A belly full of natural gas and other fictions of self-sufficiency Does a greenhouse full of peppers and tomatoes bathing in the warmth of natural gas and fed a diet of fertilisers really represent food security and self-sufficiency?

A belly full of natural gas and other fictions of self-sufficiency:

Does a greenhouse full of peppers and tomatoes bathing in the warmth of natural gas and fed a diet of fertilisers really represent food security and self-sufficiency?

thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/a-belly-fu...

He's correct

If it's based on importing all the raw ingredients then how is it any more secure than importing the final food product itself? This isn't real farming.

honestly sometimes I wish I could go back on there but I'm generally so glad I left. It was when I realised not only how annoyed I was getting with others but how much I was annoying myself that I realised it's time to pack it in.

screenshot: A government spokesperson said: “We reject that our NPPF proposals are linked to lobbying – we have carefully considered how we can support all sectors whilst reflecting wider government priorities such as food security and safeguarding the environment.”

UK looks to relax planning rules for factory farms after industry lobbying Exclusive: documents chronicle years-long campaign to make it easier to build intensive livestock units

This is one of the reasons why I've been cautioning against trying to tap into the food security discourse – they'll use it to justify abominations like intensive poultry units:

(see image in next post to see how gov justifies it)

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Slide showing event key info: Event: Symposium Title: Culture and the 21st-Century Agrarian Question Date: April 21 Time: 10.30a.m.-6p.m. Location: Durham University (Waterside Building | Business School | Room: WB-0003-0004) Organiser: This event is organised by the Centre for Culture and Ecology. Speakers: Sourit Bhattacharya, Hannah Green, Daniel Hartley, Amanda Herbert, Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, Douglas Spencer

Slide showing programme schedule: 10.30-10.45 – Welcome and Introduction (Organiser: Daniel Hartley) 10.45 – 11.45 – Amanda Herbert (Durham University): ‘The Edible Commons: Food Rights and Local Fisheries in England, Virginia, and Jamaica, c. 1630-1830’ 11.45-12.45 – Sourit Bhattacharya (Edinburgh University): ‘“Aesthetics of Hunger”: Mahasweta Devi’s Irreal Tales’ 12.45-13.45 – Lunch 13.45-14.45 – Daniel Hartley (Durham University): ‘The Cultural Logic of “Eating Well”: From the Early Marx to the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement’ 14.45–15.45 – Hannah Green (Bristol and Aberystwyth Universities): ‘“This land is so much younger than ourselves”: 21st-century narratives of depeasantization in Jim Crace’s Harvest (2013) and Tom Branfoot’s boar (2023)’ 15.45-16.00 – Break 16.00-17.00 – Douglas Spencer (Iowa State University): ‘Crises of representation in the landscapes of end-stage capitalism’ 17.00-18.00 – Clara Olóriz Sanjuán (Architectural Association School of Architecture): ‘Planetary Landscapes: Architecture(s) in Climate, Care and Food Crises’

On Tuesday April 21, I'll be hosting an in-person (non-recorded) one-day symposium on "Culture and the 21st-Century Agrarian Question" at Durham University. Details in the images, booking link below. All welcome!

I'm recruiting for my PhD research, please share with anyone who you think maybe be interested 👌

I also critique localism which I think is a failed and problematic ideology and one that must be left behind and instead we must forge a new outlook that is attendant to the current conjuncture

'currently favoured' is more what I was meaning

Is the UK really 60% self-sufficient in food? On the myths of self-sufficiency, localism and nationalism, and why it matters for the project of food sovereignty at a time of global eco-apartheid

I wrote about whether the UK really is 60% self-sufficient in food production (spoiler: it's not). But rather than making the currently very favourable move of saying We Must Produce More – I question whether self-sufficiency has much valence at all:

thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/is-the-uk-...

What in the Gestapo is going on in Grand Rapids?

Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.

The US is engaged in imperialist war at a world scale and Starmer is very happy to support that (thus the UK is also engaged in imperialist war at a world scale)

Over and over the US inflicts obscene violence against the global South, in flagrant violation of international law, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation for its decadent billionaire class. It's disgusting and intolerable. We cannot continue to accept this.

Abajo con el imperialismo, abajo con el estados unidos, solidaridad con el pueblo de Venezuela

Agroecology as revolutionary, anti-imperialist, class struggle What would it mean to reorient the project of agroecology in the global north around the aims of revolutionary, anti-imperialist, class struggle?

“Dreams of a ‘fair price’ for farmers is not a realisable demand due to the inherent contradiction that exists between food production & the profit motive.”

Agroecology as revolutionary, anti-imperialist, class struggle - @alexheffron.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/thestrug...

Really interesting food for thought (pun intended) from @alexheffron.bsky.social....embedding sustainability produced local food as a universal basic right is a great way to start imaging a transition away from global agribusiness

@mikegrunwald.bsky.social brings fresh energy to an everlasting idea: To reduce agriculture's environmental impact, we need to make "more with less."

New episode of Landscapes: "More with Less"
plinkhq.com/i/1552882054

'Nationalise everything' (or why we need a People's Food Service) Zarah Sultana recently said we need to nationalise the entire economy. What I put forward here is a brief plan for a People's Food Service, which both supports farmers and tackles food poverty.

New post: Zarah Sultana recently said we need to nationalise the entire economy. What I put forward here is a brief plan for a People's Food Service, which both supports farmers and tackles food poverty.

thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/nationalis...

'Nationalise everything' (or why we need a People's Food Service) Zarah Sultana recently said we need to nationalise the entire economy. What I put forward here is a brief plan for a People's Food Service, which both supports farmers and tackles food poverty.

New post: Zarah Sultana recently said we need to nationalise the entire economy. What I put forward here is a brief plan for a People's Food Service, which both supports farmers and tackles food poverty.

thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/nationalis...

Showing this to my 6 year old

BREAKING: Quesser Zuhrah is taken to hospital after crowds gathered at HMP Bronzefield following her rapid health deterioration after 46days of hunger strike.

There are seven more hunger strikers currently facing critical health deterioration. Support them by visiting PrisonersForPalestine.org

Agroecologisation What would it mean to agroecologise socio-ecological relations at a time of climate breakdown, war and genocide? How does agroecology stop this destruction and refashion a new world?

New Substack: 'Perhaps we became so enamoured with our own gardens we retreated from the wider world, and in doing so neglected to contest the future for everyone.'

thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/agroecolog...

In defence of jury trials rs21 - revolutionary socialism in the 21st century

DK Renton argues that David Lammy’s proposal to severely cut the number of jury trials is another authoritarian step by Labour.

revsoc21.uk/2025/11/30/i...

Bar (?) chart showing land area farmed organically in the UK. in 2002 about 725,000 hectares, in 2022 500K ha

By land mass that is yes - and got worse over time as far as I can see. Now organic methods have become more adopted in recent times via regen, but that's a whole can of worms and I'm not sure regen can still be considered much beyond marginal in national terms either.

Towards an agroecological theory of change Small, privately-owned farms and localised markets can never achieve agroecology, therefore the movement needs a new strategy.

New post where I push a little bit further on my previous writing on agroecology being a project of class suicide and why this means small privately-owned farms are not the vehicle of change for agroecology as too often supposed

thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/towards-an...

‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war
By @alexheffron.bsky.social and @tom-cb.bsky.social
buff.ly/eine9eg

We really need to defeat these fascist pigs - cos they're coming for us

‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.

Looking at the way Reform and the far right are trying to leverage rural resentments against solar farms. Given that most farmers are concerned by climate change – does this actually make Reform anti-farmer?

Enjoyed writing this with @tom-cb.bsky.social

theconversation.com/you-cant-eat...

‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.

Looking at the way Reform and the far right are trying to leverage rural resentments against solar farms. Given that most farmers are concerned by climate change – does this actually make Reform anti-farmer?

Enjoyed writing this with @tom-cb.bsky.social

theconversation.com/you-cant-eat...