Across continents, languages and landscapes, young people are not waiting to be invited to transform food systems, they are already doing it through agroecology. The fourth issue of Rooted Magazine brings together voices and stories from youth who are reclaiming land, seeds, knowledge and community in ways that challenge dominant food systems while nurturing alternatives grounded in care, resilience and justice. What emerges is not a single narrative of ‘youth in agriculture’, but a mosaic of lived experiences that reveal agroecology as both a practice and a movement that is deeply social, political and intergenerational.
At a time when global food systems are increasingly industrialised, extractive and disconnected from ecological realities, young people are navigating a complex terrain. Many face barriers to accessing land, resources and decision-making spaces. Others confront the erosion of Indigenous and local knowledge systems, climate instability and economic uncertainties. Even with these constraints, the examples in this issue show that youth are not passive victims, they are active agents of transformation, recognising the possibilities that agroecology holds for them.
This issue shows that youth are not passive victims; they are active agents of transformation
In various contexts, young people are revitalising seed systems, protecting biodiversity and reasserting the importance of local knowledge. Their seed banks, community learning spaces and other farmer-led initiatives emerge as powerful tools, not only for food production, but for cultural continuity and autonomy. These efforts reduce dependency on external inputs and corporate-controlled systems, and are instead strengthening local resilience and self-determination.
What is very clear from the contributions to this issue, many of which are written by authors under 35, is that young people have enormous energy for testing and evidencing new ideas. In Nepal, a national network of young farmers have learnt that: ‘Change does not start with permission – it starts with practice’. In Spain, young people are attracting peers to a cooperative supermarket through ‘seeing and tasting’. Similarly, in Sri Lanka young people are saying: ‘Our response is not to argue but to demonstrate.’
Bridging worlds
At the same time, youth are bridging worlds. They move between rural and urban spaces, between tradition and innovation, between ancestral practices and new forms of organising. Agroecology, in their hands, is not static; it is evolving through experimentation, collective learning and solidarity across borders. For young people, conversations around just, ecologically sound futures are tangible and have a deep weight.
Creative (and effective!) new forms of agroecological training are being spearheaded by young people, as shown by the ‘Agroecology Bootcamp’ in Ivory Coast, the ‘Strong Roots’ educational forest garden in the Indigenous Choco community in Ecuador, and the student-led ‘Tour of Agricultural France’. Agroecology is best learned by doing, playing and belonging, as two experiences from Brazil demonstrate. A collection of short stories in this issue highlights how classrooms without walls are key to the integration of agroecology in formal educational institutions. Indeed, agroecology requires this kind of education that “reclaims beauty, joy and creativity as legitimate foundations of knowledge” as argued by Liann Shannon.
In this issue, young people themselves are sharing how agroecology is a pathway for reclaiming their dignity and identity. Many of them have been told that farming is backward or unprofitable; for these youth, engaging in agroecology becomes a way to reimagine what it means to be a farmer, food producer or agroecological entrepreneur. It is about pride, purpose and connection to land, to community and to future generations.
In places where migration away from rural areas is a major problem, young people are rising up. In Colombia, a young farmer organisation is bringing new jobs and healthier diets to rural populations, while in Italy, young people are ‘returning to resist’ through educational activities. After several years of training and establishing micro-enterprises for agroecology, youth in the east of Honduras are no longer seen as ‘the future that leaves’ but as ‘the present that restores’.
On a similar note, many of the experiences that were shared with us point at the interest of youth in the revival of traditional crops and knowledge, and in the deeply restorative work this entails. The integration of native bees into agriculture is at the heart of a beautiful initiative by a group of young Mayans in Mexico. In Maharashtra, the state with the highest number of farmer suicides in India, youth are growing indigenous cotton not as a market experiment, but as an act of repair. And militant action researchers in Peru are accompanying young farmers and migrant women in their efforts to revitalise food cultures and age-old relationships of reciprocity with the land.
We also have immense appreciation for the creative contributions of young people to this issue that speak to new imaginaries, such as a collage by students in Ithaca, US that portrays ‘what agroecology means to them’ and a poem from a Brazilian author that starts with the words ‘Youth walks where the earth remembers’.
Overcoming structural barriers
While youth are often recognised rhetorically as ‘the future’, their voices are frequently excluded from decision-making processes that shape food systems today. Although their innovations are celebrated and valued, to truly support youth in agriculture we must also address the structural inequalities that limit their potential.
Youth need to be valorised as active changemakers in the movement
Agroecology, through participation, calls for a reconfiguration of power, one that recognises youth not just as beneficiaries, but as leaders, knowledge holders and driving forces of change. Youth participation in global food governance however currently mainly serves to reproduce policymaking mechanisms that legitimise co-optation and exclusion, argues Ida Simonsen, and she proposes ways to build better participation structures for young people. A ‘nothing about us, without us’ approach sees youth (and other stakeholders) as co-creators rather than a group to be surveyed or to simply inform change. Youth need to be valorised as active changemakers in the movement – at every level, from policy change and research to field work and action on the ground.
Access to land remains one of the most pressing challenges. Without secure land rights, many young agroecological practitioners operate in conditions of uncertainty, limiting their ability to invest in long-term ecological practices. For adolescent mothers in Uganda who did have access to backyard gardens, these have become spaces of liberation in lives constrained by poverty, dependence and stigma.
The younger generation understands how to harness digital tools in ways that strengthen agroecological movements. From sharing knowledge through social media and online learning spaces to coordinating networks and documenting local innovations, digital technologies allow youth to connect communities, amplify farmer voices and exchange ideas across borders in ways that were not possible for previous generations. Youth all over the world uses technology in various ways to transform their communities, create dignified jobs and revitalise traditional knowledge within the modern globalised context.
Young farmer heroes in Congo are becoming living focal points of change with the use of digital tools. While these tools can be helpful, as an opinion piece explains, caution is warranted to ensure data sovereignty and community control. Young leaders can potentially support autonomous digital transitions in agroecology, argues a group of authors, but only with proper training and support.
The power of youth-led collective action
What makes this young generation of farmers special is their understanding of the broader systemic challenges that inform their conditions. They are aware that in a time and age shaped by the increasingly visible effects of the climate and ecological crisis and digital interconnectedness, agriculture entails more than understanding one’s local context and farming practices. The experiences shared in this issue show the matter-of-factness with which young people embrace organising and networking as a core element of their work.
Many youth today fully understand the complexity of global food systems, ecology and social struggles and are playing key roles in building intergenerational, intercultural movements, as we learnt from our interview with two leaders of the National Farmers Union in Nova Scotia. Similarly, in countries that are strongly affected by climate change, we see that youth are leading the way in organising for change. In Zambia young people are setting up empowering learning circles for agroecology, in Cabo Verde youth movements are organising access to water and land, and in Kenya young farmers are mobilising a much-needed labour force for agroecology by going from farm to farm.
The collective experience of youth globally can help agroecology to ally and enmesh with resonant movements and communities
Whether in their local communities or through cross-regional networks, these collective spaces are essential for sharing knowledge and building solidarity to resist the systems that marginalise people and ecosystems. This issue of Rooted exhibits that agroecology is not only about techniques or practices, but also about relationships: between humans and nature, between generations, and between movements. It is about care, reciprocity and the recognition that food systems are deeply intertwined with social and ecological justice.
Each of these stories offers a window into the ways young people are reimagining food systems in their own contexts. Together, they challenge dominant narratives that portray youth as disengaged or uninterested in sustainability futures, agriculture, biodiversity conservation and community development. Instead, they reveal a generation that is deeply committed not only to producing food, but to transforming the systems that govern how food is grown, shared and valued. The collective experience of youth globally can help agroecology to ally and enmesh with resonant movements and communities through the common struggle for greater access to fair, just livelihoods and freedoms.
This Rooted Magazine issue is an invitation to listen to youth voices, not as a token gesture, but as a necessary step towards building just food systems. An invitation to recognise agroecology as a living, evolving practice shaped by those on the frontlines. And an invitation to reflect on how we can collectively support the conditions that allow youth to thrive within agroecology because the future of food is not something that will simply arrive. This future is already being cultivated by many enthusiastic young hands in fields, streets, communities and movements around the world.
Authors: Simon Bukenya (29) is the coordinator for the Youth and Agroecology Working Group at the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and is also its Program Coordinator for Agroecology and Climate Change, based in Uganda. Martha Soriano (38) is Youth co-representative on the 2025-2026 Board of Directors of the Latin American Society for Agroecology (SOCLA) and the head of the forestry department at Morelia ‘s City Council, Michoacan, Mexico. Dan Connor (27) is a co-founder of Talamh Óg, an organisation of young farmers and landworkers in Ireland, and part of the youth articulation of the European Coordination of La Via Campesina (ECVC). Dan is currently a seed farmer in North London. Solina Diallo (29) is an editor of Rooted Magazine and engaged in grassroots activism, anthropological research and community theatre with a focus on food system transformation, ecology and colonialism. Contact: solinadwriting@proton.me
This article is the introduction to Issue 4-2026: Youth leading the way in agroecology.
