What are the kind of jobs that make up the sustainable food and farming movement? What are the challenges in becoming part of that movement? Is it open to everyone? And what can we do to make the sector more accessible?
These are just some of the questions explored in this new film, shot in the summer of 2023. Following a call from its board to reflect more diverse stories and encourage wider participation in the movement, Sustain invited four trustees to speak about their routes into the world of food and farming.
The short documentary film hears from trustees Shefalee Loth, from Which?; Dr Kawther Hashem from Action on Salt, Sugar and Health; Jyoti Fernandes, from Landworkers' Alliance and Raksha Mistry from the Soil Association. They speak about challenges and opportunities in their roles and sectors, from access to land to perceptions of being a woman of colour, and touch on cross-cutting issues in food justice and public health.
The film, shot by videographer Anouk Witkowska Hiffler, and produced and directed by Sustain, travels to the trustee's places of work, from a farm in Dorset to a school in Leicesteshire, stopping off at Sustain's London offices and Queen Mary's University.
All four trustees were elected at Sustain's 2020 Council of Trustees elections which resulted in greater diversity in Sustain's leadership group.
Sustain has previously recognised the urgency to improve diversity and food justice and reports annually on our progress in this area. Part of this work is outreach that engages and supports increased diversity across the sector, which is being led by Sustain's recently apppointed Diversity Outreach Coordinator, Sareta Puri. Over the coming months Sareta will be working with partners across food and farming and in education to develop more pathways into the sector and to amplify much of the transformational work that is currently happening already across the sector.
Sustian hopes that the film highlights the breadth of diverse and inspirational talent within the food and farming sector and can inspire more people from ethnically diverse backgrounds to persue careers within food and farming. Its jobs platform Roots to Work aims to help people connect and raise the profile of career opportunities within the sector
Find out more about Sustain's work on diversity, equity, inclusion and racial justice.
