Organicism, fascism and reparations at this year’s Oxford Real Farming Conference

What does an anti-fascist farming movement look like? That’s the over-arching question for our panel at this year’s Oxford Real Farming Conference, as speakers grapple with the disquiet and difficult questions raised by our food and farming movement’s entanglement with fascism and the far right.

Difficult questions like what are the implications of how the organic movement was formed a hundred years ago for people and organisations in the food and farming sector today? How might we handle the dreams we have inherited from the pioneers of organicism, some of whom were also advocates of white supremacy, authoritarianism and even fascism? And how can we sharpen our thinking in order that we can envision more just pathways towards planetary repair?

These are urgent questions which we need to get a tight grip on and answer. This starts by addressing the reformist culture of doing things slowly and in moderation, which often pervades discussions around these issues. As it enters the second century of its existence, the UK organic movement appears to have failed to find a convenient season to tackle an elephant in the room.

Organicism and fascism in the UK

We take you on a whistlestop tour of organicism and fascism in the UK in A Little Book of Legacies. Including the threads connecting 1924’s organic evangelists with the UK riots of 2024; how organicism fed into and drew strength from nationalist fear of imperial decline; and key players linking organicism and fascism like Oswald Mosley, Rudolf Steiner and Jorian Jenks.

The organic movement, and more recently grassroots movement for agroecology and food sovereignty, have been trying to dream of a way of producing food that is an alternative to industrial agriculture. But, for almost a century, the apparent inertia of the UK organic movement has made it hard to build visions that do not assume the continuation of white supremacy and patriarchy being at the core of the food and farming system.

But how long is this going to take us? Yes, the discussions involved may prompt uncomfortable emotions. They are not always easy to speak or write about. They might offend some. But it’s important to resist the urge to take immediate action to throw off feelings of anger, rejection, blame, guilt, shame or complicity.

What needs to happen

It is now our collective responsibility to work out who benefits from the current system and therefore has the resources and responsibility to change it. The rising power of overtly pro-fascist billionaires makes our task all the more urgent.

Even in the unlikely event that the far-right withers in the coming years, our movements will face the continued mass migration of people to Europe from the Global South in the face of ever-more extreme farming conditions caused by climate change. How will we develop a strategy to combat the narratives of hate levelled against people fleeing for their lives?

Unless many movements – many who are represented at the Oxford Real Farming Conference –  quickly start working together to form a broad front against the far right, we could succeed in creating a slightly better food and farming system while we see our basic rights increasingly being trampled.

For reparations to take place, we don’t need white saviours. But we do need people who are able to develop the skills to work together across differences and finally embed justice in our movements.

Much to discuss. Even more to do.

Our session What Does an Anti-Fascist Farming Movement Look Like? is on Thursday 9 January at Oxford Real Farming Conference and available to stream online. Speakers are Alex Heffron, Sagari R Ramdas and Seeding Reparations’ Tom Wakeford, alongside chair Sophia Doyle.

Check out Seeding Reparation’s linktree to find out more and get involved.