During the short end of November days, the annual European Rural Gathering in Grzybów, Poland, co-organised by ARC2020 and a rich ecosystem of partners, marked another stop of our rural caravan from France to Germany to Poland. It was a meeting of heads, hearts and hands that opened doors of connection and possibility for future collaboration on rural resilience.
By Louise Kelleher, Alison Brogan & Ashley Parsons
A moment at an Ecological Folk High School
The participants stand close in a circle on the final afternoon of the gathering. As we pledge our next steps for future action, it is clear that this is not so much an end as a beginning. One voice joins another in a rousing chorus of personal commitments, rising in a powerful crescendo that continues to ring in our ears long after we have parted ways.
While critique is essential for driving social change, merely complaining about problems or demanding solutions from politicians is not enough. With a shared determination to act, at this gathering we asked ourselves – What can we do now, from where we stand? What alliances must we build and sustain?
All those in the room are already engaged in action for socio-ecological transition. Yet problems continue, morph and accumulate, and communities must be resilient in adapting to the unpredictable. Many things which seemed to stand fast yesterday may change tomorrow. Being ready to move seems to be the core of the lessons we learnt.
Why host this gathering in this place? The Ecological Folk High School (EUL) in Grzybów, founded by Ewa and Peter Stratenwerth in 2015 is steered by the teachings of N.F.S. Grundtvig. Grundtvig birthed the folk high school movement in Denmark, believing that empowering individuals through education could lead to societal transformation. Or, otherwise stated: by fulfilling their inner potential, individuals could become active participants in shaping a better society.
For the three days in Grzybów, we experienced a taste of this folk high school way of life and learning. Steeped in the nature-inspired beauty of the setting, exchanges blossomed between hearts and hands as well as minds. With a mix of participants from 12 European countries and beyond, with a variety of backgrounds, rich new ties were woven as we experimented with different ways of connecting through song, dance, sharing food, seeds, art and weaving: using all of our senses in sharing what we can do to cultivate what we have in common.
We celebrated the vital practices that sustain rural communities. An Agrobiodiversity Fair organised by Seeds4All invited participants to explore the fascinating world of free seeds. This included a seed swap where seeds from Poland, Ireland, Greece, Belgium, Palestine, and other countries changed hands.
At the heart of the gathering was a desire to sit down at the table with opponents and allies, to find out what we have in common and what not, and even to consider whether we can take action together to improve life in our villages and farms. Here we looked to previous lessons from the caravan of rural resilience. A delegation from Plessé brought to the table its work to create significant space for participatory democracy to put citizens at the heart of public policies, and to enhance representative democracy to distribute power more fairly and transparently. Spaces where everyone is safe to speak their truth are crucial to the work of actors such as kollektiv von MORGEN from Marburg, who, by creating opportunities to be in dialogue with decision makers and other stakeholders, can help enhance democratic skills.
Commitments to take action together
Each workroom was a play in three acts: from challenges to solutions to actions – with a final coda of commitments. Common themes emerged from all six workrooms: Trust, education and communication, collaboration, empowerment, generational renewal. Within a few hours, these threads had crystallised into commitments to take action together.
To build trust, community and collaboration, we heard commitments to collaborate with migrant farm workers, and to develop a community of practice connecting farmers with people from low-income backgrounds. Another collaborative effort pledges to work on ‘FarmErasmus’ exchanges between farmers across Europe, allowing for shared learning and intercultural dialogue. One group suggested new models of neighbourhood cooperation so that young farming families can go on holiday.
To nurture education, communication and dialogue, we witnessed commitments to develop on-farm education concepts, but also to make Brussels politics more accessible to practitioners on the ground through policy explainers and workshops. Thursday dinners will inspire hearts and minds through sharing delicious local food.
To empower communities to make change at the local level, we heard of a project to support groups running for office in France to champion participatory democracy. To support farmers as changemakers and promote a more positive narrative around farming, the Letters from the Farm series will continue to spotlight stories of effecting change, and a new collaborative series will celebrate Women Heroes.
We agreed on the urgent need to change the “farming is hard” narrative which many farmers pass on to their children. Currently in Poland, 9 out of 10 farmers can’t find a wife – which reflects another stale narrative that only the son should inherit the farm. To foster generational renewal on our farms and in our rural areas, commitments ranged from individual (continuing intergenerational cooperation in organic farming on a family farm), to technical (plans to exchange on the topic of land observatories at national and EU level).
There was a pledge to host an information meeting on a non-family-based approach to farm transition, the so-called ‘Tinder’ service by Perspektive Landwirtschaft in Austria, where those handing over their farms to new entrants can meet and explore various arrangements, including, for example, accommodating a grandma who wishes to stay on the holding, as the pension is often an issue which hinders transition.
While the challenges facing Europe’s food and farming are deep and complex, these difficulties are not insurmountable. In crisis lies opportunity. Across the workrooms, solutions highlighted ways in which trust can be rebuilt, relationships between stakeholders can be forged and strengthened and systemic barriers can be overcome. By leveraging holistic education, fostering cooperation and nurturing democracy, communities can transform the ways food is grown, shared and valued.
The power to act
Manifold challenges stand in the way of fair and ecological farming and food systems. At Weaving Common Ground, together we pinpointed issues of trust, disconnection and inequality. Many are concerned by the rise of the far-right, and how that is unfolding in rural areas across Europe. Farmers often face isolation, struggling with a lack of understanding from policymakers and “the rest of society”, while grappling with dependence on industrial agriculture and financial constraints that limit sustainable transitions. Local communities experience fragmentation, with traumas, media narratives and cultural divides eroding the bonds between people and place. Systemic issues – such as lack of access to land, exploitation of migrants, and dominance of industrial over agroecological farming – compound these difficulties. Broader societal and ecological crises, from climate change to social inequities, challenge the very fabric of how food is produced and consumed, not to mention human existence.
Yet in the face of all this, we still hold the power to act – at European level but even more so at local level, and in the tiniest of actions in our daily lives. What if you sowed life?, asked the seed cards distributed at the Agrobiodiversity Fair. What if you ran for office in your municipality? What if all of us ran for office? What if we chose care over productivity? One workroom decided not to work through the coffee break. It was a political choice, they quipped. Seemingly insignificant, such choices can add up to the agroecological approaches that have the power to drive food system change. The group may have come to plenary with a slightly less detailed flipchart, but they honoured their human needs, their bellies and souls. It’s a flipping of the script that also played out in the workroom on generational renewal, which faced up to a stark reality: taking over the family farm often means caring for ageing relatives, yet there is little recognition of this invisible labour in the productivist paradigm.
But how does one get to this place, to this chorus of commitments that concludes the gathering? We sit down at the table. We break bread together. Bread produced right there on Ewa and Peter’s farm, and other good local organic food – simple dishes lovingly prepared. We look one another in the eye. We study each other’s names. We synchronise our breath, attune our voices in song, and learn a Christmas carol in a language we don’t understand, in a gesture of solidarity and peace for war-ravaged communities. We take each other’s hands in dance, and trust our fellow dancers not to cause us injury in a crowded room. We try our hands at weaving to discover what we might co-create. As we take risks together, we are rewarded in good time with growing mutual trust, and deeper connections. As we look to forge new alliances for system change, the ecological folk high school offers many lessons.
Winter is knocking on the door as we part ways after these days together. A chill wind blows through Grzybów, and frost dusts the fields. Having taken the time to understand one another, this throng of now-not strangers basks in the warmth of new partnerships and commitments. In cooperation and solidarity, listening and learning, lies the power to build a more just and resilient future for food, farming and our rural communities. We have learned by doing and sharing, and the lessons continue to sing in our ears.
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Cultivating The Future Together – ARC’s Rural Resilience Gathering in France
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Sustainable Food Systems | Public Canteens – A Tool for Regional Resilience
Protests and Love – France’s Farmer Organisations, Demonstrations and Social Alliances
Future-Proof Food Systems in Europe – A Call for Action from Marburg
Feeding Ourselves 2023 – Building Bridges for Rural Resilience
