A just transition in agriculture: Examining labour conditions for new entrants in agroecological horticulture

In the wake of growing farmer unrest across Europe, there are questions around the ability of farming to remain economically viable whilst attending to ecosystem health within a globalised capitalist food economy (Sherrington, 2024). This project will develop new conceptual understandings of a green and just agricultural transition, asking what barriers prevent people from pursuing environmentally friendly horticultural careers; how agroecological horticulture can become more diverse and fair; and how the labour conditions in agroecology contribute to the fields of labour geography and political ecology.

Agroecology represents an already-existing set of ecological practices in food production. Its widespread adoption could provide healthy food whilst protecting ecosystem health (Albanito et al., 2022), but this is dependent on a significant increase in labour. On-farm labour shortages and abuses are a significant obstacle to UK food self-sufficiency and social justice (CPRE, 2019).

As the UK's agriculture sector grapples with ecological limits, this research will contribute to literature on the political ecology of green transitions and build an evidence base for securing better agricultural jobs (Gittins, 2023). As the government rebuilds farming and environmental policy after Brexit, there is also potential for geographic scholarship to have a meaningful impact on government policy.

Currently, gaps in government support for new entrants leave unaddressed the systemic challenges faced by people seeking to enter farming not as farm owners but as (landless) labourers and result in poor working conditions. Social science research shows farmworkers in horticulture are overworked and underpaid (Calo and Corbett, 2024). Horticulture enterprises practising more ecological models, like agroecology, reproduce these labour injustices (Autonomy, 2024).

This project attends to a research gap in the study of labour justice in agroecological movements. This study requires trans-disciplinary knowledge, analytical tools, ideas and methodologies which will be drawn from labour geographies, political ecology and critical agrarian studies to engage with and develop context-specific strategies to ensure fair and dignified labour conditions (Waite, 2009).

The project will be undertaken in partnership with the Landworkers' Alliance (LWA), a member-led union of farmers and land-based workers with over 1,600 members across England alone. With LWA, the project will examine the material conditions and experiences of new entrants in English agroecology to collaboratively produce new perspectives on labour justice in the agroecological transition.

With LWA's vital input, guidance and resources, this project will analyse new entrants as an agrarian movement (Diani, 1992), producing a social movement analysis designed to help improve LWA's strategies to make horticulture more accessible and viable to a diversity of new entrants.