By Alice Warrington
When I began my Master’s at the University of Manchester, the only exposure I had to small-scale organic agriculture was my Nan’s small greenhouse. Every summer we visited her house and picked her bright red tomatoes to share them in a salad. Agriculture to me was abstract, obscured by the thin plastic packaging and the uniform rows of identical produce that populated the fluorescent aisles of the big 5 supermarkets. Having only lived in cities, the ability to grow food was daunting and out of reach. It seemed almost mythical and definitely something I never saw myself taking part in. This began to change as my Master’s went on. In November of 2024 I attended a lecture on global agriculture and the lecturer said that if we wanted to examine climate change from a social and intersectional standpoint, we had to look at agriculture. It was from there that WWOOF, an organisation I had been aware of through my Instagram feed for years, came into focus.
As someone with an interest in social justice who understands the importance of human community to tackle something as daunting as climate change, WWOOF stuck out as a perfect case study for how local communities can come together to build something radically regenerative. My research into global industrial agriculture revealed their inherently extractive and exploitative nature. The more I researched the more I saw shocking statistics. For example, I learnt that 40% of the earth’s land surface is used for agriculture and an estimated 16-40% of this land is already lightly to severely degraded (Chappell and LaVelle, 2011). Additionally, when I looked to the UK’s agricultural landscape, I discovered that only 3% of UK farms are certified organic (DEFRA, 2024). With this background context I looked to WWOOF as an example of how organic and sustainable farming can not only produce good food to feed communities, but build community in of itself. This is where my thesis began to take shape.
My thesis examined how the immersive experiences offered through WWOOF has the ability to construct alternative climate futures in its participants. A key part of this research was my desire to take part in the WWOOF exchange myself and become fully immersed in the learning and growing process. With fond memories of picking tomatoes in my Nan’s greenhouse, I sought out the restorative experiences that could offer a radical agricultural future. Through the kindness of the WWOOF UK team and generosity of two wonderful hosts in the North West of England, I had the fantastic opportunity to spend 3 weeks living in the kind generosity of strangers and learn about the growing process. This fieldwork included a fieldwork diary where I recorded my own personal reflections on my stays and interviews with the growers and WWOOFers on both locations.
My first stay was at a certified organic co-operative about an hour and half away from Manchester. In typical British summer fashion, I arrived on a cloudy rainy day, which only made my new caravan home cosier. The first night on this trip was punctuated by the stillness of the countryside. Birdsong surrounded the fields and the only mechanical noise I could hear was the occasional din of the nearby A road. I experienced an overwhelming sense of peace coming from the chaos of Manchester. All that surrounded me was the green quiet of the fields and 2 weeks of learning ahead.
The summer solstice was a highlight of this first experience. The entire week had been spent preparing for this grand party, with the hopes that the glorious warm weather of the week would hold for the weekend. The weather held for the beginning of the festivities but whilst we were eating our buffet lunch of delicious handmade food a thunderstorm rolled in. We all huddled in one of the greenhouses whilst people attempted to bring crumble and custard into our new shelter. It got to the point where the lightning was literally crashing over our heads, the thin bright streaks lacing through the dark sky. I have a clear memory of a woman playing the fiddle as she walked through the greenhouse space, the thunder a percussion accompaniment to her music. We were all still chatting, sharing berry crumble and gazing in wonder at the lightning as nature’s clouds rolled past us. The community held everyone together. I just felt that this could not have happened without this growing space but also that this would not happen (in the same way) in the city. This small sustainable community continued to eat, talk and share crumble whilst lightning crashed around us; a community on the edge of a small apocalypse.
My second stay was an individual home where my WWOOF Host emphasised her effort to create a miniature commune and self-sufficient food supply. Located in a small village just outside of Lancaster, the house was based in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and surrounded on both sides by the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District. My host had rescue hens from a caged bird egg farm. Once these birds were emaciated and had never seen sunlight. Now, they live in luxury as very happy chickens. In a step towards circular economy, the eggs from these rescue hens were traded with people in the local community for certain food items she cannot make herself, such as milk or cheese.
Throughout my week stay I was floored by the wealth of knowledge my host had about the local environment, especially when it came to foraging. Pineapple weed, bilberries, wild raspberries and nettles were picked, preserved and transformed from a mass of green into delicious meals. The days were spent gardening, foraging in the local moorland and cooking together. Cooking in particular was a cornerstone of this second experience because each WWOOFer brought with them a new recipe. Our host had a recipe book which contained recipes from other WWOOFers. When that book has been completed it will not only hold recipes but important memories, tastes, conversations and experiences that the recipes hold within them.
Community once again revealed itself to be one of WWOOF’s greatest strengths. On both properties I met and interacted with people from all over the world, each with their own motivations, dreams and reasons why they decided to spend their time living and participating in a WWOOF. The international network of people who care was fundamentally transformative because as a participant I felt part of a movement bigger than myself, a galvanising force when terms such as “climate change” and “industrial agriculture” feel so impossibly big.
When I returned to Manchester to transcribe all the interviews and observations, I saw a clear pattern in both places. I split these insights into three sections: anti-capitalist critique, organic community building and future climate resilience. To WWOOF is to decentre capitalist ideas of productivity and embrace the circular regenerative community of relying on the good will of others. When on both properties I saw that the needs of growers and producers were put above market desire; food is thus re-spatialised as a significant part of human life (Agarwal, 2014). Within this re-spatialisation is community and in the face of an uncertain climate future, these communities band together and continue to build environments of joy and celebration, much like eating crumble in a thunderstorm. The main motivation for people to participate in WWOOFing and small scale farming was the concept of building resilience for the future. The collective pessimism of participants at our agricultural future was only combatted by the belief that what they were doing was inherently “right” and worked towards a resilient future.
What WWOOF represents for climate change and agriculture academia is an opportunity to be an active part in a resilient solution to the problems of our climate future. It can help to build a radical new approach to how we grow, not just vegetables, but a new regenerative society. After leaving my second WWOOF place I realised that WWOOFing is definitely addictive. You are offered a taste of how you could be living and then have to return to confront your life reality. It has made me think about what I actually want and where I want to be. To WWOOF is to embrace change and approach life’s possibilities with an open mind and I will certainly be going on more WWOOFs in future. Maybe one day I will have a small greenhouse of my own, with my own ripe tomatoes and baskets of foraged fruits. What this research revealed was that we need to learn to grow our own food and build community. This is because when the apocalypse comes we cannot rely on capitalism or existing food systems. It will not keep us safe. But our own “villages”, whether literal or metaphorical, might, and that is WWOOF’s greatest strength.
Many thanks to Alice for sharing all of these insights with us and agreeing to write for us even after having just written a thesis for an MSc in Climate Change: Science, Society and Solutions at the University of Manchester. We’re very happy to have been able to help Alice with this research project, it’s been a privilege. Good luck on the road ahead, Alice!
Disclaimer: It should be noted that hosts receive guests solely as part of an immersive learning experience, in line with WWOOF UK’s educational charitable aims. Visitors participate in the host’s lifestyle, in order to learn. There is no formalised or contractual agreement and the residential visitors (WWOOFers) are free to come and go at will, so are not considered workers. WWOOFers are absolutely not a substitute for paid labour. Any mention of the words ‘work’ or ‘exchange’ in reviews, articles and other content created by our membership is language chosen by the author and not sanctioned by WWOOF.
