We hear lots of stories about agriculture, about farmers and about food. The stories we tell about our food system reflect our relationship to agricultural practice, to other actors in the food system and to the natural environment. Telling our stories can be an empowering act of raising one’s own voice and demonstrating own lived realities and viewpoints.

So, what are our stories, and what stories do we want to tell? These questions ignited a participatory video process among five female farmers of Toekomstboeren. The process was designed in a collaborative way between academics and a member of Toekomstboeren. How, and where, the videos are shared was agreed upon as a group.

Each farmer recorded their individual stories following the guiding question: “What moves you as an agroecological farmer?”. We then watched and discussed the individual stories as a group to weave connections and explore commonalities or diversity from the inside out. Our aim was to build strength in the agroecological movement by offering a medium to record personal stories and creating a space to exchange and reflect within Toekomstboeren and in SWIFT. The videos presented here are some of those personal stories recorded by Toekomstboeren in Spring and Summer 2024.