Reconnecting Town, Country and People at the Emergent Generation Summer Gathering

What’s the difference between townies and country bumpkins? That was one of the first questions being asked at the fourth Annual gathering of Emergent Generation, themed ‘Reconnecting Town and Country.’

Let me set the atmosphere. We’re at Conygree Farm in the Cotswolds. We’ve just pitched the tent under the autumn rain. We wake up with the damp mist and the spiderwebs as garlands of the meadow. The air tastes like sourdough, fresh tomatoes and paella. For three days, 100 young people gathered to engage, learn and dance together, all for a kinder transformation of food and farming. Those days felt like a warm hug and inspired me to face my local struggles with more inner peace, but no less determination.

“We were a diverse group: English farmers, European students, African non-profit and agritech leaders. Neurodiversity and queerness coloured us. And yet, this gathering in a rural field in England felt thoroughly English to this girl, born and bred. English showers and rainbows.” I do vibrate with Ellie Percey’s words (who works at Commonland), because at the same time there was the “100,000-people-strong ‘Unite the Kingdom’ (Tommy Robinson) protest in London.” Ellie Percey courageously writes about how one event echoes the other. She brought into practice the lessons of reconnection from this gathering to a wider, bolder context.

Is there really an urban-rural divide?

Anna Jones, BBC journalist and author of Divide: The relationship crisis between town and country asked us what’s the difference between rurality and urbanity? Is it the schoffel jackets? Access to nature? Diversity? As Anna reminds us, agriculture is the whitest industry in the UK (followed by conservation), and the average age of farmers is is dangerously increasing. And where do I fit into all this? Am I a townie or a country bumpkin? Along with most other people, I stood huddled in the middle. So, after all, is there such a divide? If so, then aren’t we, young people, interested in food, the bridge?

This might mean responsibilities… Responsibility to make our voice heard. To be curious and to listen with sincerity to the dairy farmer struggling with grass and your neighbour’s child saying they love carrots. Responsibility to find common ground. Mary-Ann Ochota, writer and CPRE president was so powerful at showing us that even if the connection is confrontational or messy, finding common ground, ‘working with’, can plant a seed of possibility.

The brave space

The spark of the event for me was the brave space emerging from vulnerability and collective honesty. Sharing vulnerability brought some hope during the Speaker’s Corner session. Chauntelle Lewis, Magda Petford, Sinead Fenton and Chloe from @chloe_at_the_farm openly shared their ways of navigating through the trials and tribulations of reconnecting with rurality. On the same note, the workshop with Eric Walters, founder of Good Small Farms, led us to wonder deeply and honestly about local routes to market. How much does it cost me to sell my veg at the local market? Should I sell there even if the margins are tight? Why? Our hearts were shouting: YES! Let’s feed our communities with good food, but the answers were not that easy, and it was refreshing to witness the realities of what we might think “the answer” to be.

So in the end, what do I take back to my home, in Yorkshire?

• Share food which brings us joy, to “Build longer tables, not higher walls” following the words of Tom Herbert, and bring curiosity to the table.
• Be brave, collectively, in the way we eat, the way we farm, and the way we imagine and create solutions, so the balance falls towards agroecology in its broader, most radical and diverse sense.

An immense thank you to Jonty Brunyee, Becky Grove and the whole Steering Committee’s ideas and energy for making this happening. Also, to Ellie Percey from Commonland and Clare Langrish for your notes and writings, and the Em Gen members from whom I got the pictures!