Rural Youth in Germany: The Convergence of Feminist, Agrarian and Environmental Agendas in the "Jabl"

Who will produce the food of the future and under what conditions? In an uncertain context in which climate change threatens biodiversity and the agri-food industry has tended to become a global market, new generations of farmers are organising themselves to make political demands for alternative models of agrarian development. The aim of this research is to analyse the political demands and imaginaries of young farmers in Germany. Feminist political ecology is used as a theoretical lens, as it challenges hierarchical dualisms and proposes to pay attention to relations of care between humans and within nature, seeking to find insights to traverse the possible multiple crises we are inhabiting. The methodology is based on an in-depth case study of the food movement Arbeitsgemeischaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft e.V. (AbL) in Germany, with a special focus on the youth faction of the movement (jAbL). The study is based on in-depth interviews with members of the movement, participant observation and content analysis of documents, data collected in 2022 and 2023. The results show that young farmers are setting a new agrarian agenda for overcoming food inequalities, based on key socio-environmental challenges. Traditional agrarian struggles such as access to land, fair working conditions and food sovereignty remain at the heart of their demands; however, struggles for gender equality, including queer identities, social inclusion and concerns about the impact of climate crises are now at the centre of young farmers' struggles in Germany, thus broadening the agenda of fighting intersectional inequalities. The construction of these new agrarian imaginaries is interpreted through the lenses of care and earthcare, which allow us to delineate an emerging ethic in the agrarian struggle, led by young people. This points out the relevance of the convergence of feminist, agrarian and climate change agendas, and the urgent need to build broad alliances.