Land and equality: the importance of connecting diverse communities with nature and food production
Judy Ling Wong CBE. Honorary President Black Environment Network
This blog post draws on a discussion held on 21 September 2020, jointly hosted by the Royal Society’s Living Landscapes programme and the British Academy, as part of a new programme of work on environmental sustainability, Where We Live Next. The discussion covered some of the key challenges around changing rural land use in the UK and considered which stakeholders and decision-making structures, both locally and nationally, are necessary for a just transition.
Someone as unconventional as the flamenco and Morris-dancing Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, a self-made Black farming millionaire, is not so much a role model as a flamboyant exception in the UK. There are other Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) farmers, some quietly working away at their small-scale culture-inspired sustainable visions, lovingly tending their animals and the land. Have a look at the UK’s first Halal farm: Willowbrook Farm, just outside Oxford. A new BAME generation longs for cohesive support to access life on the land, with the recent formation of the group Land In Our Names (LION), dedicated to land justice. Most BAME people in the UK are urban-based. Inclusion issues add another layer to the need to highlight the lack of mainstream discourse about the urban-rural relationship in the context of land use. In the UK, 80% of the population is urban and therefore represents the majority of customers, whether it is food or leisure on offer. The Royal Society has recently purposefully drawn urban and diverse citizens into a dialogue about the future of our multifunctional landscapes, helping to bring this issue into the mainstream.
It is truly surprising that the average person does not know that, when including foods processed here and labelled British, 80% of our food is imported. This fact will no doubt fuel further feelings of food insecurity. The deconstruction of the social fabric that we have lived through so far with the impact of the Coronavirus has made us all more reflective, more poised to talk about the essential thing that keeps us alive: food. The local and global fact of food production can be a hot topic that reveals to us holistically where we are and where we may go in terms of the choices before us.
Black Lives Matter has thrown the dimension of race relations into stark relief. It points to the fact that framework of operation is not neutral — beyond national and local racism, is racism not still framing our relationship to the world, with exploitative colonial frameworks of trade substantially in place? COVID-19 is forcing us to look at the reality of interconnectedness as a basis for survival. Yes, we have to look at structures, bottom lines and all that, but the message of the virus is that beyond survival, life is centered on the joy of relating successfully to family and community. Some of us are increasingly aware that at the core of all our current crises is a fundamental moral and spiritual failure. If we deeply care for and love nature and people, we cannot possibly act the way we do. Our present sense of urgency and crisis may help us to focus. The Royal Society and the British Academy have started an inclusive dialogue about the future of land use, taking us beyond the traditional power holders. Food security, health, farming methodology, climate change, the pandemic, the urban and rural relationship, urban food growing, life satisfaction, the local and global relationship, the bottom line, community, poverty, class, diversity, equality, racism and national identity are all part of a healthy mix. If we can nurture and grow this conversation, we can be optimistic.
Judy Ling Wong, painter, poet and environmentalist, is best known as the Honorary President of Black Environment Network (BEN). Judy is a major voice on policy towards social inclusion, contributing through key national committees and campaigns. She was a co-founder of the National Park City Foundation and instrumental in conceptualising London National Park City. She was awarded an OBE for pioneering multicultural environmental participation in 2000 and a CBE for services to heritage in 2007.
Judy is a member of the Royal Society’s Living Landscapes Steering Group.
Useful links
Land in our Names LION
Willowbrook Farm
The Black Farmer
