural value capital first and recognising the delicate trade-offs that often need to be made. These are inspiring stories of people doing things differently, and policy should make what they are doing easy, and more to the point, it should be working in the same way.

…experimenting, and sharing what doesn’t work.

“We learned a lot during our 2012 trial [of keeping calves and their mothers together], and so changed the layout in the farm shed to make overnight separation easier and started again in 2016. We’ve continued to make tweaks to the system and are now confident that we have a system that is better for animal welfare, better for the people working here and better for the environment”. (Wilma and David Finlay, The Ethical Dairy).

You can’t innovate without failure, and the voices in the field guide admit to their share of it. With an ethos of doing it yourself, often there is also often a commitment to sharing what doesn’t work. Being the first to do something means that you can serve as an example to those that follow, and adopting later means that you can take benefit and confidence from this sharing.

Some of the things we’ve talked about in our final report might seem policy orientated, but can also help us think and act in new ways:

Pursuing goals: Are we focussed on what really matters for us, our communities and the planet?

Managing inputs: Do we have the information we need from all parts of the system — including the contradictory and contested?

Engaging citizens and users: Are people engaged in the task? Have we included the voices of those who will live with the impacts — the distant and future generations? And those who give a voice to the needs of the natural world?

Developing systems capacity: Is our ‘whole system’ aligned to achieve our goal — have we the resources and support we need — financial, technical, mentoring?

A fair and just transition towards a more sustainable future needs more than just soft resources. We’ve shaped our recommendations in our report to help provide more of what’s needed for change to happen at scale and at pace — a vision for a sustainable future, supported with the tools, the resources and the will to make it happen.

Our future is in our hands.