Jumping Fences

Jumping Fences – understanding and addressing the barriers to access to land for agroecological farming for Black people and people of colour (BPOC) in Britain.

We are very excited about a new collaboration with Ecological Land Cooperative and the Landworkers Alliance. The purpose of the project is to identify the barriers that BPOC face when considering a land based livelihood in Britain, to map existing and prospective BPOC led land-based businesses and organisations and to discover what challenges they face and how they seek to overcome them. Building off the initial research we completed for Rootz Into Food Growing, but expanding to the wider country to collect stories from across Britain.

The research findings will be discussed with a wide range of organisations in the agroecology sector to identify ways to support BPOC new entrants to farming. The final intention of the collective effort is to strengthen LION’s capacity to become a community land trust, so that we can provide practical solutions for BPOC land stewards including access to land.

For more information on the Jumping Fences project please email naomi@ecologicalland.coop

Read Our Jumping Fences Report Now!

The Jumping Fences report was published January 2023 and compiles evidence from interviews with BPOC farmers and landworkers throughout Britain, carried out during 2022. 

You can read and download the full report here Jumping Fences 2023 WEB. 

An appendix is also available here - Jumping Fences Appendix - Participant journeys into land work, which provides more detail on the rich stories that came out through the interview process. 

Anne:Seed (anniseed)

LION x House of Annetta

Image by Sajan Rai

debrief by Marcus MacDonald

In the summer of 2021 Land In Our Names were invited by Assemble collective to renovate the garden of House of Annetta and make it a functional space that can host workshops, events and create a space to grow food and herbs. We were also asked to curate a series of workshops and events in the Annetta garden over the summer and we centred BPOC, women and queer LGBTQIA+ people within these events.

The state of the garden

The first phase of the project was landscaping the garden, this involved clearing out rubbish, repurposing wood we found at House of Annetta to create a floor in the garden room and a decking outside. Annetta Pedretti often used materials that would be thrown away for her DIY projects. We also cleared the rooftop garden of weeds and restored the soil health for planting of medicinal herbs, pollinators and shrubs. Our planting design was designed to encourage wild life back into the garden, encourage bees and other pollinators to visit, herbal medicine and plants visitors could forage and smell. This was all inspired by Annetta Pedretti and her interest in beekeeping and foraging and preserving wild foods. 

the roof gardens before

outside decking complete

The second phase of the project was curating a series of workshops and events that focused on practical skills like carpentry, beekeeping and herbal medicine, this again was influenced by Annetta’s personal interests. We wanted to prioritise BPOC, queer, women/non-binary folks to lead and participate in the workshops and events.

Carpentry

Bee workshop

Herbalism

The almost completed benches and planters

Film screening

The workshops and events were

• Bee Urban facilitated sessions with candle making, honey tasting and bee hotel building workshop over 2 days.

  • They also designed and supported attendees of the event in making solitary bee hotels which are currently located on the rooftop garden ready for spring.

• Herbalists Randa Toko and Kirstin Wu facilitated a workshop where they shared their knowledge, stories and skills with herbs and plant allies, the workshop included tea tasting, mixing teas and making a herbal balm.

• Carpenter Imani Qamar led 2 days of carpentry workshops building planters and benches for the garden.

• We organised an outdoor film screening of the documentary “The Street” by Zed Nelson

• House of Shango (a black liberation collective of squatter) were invited to host a BPOC only conversation circle sharing knowledge on housing discrimination in the UK, how this relates to the squatting movement, and how we can fight to achieve housing justice. We also had a black vegan chef Sister Woman Vegan cater for the event.

• A birdfeeder and seedbomb workshop led by Sam Siva and Kieran Kirkwood

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Images by Sajan Rai

The programme that we curated was a huge success, tickets for every event sold out and we had excellent feedback from all the participants. There was a desire for more events and we were told that the space felt very inclusive and comfortable for folks.

Bulbs sprouting and blossoming in February 2022

In the winter months we varnished, lined and filled the bench planters with compost. We then planted a variety of bulbs so that by Spring there would be new flowers for the garden. We want to use the ceramic sinks to make wildlife ponds and plant some vegetables in the Spring. 

We will continue to have a relationship with the House of Annetta folks and use the garden and house as a venue for events. We hope to maintain the garden too and want to have more community planting events.

You can find photos and videos of the workshops and garden on our instagram here.

Growers Grants for Black and People of Colour

A Debrief

a debrief by Sam Siva & Josina Calliste

It all began at the end of 2020, when Jess from Public Library Quilts and Sui from Decolonise the Garden launched a fundraiser and raffle to raise money for LION’s Growers Grants project. As part of the fundraiser, a handmade quilt would be awarded to a randomly selected entrant. In December, hundreds of naturally dyed fabrics began to make their way to Jess. Jess designed and sewed the quilt, which caught the attention of material culture magazine Tatter, as well as quilt and natural dye enthusiasts around the world. Once the magnificent double-sided quilt was completed, we began the fundraiser and raffle entry in April and over the course of the month we were able to raise over £18,000! It was incredibly heart-warming to receive so much support knowing that the funds will go on to support Black growers and growers of colour.

Jess, Sui, Sam and Josina meet with the completed quilt

We received the money in May and got to work. The idea of the Growers Grants had been in perculation since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, however, limited capacity pushed it to the backburner. Now. not needing to crowdfund to facilitate the creation of grants, we could focus on creating an application and administration process. The growers grants working group set our minds together to plan the growers grants. Creating a budget, timeline and framework of awards, we spent the summer of 2021 refining the application, creating the tiers and commissioning artwork from Javie Huxley. We recruited four panellists for decision-making: former LION member, Laurèl Hadleigh, composer Dr Hannah Jones, community organiser and artist Andre Reid, landworker and actionist Jyoti Fernandez. During this period of time, we were also able to source match funding increasing the number of grants we could distribute.

We opened applications on August 20th and closed them on September 12th 2021. There were a total of 334 applications, requesting a total of £191,200. Originally, we had a meagre £36,000 to distribute, but the panellists secured an additional £15,000 while assessing the applications. Unfortunately, there was still a £131,200 excess over what was available. We really wish we could have supported more people with these grants. In writing about the process, we hope to inspire and demonstrate a requisite for larger organisations and institutions to take on the responsibility of financially supporting small racialised growers. 

Illustration by Javie Huxley

Rootz Into Food Growing

“Ultimately, we’re drawn into growing and food growing because I guess we want to be connected to nature, to the land… A lot of us came at it for its well-being benefits yet, you end up getting stuck in a loop that is so far from well-being, it’s just ridiculous.”

- Selene, RIFG research participant

Interviewees of the Rootz into Food Growing research told us of either their relative privilege in being able to afford to do underpaid/unpaid labour in horticulture, or having to patch together an income from other work. BPOC growers are operating in a context (Britain) where we are are less likely to have access to green spaces and nature than our white counterparts. Furthermore, horticulture, agriculture, environment are three of the least ethnically diverse sectors, employing over 90% of white, British workers.

Our research helped illuminate why financing initiatives for growers is necessary. Interviewees experienced many challenges including, land scarcity, interpersonal conflicts and gatekeeping (in allotments, farmers markets, growing & funding opportunities). In terms of their finances, growers had several part-time jobs at once and had to supplement their income through other, non-food growing, part-time or full-time work. Others had volunteered, with varying experiences; unpaid growing opportunities had lots of intrinsic value, but ultimately was unsustainable for most growers to not get paid. Interviewees expressed the importance of ending a reliance on volunteers, bringing in proper pay for growers and ending the “high churn rate” in London’s food growing scene. 

Alongside these issues, BPOC growers exist in a context of wage disparities between ethnic groups, plus an often-negative perception of agricultural employment among many migrant groups because of associations with insecurity, hard manual labour and economic exploitation. It is essential that routes to sustain livelihoods from growing food and running enterprises are established, as well as the creation of outlets and markets for produce. Most immediately necessary is ensuring the provision of substantial, fair remuneration and support for BPOC growers.

Photo by Sandra Salazar

Grant Administration

“Funders shouldn’t wait for perfect. Trust & fund the communities doing the work”

- Steph Brobbey, Founder of The Good Ancestor Movement 

We had a simple application process which asked for details about the individual or organisation, why you wanted to grow, how this grant would support you and what tier you were applying for. The tiers were:

1. Getting Into Growing Tier (Beginners - up to £125)

2. Caring For My Garden Tier (Hobbyists - up to £300)

3. I’m Gonna Be A Grower Tier (New Entrants/Trainees - up to £800)

4. Fertilise The Movement Tier (Growing Projects - up to £1000)

However, as the application process was online only, it was still difficult for some people to access. This is something we wished we could have made easier.

Our panellists had to consider financial privilege, different intersections of marginalisation such as, migrant status, sexuality and disability. Their roles were to allocate a set number of grants for each tier. Despite this, they struggled to make final decisions. Almost every applicant was deserving of financial support. The difficulties in decision-making meant that we had to extend our deliberation period. Due to limited capacity, the administrative process took several months.

The Growers Grants working group were also limited in capacity as only one or two of us were able to dedicate time to administrative tasks. We were supported by freelancers from our network at times like these. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who supported us in this process. It made it even clearer to us that LION does not have the capacity to be a grant-giving body. We were only able to distribute grants at the end of November and the beginning of December. We regret that it took so long to get the money to grantees. This is why we are calling out grant-giving organisations and institutions to support individuals and small organisations.

Print by Rosanna Morris

What Next?

As a land justice organisation, LION’s focus is beyond financial. If organisations who are gifted land are committed to racial equity, they should pass land on. Preferable to have land use without a “owner”, which avoids reinforcing existing societal power dynamics. If an individual or organisation has access to resources, whether they are money, land, courses, skills, share these freely or on a sliding scale to BPOC. Some organisations have met this call by providing discounted or free resources for our Resource Pack, which you can access here. However, many were not able to offer anything other than asking for us to share their grant-giving schemes to our networks. This was especially frustrating if the application process meant that if you were an unincorporated or unconstituted group you could not apply - let alone if you were an individual. This is not good enough. Especially as there is a shortage of ways into horticulture or food growing.

We ask funders and large organisations - what will you do? We hope this article demonstrates the urgent need to find sustainable, long-term ways of supporting BPOC growers and our communities. That there is a role for you in addressing imbalances in ways that smaller organisations cannot. The impact and benefits of this would be immense - beyond any Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity commitments made by individual organisations. This sort of commitment can lead to achieving food justice, building closer relationships with marginalised communities and sharing growing knowledge from all around the world.

Another follow-on of this project is the creation of a London-based BPOC Growers Network. Collaborating with Rootz Into Food Growing, we are establishing a network to connect growers of colour so that we can forge relationships and address the barriers that we face.

Thank You

We want to thank all the people and organisations who made this possible. Jess and Sui, Necessity, BE the Earth Foundation, Thirty Percy, Amarha and the Black Land and Spatial Justice Fund. Our panellists - Laurèl Hadleigh, Jyoti Fernandes, Andre Reid, Dr Hannah Jones. Our freelancers - Kate Bernstock and Heba Hayek. Decolonising Economics for their guidance, big up Noni and Guppi. Mark Walton who happily paid out each grant. Sam and Marcus who managed the project and planned each step. The entire LION collective for all their support. We also want to thank Jo Kamal who created the resource pack and has worked with Pauline Shakespeare and Sam Siva to create the London BPOC Network. And most of all we want to thank every single applicant for our Growers Grants.

If you would like to know more about the London BPOC Growers Network please email us at hello@landinournames.community

LION relies on donations and grants, please support our work by donating here

LION’s Growers Grants for Black and People of Colour - APPLICATIONS

Illustrations and Graphics by Javie Huxley

We are incredibly happy to announce that we will be redistributing over £29,000 in grants to Black people and people of colour who are either interested in getting into growing, investing in their already established allotment or back garden, investing in their learning and training or their projects/businesses. We have different grants available for Black growers and growers of colour to either take that first step or have that helping hand.

Black people and people of colour have been disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in Britain. On top of this, BPOC are less likely to have access to green spaces and nature than their white counterparts. Taking this into consideration alongside the fact that agriculture is one of the whitest professions in Britain, we believe that it is necessary that we empower our BPOC community. 

Illustrations and graphics by Javie Huxley

We are incredibly grateful to Jess and Sui who set up the Quilt Fundraiser which raised over £19,000 for the Growers Grants. We would never had imagined that we would be donated enough money to support other Black and people of colour pursue growing! This proves to us that a reparative justice framework is possible for our work.

We want this application to be accessible to Black and people of colour around Britain and Ireland. We want this to be for Black people and people of colour who want to take the plunge and buy their first bag of seeds and compost but also for Black people and people of colour who are setting up commercial and community growing projects.

We will be recording an Instagram Live where we break down the different aspects of the applications. Join us and send us any questions you have and we will answer and help however we can. Friday 20th August at 18:30 - instagram.com/landinournames

Am I BPOC?

You may identify as a BPOC (Black or person of colour) if you would fall under categories such as BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic). We will vet applications to make sure that all applications go to Black people and people of colour.

Some examples include: 

• People of African descent

• Asian descent (east, south-east, south or central)

• First Nations peoples & Pacific Islander people

• Latinx & racialised South and Central Americans

• Arab & other Middle East & Northern African ethnic groups

• Multiracial & mixed race peoples

This list is not exhaustive and we rely on trust and honesty in applications.

Financial Privilege

We will be prioritising Black people and people of colour who lack financial privilege, or who might have some financial privilege, are low income, precarious, poor or working class.

Two terms which are mentioned in our explainer images are:

• Basic Needs: include food, housing & transportation

• Expendable Income: might mean you are able to buy coffee at a cafe, go to the movies or a concert, buy new clothes, books and similar items each month etc.

Grant Tiers

Click here to access application document

Applications open Friday 20th August 00:00

Applications close Sunday 12th September 23:59

Email completed applications to bpoc.growers.grants@gmail.com

Watch our Instagram Live Video explainer of the BPOC Growers Grants application below:

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Rootz Into Food Growing

Image by Javie Huxley

Rootz into Food Growing is a collaboration project between Ubele, OrganicLea, Black Rootz, Land In Our Names (LION). It is a 15 month programme (November 2020 – February 2022).

The project aims to more clearly identify, understand, plan and implement a series of interventions which subsequently reduce barriers to entry into the social enterprise growing system and begin to identify appropriate land for commercial food growing purposes. It will promote food justice by identifying and training a new generation of BPOC growers who are empowered to develop their own food growing systems and enterprises; grow local, culturally appropriate and indigenous food (which can be grown in the UK) which is often imported and sold at inflated prices; encourage people of all ages from BPOC communities to create social enterprises, thereby creating livelihoods.

This research project was undertaken in winter 2021 to shed light on the experiences of the few Black / people of colour (BPOC) with experience of growing food for social enterprise and sustaining livelihoods in and around London. This report is based on interviews with food growers past and present. We asked about their journeys into food growing and enterprise, the challenges and opportunities in a city with limited spaces for growing and selling produce.

You can read the full report here

Watch our report launch event here

Photograph by Sandra - GoGrowWithLove