CULTIVATING EQUALITY: WOMEN WORKING WITH LAND

Inspired by Grampian Graziers and Lauriston Agroecology Farm in Scotland // Photography by Sophie Gerrard // Poetry by Iona Lee // Exhibited at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow

MAY/JUNE 2024

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‘THE SEED KIST’

Words by Hot Poet Iona Lee
Photography by Sophie Gerrard
Inspired by Lauriston Farm in Edinburgh

The seed kist,
quite unassuming,
this weather beaten box,
this once discarded ark,
forgotten, was left collecting
cobwebs in the fallow dark.
But look at what’s locked
inside: keepsakes
from seasons past.

The seed kist,
sowing kit, now sits
on this once forsaken seam
between the Firth of Forth
and the outskirts of our city,
feeding a dream.

Think of it
like a library, containing
books that could be written,
conserving what will be –
given half the chance.

Seeds,
at once alive
and latent, waiting
with the patience of grain
for winter’s revolution,
for faithful spring’s refrain,
to do their lifework.
They have imagination,
so do the people here; the curiosity
of water.

Can you see
the orchard in that empty field;
What stirs beneath the earth?

Pass today
through a riddle. Winnow
the future from the past.
They’ve planted willow,
wych elm, aspen, alder,
asked: what if? Why not?
Let’s try.

Next year, they’ll harvest
sweetcorn, sweet pea
and dumpling pumpkin
from the seed-kissed soil.

Let them feed you a secret:
abundance is endless,
and ever-replenishing.
It’s a perpetual motion
organic machine.

Like that old adage
of rice on a chessboard –
the hours on a sunflower’s
clock-face add up to infinity.
Community’s the cure for nihilism,
when apathy is routine.

The bees’ ignition.
To restart the garden,
it begins with a spark,
a bulb, the seed of an idea.

Someone to lift the lid
and see that what remains
in the box is hope – homegrown.

This disenchanted landscape
can disclose, un-forgetting
what it’s always known:
that there was never nothing
here, only everything –
and that matters.

For what’s
a stretch of barren land
but an understorey?
What’s a seed, if not
the promise of a tree?

And what is one?
There’s never ‘one’,
only many.

So, say: what is woodland,
but nature’s green-hinged
invitation; that canopy
to which the future climbs.

Concert hall
for an orchestra of songbirds.
And what is a tune made of,
but time?

ABOUT THIS STORY

Sons inherit Scottish farms in 85% of cases, yet over half of UK family farm workers are women. The Scottish government’s own Women in Agriculture Taskforce concluded that their contribution can be “undervalued, downplayed or simply unseen”.

But change is ahoof: more women than men now attend agricultural college, inspired by emerging examples of equality…

Out on the hills, Nikki Yoxall runs Grampian Graziers, embracing the ability of other beings – pasture and tree fed native cattle – to revive the species-rich grassland that is in decline across Scotland.

In Edinburgh, Lauriston Farm is run by a majority-women workers cooperative, who are drawing on the power of local people to restore a 100-acre urban growing site.

Across many Indigenous cultures, women were custodians of seed, farming and food, before colonial, patriarchal and industrial domination pushed them to the field margins. It is from those verges that transformation stems, blooming beyond boundaries.

ONE THING YOU CAN DO

Our Environment Partners for this story highlight one thing we can all do to support the women working with Scot-land:

UK & Ireland Seed Sovereignty Programme:

If you are growing this season, use seed that is local, organic, and open-pollinated. Find those seeds and community at the Glasgow Seed Library, buy from the country’s first commercial seed producers Seeds of Scotland, or learn how to grow, save and share seed yourself with us at the Seed Sovereignty Programme.

Pasture for Life:

Strengthen your connection to the food you are eating and to those who produce it by buying from your local Pasture for Life farms, who actively work in harmony with nature. Small changes from all of us can create the biggest impacts.

HEAR FROM OUR CONTRIBUTORS

“You’re wrestling with the title of Farmer’s Wife. There’s not many industries where you’re so quickly demoted and it’s so constant.”

– Sophie Gerrard, photographer

Hear from the incredible contributors to our Scottish story in this Regenerative Conversation about Women in agriculture and restorative farming:

Regenerative Conversation: Women in Agriculture

“WAYS OF SPEAKING ARE WAYS OF WORLDBUILDING”

Listen to Iona, Sophie and growers at Lauriston Farm discuss We Feed The UK on BBC Radio Scotland:

“My relationship with nature is through language. I love that there is lichen called water speckled midnight, and a mushroom called the flirt. It has been interesting using that skillset to translate the great work being done here… Manners of speaking are manners of worldbuilding, so even if you don’t have access to green space you can access it through literature. To name something is to know it.” Iona Lee, poet

“WHERE ARE THE WOMEN’S STORIES?”

“I’ve been visualising our landscape through the eyes of those who are often under represented for a long time. I really think our landscape is part of our identity in Scotland. Yet, that’s a story predominantly told by men. Where are the women’s stories? Where are their viewpoints?” Sophie Gerrard, photographer

See Sophie’s photography in the high profile arts magazine, Aesthetica:

Read Sophie’s interview in Aesthetica

Download the exhibition flyer, with a printable poster featuring Iona’s poem and Sophie’s photography

Download PDF

Cultivating-Equality-exhibition-minigraph