Agroecology as gendered activism: New, women farmers in Australia and the Netherlands

Agroecological farming can be understood as an expression of ecological, social, and political activism and resistance to the dominant agrifood system. Previous studies have linked new farmers and women farmers to these objectives. This paper investigates the motivations and expressions of resistance of new, women agroecological farmers across two major sites of global agrifood: Australia and the Netherlands. It draws on in-depth interviews with new, female agroecological farmers in Australia (n=17) and The Netherlands (n=19). It asks whether these shared objectives manifest in similar or different political activism. It examines factors such as the influence of connections to global movements, degrees of collectivism, and how activism is constructed as gendered. The analysis is informed by a framework that combines feminist political ecology and diverse economies literature. Feminist political ecology allows for an analysis of how social relations shape resource distribution, access, and control. Diverse economies frameworks, such as Vincent and Feola (2020), help to make visible the alternative ways in which these farmers construct ontology, economic relations, the state, and knowledge. Across both Australia and the Netherlands, interviewees saw farming as a way to make anti-capitalist alternatives visible, as a way to demonstrate the importance of reconnecting to the environment and community, and as a vehicle for disrupting gender norms. Their farming practices represented a form of resistance in terms of ontology, relationship to knowledge, economic relations, and their relationship with the state. In practice, this involved creating farmer collectives, educating consumers and other farmers, communicating the importance of agroecology across multiple mediums, and lobbying the state for regulatory reform. The goals of the participants were similar across both sites, but the way they interpreted and enacted these values was shaped by their social and geographic locations. Dutch farmers were more connected to global movements and locally networked than Australian farmers, contributing to a more radical expression of resistance. For example, Dutch participants had explored more diverse economic relations, such as charging customers based on their income level. This paper contributes to our understanding of the gendered, spatial, and relational elements of agroecological activism. It highlights the practices of farmers who are moving beyond the celebration and promotion of alternatives to industrial agrifood by becoming strategic and politicised. Vincent, O., Feola, G., 2020. A framework for recognizing diversity beyond capitalism in agri-food systems. Journal of Rural Studies 80, 302-313.