Reflections on 2023

Embodying the culture we want to cultivate

We started this year excited to build and collaborate with grassroots groups, collectives, and organisations the world over that share our vision of food sovereignty, for everyone, everywhere. We began 2023 focused on honouring and supporting collective work, which allowed us to expand our margins and delve into previously unexplored intersections of food sovereignty. Our foundation lies in the valuable relationships we have built along this path that, for more than a decade, has brought us together with peasant and Indigenous communities, organisers, journalists and storytellers, students and academics, farmers and chefs — those who recognise land, food and autonomy as fundamental to the transformation of our territories.

Without them, there is no us.

We have witnessed communities planting, growing, and harvesting around the world, and through it, we have found inspiration to navigate our internal work as an organisation, grounding ourselves in the values upheld by those that sustain and nourish life. A Growing Culture started from the urgent need to expose what agriculture-without-culture could mean for our lives and planet. Our outrage at the corporate control of the very basis of our sustenance — seed, land and food — has been a loyal companion since our first years on this journey. We stand unconditionally, with the communities who have been denied their agency and autonomy in shaping living systems — a denial that now threatens our collective survival. 

As years pass, we see an endless stream of “solutions” to problems like hunger and climate change, championed by the same institutions and individuals who have always been in power. As the challenges ahead seem to multiply, hegemonic narratives dismiss and invisibilise the thousands of radical alternatives that have long emerged from communities. Just as grass sprouts through concrete, these pockets of resistance are actively revitalising what has been depleted, from knowledge systems to entire ecologies, showing us that our fate is not predetermined. Their strength and courage should remind us all that different worlds are not only possible; they already exist among us.

And it is that sentiment upon which we aspire to build. It has been challenging to step outside the familiar scope of denouncing what is wrong and bring our attention to the multitude of efforts toward building long-lasting change. But we are determined to find that balance and continue amplifying the voices of the silenced. To shed light on the communities where hope blows in the wind. To uplift the grounds where autonomy is felt in farmers’ hands, and where seeds are placed in fertile soil.

We have witnessed and accompanied the processes of groups, organisations, and collectives whose peoples constantly strive to reclaim their sovereignty. The struggles, losses, injustices, and atrocities they have had to, and continue to, endure are things we simply cannot turn our back on. We have witnessed the widespread indifference to both the suffering and success of the food sovereignty movement. We are moved daily to continue saying loud and clear the hard truths others choose to ignore. And we will not stop doing so. Nor will we stop asking more questions. The critical eye, in which so many of you find value and a reason to follow our work, remains wide open.

This year, we also questioned ourselves more often — an exercise necessary for our evolution and growth. We ask ourselves constantly whether using our capacity and energy to resist dehumanising systems could limit us in advancing the change we are fighting for. Clinging tightly to tunnel vision is counterproductive for us, the movement, and the world. In that spirit, we feel motivated to move forward with a broader lens and begin to draw the lines of our work to include ever more often the different perspectives, stories and efforts that are transforming the world one territory at a time.

In the past months, we also faced the complexity and total commitment that building and sustaining multiple simultaneous collaborations requires. When speaking of transformative change, we always discuss the importance of collective action, the power of togetherness, the richness in difference. Those seeking and catalysing change will know that putting this into practice is no easy task.

The growth of our team has been one of the most significant fruits of 2023. We are nine people in nine different countries, with diverse cultures, beliefs, and philosophies. Despite working in a remote model, we try to inhabit our collective and individual spaces by honouring the values that sustain us and that we want to see in the world. Doing this within the structure and guidelines of the non-profit model can be paradoxical because it represents much of what we fight against. Tying an organisation's actions to these boundaries can be dehumanising. We must prioritise our collective care amidst the growing pressure to perform, fundraise, grow, report, recalibrate, and strategise that comes with each year. We commit to continue carving out the space and systems needed to get better at this fundamental task for the well-being of the people who make AGC a living body in the food sovereignty movement and for the quality and depth of our work. We cannot claim to confront oppressive systems without doing so within our organisation. The space to explore, imagine, and dream; to listen, learn and unlearn; to confront contradictions together; is as essential to organising as is protest, denunciation, and resistance. Cultivating this culture of care is a constant practice.

Questioning our relationship to the productivity paradigm is helping us to cross new boundaries within our workflows and to think about the expectations we set for ourselves as a team. Our work is not just about churning out stories for passive consumption. Equally important is reproduction — the culture we build around those stories, so that they have the potential to weave their way into people’s lives to transform reality beyond the forms in which we present them. Reproduction can open up new paths we didn't allow ourselves to walk before. Like a seed, our work has the potential to grow, bear fruit, and be the source of more creative outpourings than we can imagine. Exploring this allows us to reclaim and augment our creative freedom and encourage the surrounding community to engage imaginatively with our work and reproduce it in plural ways.

Without you, there is no we. 

Our motivation to focus on possible worlds comes from the often paralysing reality of working in activism. In the process of peeling back one by one the myriad layers that make up systems of inequality, injustice, and control, exists the possibility of surrendering to frustration and abandoning all hope. The only way to confront this is in the refuge and power of togetherness. As dark as it seems in this struggle, each of us carries light in the form of dreams, beliefs, and reasons to fight back. The road ahead will become more visible as more of us walk it. 

Thousands of communities worldwide are committed to growing their cultures, defending their lands, and re-cultivating their autonomy. Now is the time to stand with them. Among those who claim to care about our liberation are speculators, crisis profiteers, and false saviours. It is our responsibility to resist the forces that wish to dehumanise us, to organise and support each other, and rise, together. Our uncertainty about the future does not have to feel so heavy. Remember, the pathways to a different world are within our reach. They have been carved for generations. The knowledge to access them is shared and passed across communities, imprinting a memory of self-determination in those who walk the path. The legacies of our ancestors, laden with wisdom, courage and resilience, will continue to guide us further. Their fight will not be in vain. Their memory will prevail.

“I will return, and I will be millions.” 

—Túpac Amaru II

In previous instalments, we shared how we aim to shape our approach to narrative change in a way that sheds light on the many realities that coexist within the food sovereignty movement, and dismantles the fictional borders between movement struggles and our own. We can only move forward in significant steps towards radical change by recognising that someone else’s liberation is tied to our own.

What we have learned in this work is that we aren’t simply supporting peasant communities' autonomy over the land and resources. We aren't only fighting against corporate control that denies our collective sovereignty. We aren’t just uplifting the voices of those who protect our vital biodiversity. Ultimately, we are deeply engaged in rhythm with the precious act of world-building. 

And world-building requires us all. 

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.

Do justly, now.

Love mercy, now.

You are not obligated to complete the work, neither are you free to abandon it.”

—Talmud

We made the decision not to create a paywall, in keeping with our value of making information open-source and freely available to all.

We have over 14,700 people in our Substack community, and 146 of you have decided to become paid subscribers. At this point, we are not breaking even on the expenses for this publication (the hours it takes to research and write cost more to the organisation than the donations we receive). Our aspiration is to eventually break even and become a fully reader-supported publication.

Any amount we receive from this publication goes into supporting our work with peasant and Indigenous communities around the world. If you have found value in these words and ideas, and you are in a position to donate, we would be so grateful if you chose to support us. And as always, thanks for reading.

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Every resource produced by A Growing Culture, whether a newsletter, article, post, or design, results from countless hours of research, reflection, and the synthesis of profound conversations held both within our team and with our partners and comrades. Behind the scenes, a wealth of effort goes into making these conversations happen, from overseeing our day-to-day operations, securing our funding, to forging deep relationships with communities around the world who are leading food systems transformation. These relationships fuel our thoughts, inform our words, and inspire our actions. 

We recognise that no single person can take credit for the work we collectively produce, which is why we prefer to sign as an organisation rather than as individuals. We believe that no idea is inherently our own and welcome anyone who sees value in our work to translate it, build upon it, adapt it to their own contexts, or share it however they see fit.