Sign in

Alex Heffron

@alexheffron.bsky.social
1.4K followers 446 following 734 posts

Father. Farmer's husband. Full time PhD researching the political economy of farming and farmland. ND. he/him. Writing: linktr.ee/AlexHeffron

PostsRepliesMedia
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
A belly full of natural gas and other fictions of self-sufficiency: Does a greenhouse full of peppers and tomatoes bathing in the warmth of natural gas and fed a diet of fertilisers really represent food security and self-sufficiency? thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/a-belly-fu...
thestruggleforland.substack.com
A belly full of natural gas and other fictions of self-sufficiency
Does a greenhouse full of peppers and tomatoes bathing in the warmth of natural gas and fed a diet of fertilisers really represent food security and self-sufficiency?
032
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
This is one of the reasons why I've been cautioning against trying to tap into the food security discourse – they'll use it to justify abominations like intensive poultry units: (see image in next post to see how gov justifies it) www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
UK looks to relax planning rules for factory farms after industry lobbying
Exclusive: documents chronicle years-long campaign to make it easier to build intensive livestock units
150
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Daniel Hartley @danieljhartley.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
On Tuesday April 21, I'll be hosting an in-person (non-recorded) one-day symposium on "Culture and the 21st-Century Agrarian Question" at Durham University. Details in the images, booking link below. All welcome!
Slide showing event key info:
Event: Symposium
Title: Culture and the 21st-Century Agrarian Question
Date: April 21
Time: 10.30a.m.-6p.m.
Location: Durham University (Waterside Building | Business School | Room: WB-0003-0004)
Organiser: This event is organised by the Centre for Culture and Ecology.
Speakers: Sourit Bhattacharya, Hannah Green, Daniel Hartley,  Amanda Herbert,  Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, Douglas SpencerSlide showing programme schedule:
10.30-10.45 – Welcome and Introduction (Organiser: Daniel Hartley)

10.45 – 11.45 – Amanda Herbert (Durham University): ‘The Edible Commons: Food Rights and Local Fisheries in England, Virginia, and Jamaica, c. 1630-1830’

11.45-12.45 – Sourit Bhattacharya (Edinburgh University): ‘“Aesthetics of Hunger”: Mahasweta Devi’s Irreal Tales’

12.45-13.45 – Lunch

13.45-14.45 – Daniel Hartley (Durham University): ‘The Cultural Logic of “Eating Well”: From the Early Marx to the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement’

14.45–15.45 – Hannah Green (Bristol and Aberystwyth Universities): ‘“This land is so much younger than ourselves”: 21st-century narratives of depeasantization in Jim Crace’s Harvest (2013) and Tom Branfoot’s boar (2023)’

15.45-16.00 – Break

16.00-17.00 – Douglas Spencer (Iowa State University): ‘Crises of representation in the landscapes of end-stage capitalism’

17.00-18.00 – Clara Olóriz Sanjuán (Architectural Association School of Architecture): ‘Planetary Landscapes: Architecture(s) in Climate, Care and Food Crises’
283
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Tom Carter-Brookes @tom-cb.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
I'm recruiting for my PhD research, please share with anyone who you think maybe be interested 👌
122
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
I wrote about whether the UK really is 60% self-sufficient in food production (spoiler: it's not). But rather than making the currently very favourable move of saying We Must Produce More – I question whether self-sufficiency has much valence at all: thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/is-the-uk-...
thestruggleforland.substack.com
Is the UK really 60% self-sufficient in food?
On the myths of self-sufficiency, localism and nationalism, and why it matters for the project of food sovereignty at a time of global eco-apartheid
130
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
What in the Gestapo is going on in Grand Rapids? Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.
14862830413903
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
The US is engaged in imperialist war at a world scale and Starmer is very happy to support that (thus the UK is also engaged in imperialist war at a world scale)
031
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Over and over the US inflicts obscene violence against the global South, in flagrant violation of international law, to maintain the conditions for capital accumulation for its decadent billionaire class. It's disgusting and intolerable. We cannot continue to accept this.
6785294
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Abajo con el imperialismo, abajo con el estados unidos, solidaridad con el pueblo de Venezuela
010
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
“Dreams of a ‘fair price’ for farmers is not a realisable demand due to the inherent contradiction that exists between food production & the profit motive.” Agroecology as revolutionary, anti-imperialist, class struggle - @alexheffron.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/thestrug...
open.substack.com
Agroecology as revolutionary, anti-imperialist, class struggle
What would it mean to reorient the project of agroecology in the global north around the aims of revolutionary, anti-imperialist, class struggle?
041
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Tom Carter-Brookes @tom-cb.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Really interesting food for thought (pun intended) from @alexheffron.bsky.social....embedding sustainability produced local food as a universal basic right is a great way to start imaging a transition away from global agribusiness
031
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Adam Calo @adamcalo.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
@mikegrunwald.bsky.social brings fresh energy to an everlasting idea: To reduce agriculture's environmental impact, we need to make "more with less." New episode of Landscapes: "More with Less" plinkhq.com/i/1552882054
183
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
New post: Zarah Sultana recently said we need to nationalise the entire economy. What I put forward here is a brief plan for a People's Food Service, which both supports farmers and tackles food poverty. thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/nationalis...
thestruggleforland.substack.com
'Nationalise everything' (or why we need a People's Food Service)
Zarah Sultana recently said we need to nationalise the entire economy. What I put forward here is a brief plan for a People's Food Service, which both supports farmers and tackles food poverty.
072
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
New post: Zarah Sultana recently said we need to nationalise the entire economy. What I put forward here is a brief plan for a People's Food Service, which both supports farmers and tackles food poverty. thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/nationalis...
thestruggleforland.substack.com
'Nationalise everything' (or why we need a People's Food Service)
Zarah Sultana recently said we need to nationalise the entire economy. What I put forward here is a brief plan for a People's Food Service, which both supports farmers and tackles food poverty.
072
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Showing this to my 6 year old
020
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
BREAKING: Quesser Zuhrah is taken to hospital after crowds gathered at HMP Bronzefield following her rapid health deterioration after 46days of hunger strike. There are seven more hunger strikers currently facing critical health deterioration. Support them by visiting PrisonersForPalestine.org
511488
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
New Substack: 'Perhaps we became so enamoured with our own gardens we retreated from the wider world, and in doing so neglected to contest the future for everyone.' thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/agroecolog...
thestruggleforland.substack.com
Agroecologisation
What would it mean to agroecologise socio-ecological relations at a time of climate breakdown, war and genocide? How does agroecology stop this destruction and refashion a new world?
020
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century @revsoc21.uk · 30/11/2025
DK Renton argues that David Lammy’s proposal to severely cut the number of jury trials is another authoritarian step by Labour. revsoc21.uk/2025/11/30/i...
revsoc21.uk
In defence of jury trials
rs21 - revolutionary socialism in the 21st century
0118
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
New post where I push a little bit further on my previous writing on agroecology being a project of class suicide and why this means small privately-owned farms are not the vehicle of change for agroecology as too often supposed thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/towards-an...
thestruggleforland.substack.com
Towards an agroecological theory of change
Small, privately-owned farms and localised markets can never achieve agroecology, therefore the movement needs a new strategy.
2205
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Development Studies Association @devcomms.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war By @alexheffron.bsky.social and @tom-cb.bsky.social buff.ly/eine9eg
021
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
We really need to defeat these fascist pigs - cos they're coming for us
060
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Looking at the way Reform and the far right are trying to leverage rural resentments against solar farms. Given that most farmers are concerned by climate change – does this actually make Reform anti-farmer? Enjoyed writing this with @tom-cb.bsky.social theconversation.com/you-cant-eat...
theconversation.com
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war
Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.
084
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Looking at the way Reform and the far right are trying to leverage rural resentments against solar farms. Given that most farmers are concerned by climate change – does this actually make Reform anti-farmer? Enjoyed writing this with @tom-cb.bsky.social theconversation.com/you-cant-eat...
theconversation.com
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war
Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.
084
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
“Effective green policy must ensure that green transitions benefit those doing the work or opposition will grow.” ‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war - @alexheffron.bsky.social theconversation.com/you-cant-eat...
theconversation.com
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war
Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.
151
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Tom Carter-Brookes @tom-cb.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
My latest article, with the fantastic @alexheffron.bsky.social has just been published. Looking how Reform UK are trying to turn placement of Solar Panels on farmland in a rural culture war and wedge issue. theconversation.com/you-cant-eat...
theconversation.com
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became Britain’s latest culture war
Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.
075
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Mothin Ali @mothinali.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
A memorable night ruined by a racist thug. I was invited to speak at the EuroAsia Curry Awards on Monday night, it should have been an exciting opportunity. But on my way there, outside Earl’s Court station, I was subjected to an Islamophobic hate crime. I have now reported it to the police
6026574
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Very weak. What I hear from this is that Polanski backs European imperialism and isn't actually anti-imperialist at all. Sorry but this is basically the most important point for British anti-imperialists – at a time when the UK and Europe are engaged in genocide and constructing Fortress Europe.
220
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Just one of the many genocides the British empire conducted
001
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
What we must all remember from the Gaza genocide is that the international system is rotten to its core and needs to be completely replaced. We cannot accept a system where Western governments and leaders can commit genocide and war crimes with total impunity.
11415146
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Football fans that are actually fascist ultras who chant things like "kill all Arabs" and intimidate local Muslims and people of colour. Good chance of violent war criminals. It's not about their religion.
000
Reposted by Alex Heffron
unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 17/10/2025
If anyone's wondering how this is possible, the answer is these strike teams are moving terrifyingly fast. Grab first, ask questions later. We were about 8-15 minutes behind them today for several hours. They're jumping out of vans, chasing people across lawns, taking them from bus stops, etc
5229491635
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
UK energy standing charge plan could backfire. Exorbitant standing charges hurt low users. Regulator plans a new tariff - low standing charge & higher cost of each unit. That won't do. Energy companies made £514bn operating profit since 2020. Better to end profiteering, nationalize energy.
bbc.co.uk
Energy standing charge plans could backfire, MPs told
Bosses of the UK's biggest energy suppliers were quizzed by MPs about support for their customers as prices rise.
11298120
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
British.
42193473066
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Very good article this. Need to reflect on it more but there are def some interesting parallels to the Reform strategy of using anti-solar panel sentiment as a wedge issue amongst farmers to push back on renewables. (as @tom-cb.bsky.social and I have just pitched as an article to The Conversation!)
423
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
If you're attending #POLLEN26 then check out our panel below
031
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Sinan Kose @thesinankose.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Say it with me everyone: "Why won't Labour get out of the race!? They're enabling Reform!"
124261
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
It's important to remember that despite Reform leading in the polls that Nigel Farage is not popular - and this hasn't changed since the general election.
1011641
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
The thing about solar geoengineering is that once you start you cannot stop *ever* unless somehow you have already removed all the multi-billions of tons of carbon emitted since the day you started. If you stop at the higher CO2 concentration you get virtually instantaneous catastrophic heating.
914153
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Polanski was excellent here I thought. Angry bigots like Malone want to make out they're the majority – they're not. They're a (often very wealthy) minority.
060
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Reactionary Politics Research Network @reacpolrn.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
📣New Interview📣 'Neoliberal ideology builds the structure, the structure rewards domination, and from that, both misogyny and microfascism take root.' @imrobwalker.bsky.social and Kay Sidebottom discuss neoliberalism, microfascism, and misogyny in classroom settings. reacpol.net/misogyny-fas...
reacpol.net
Interview: If you tolerate mis(ogyny), then fascisms will be next (Rob Walker) - Reactionary Politics Research Network
This interview is based on Rob Walker and Kay Sidebottom's article 'If you tolerate mis(ogyny), then fascisms will be next: rewriting the classroom script through affirmative ethics' (2025)
097
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Call for papers for POLLEN26: Returning to the Agrarian Question in the North Any questions get in touch!
P090


Propose
Returning to The Agrarian Question in the North  
Convenors:
Donatella Gasparro (Scuola Normale Superiore)
Alex Heffron (Lancaster University)
Format: Panel
Returning to The Agrarian Question in the North. Panel P090 at conference Pollen2026: Diverse Origins, Multiple Futures: The Stories of Political Ecology.
https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/pollen2026/p/17527
show panel on own page
Open an email with this panel link
Share this panel
Format/structure
Open panel. 10-15 minutes presentations plus ample time for discussion among panelists and with the audience.

Description
The agrarian question, in its plural articulations and reinterpretations, has been central to both critical agrarian studies and political ecology; yet, its contemporary understandings, analytics, and geographies tend to treat it as an almost Global South-exclusive problematique. As Global North scholars, activists and farmers, working on land, peasantries, agrarian economies and rural futures, we aim to contribute to the conversation that seeks to ‘reopen’ the agrarian question in the North, with a focus on European countrysides, but in radical alliance with majority world Indigenous, peasant and land struggles.

The intent is twofold: on the one hand, bringing back into the conversation European ruralities and agrarian economies, their crises, their politics and their potential for socio-ecological transformation; on the other, rethinking agricultural (re)production, dependencies, (agro)ecologies, and labour in the North in radical alliance with delinking, liberation, self-We are interested in proposals that explore the agrarian question in Europe, starting from (yet not limited to) themes such as:

- Northern agrarian metabolisms and their colonial patterns: migrant labour, core-periphery relations (also with internal peripheries); dependencies in the agri-food system; global value, labour and care chains;

- Reclaiming rural Europe from the Right: reactionary politics versus ecosocialist potentials;

- Why are people “still” farming? Desire, affect, and the “peasant principle”;

- (Migrant) worker solidarity in the agri-food system;

- Property and its transformations;

- The “agrarian question of climate change” (as termed by Paprocki & McCarthy); green transitions and their impacts on agrarian communities;

- Political agroecology, socio-ecological reproduction and food sovereignty for the North, beyond localisms.
162
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Charlotte Weatherill @ckweatherill.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Submissions invited for #POLLEN2026 for the panel: Colonial histories and climate futures: critical perspectives on vulnerability. We are particularly interested in papers that draw together themes of climate-induced im/mobilities & vulnerabilisation. nomadit.co.uk/conference/p...
Description
This panel brings together theoretical approaches and case studies at the intersection of climate change, human (im)mobility and vulnerability. We aim to critically discuss how colonial and neocolonial systems contribute to geographic, economic, and social inequalities in the context of increasing climate change impacts, thereby making a contribution to both climate justice and political ecology debates. We invite papers which critically examine dominant discourses that ascribe vulnerability to so-called “at-risk” populations and explore alternative epistemologies of survival, resistance and political agency. We are particularly interested in papers that draw together two themes: Climate-induced (im)mobilities, and vulnerabilisation.
183
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Star @babystar.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
When I think of A.I. I think of asbestos. To begin with everyone thought Asbestos was amazing, folk used it in everything. Then they started learning it was dangerous, research was done, they stopped using it, thou for some the damage was already done. Stop using A.I and limit the damage it's doing.
451018269
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
This will be really good: "The green digital transition is underway. But what does this transition look like when dictated by the energy and resource demands of monopoly tech? How has this situation come to be? And where is it being resisted?" www.aaschool.ac.uk/publicprogra...
aaschool.ac.uk
AA School
Architectural Association School of Architecture's website homepage is the online entrance into the AA; to its courses from Foundation to PhD for undergraduate and postgraduate students; its open publ...
010
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Brilliant short blog post on ideologies of degrowth: "It is then also high time to put aside utopian purist ideologies and look for sideways alternatives, remixing the ingredients for yet-to-be-seen combinations." degrowth.info/en/blog/neit...
degrowth.info
Neither the either nor the or: for a sideways degrowth
Here we are again: a position in the degrowth movement becomes apparent, strong, almost dominant, and the other side responds, feeling misrepresented. And in reacting, it inevitably ends up claiming t...
274
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
One of those days where coffee is life
020
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Mat Paterson @matpaterson.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
PhD scholarship opportunity, to work with @sherilynmacgregor.bsky.social and myself on the 'local politics of climate backlash' at @uompols.bsky.social and @justcentre.bsky.social. Please circulate to anyone who might be interested! www.findaphd.com/phds/project....
22331
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Tom Carter-Brookes @tom-cb.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Still time to get your abstracts in for this..... hopefully has the makings of a great session
032
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Sophia and I wrote this for the new Seeding Reparations booklet – considering anti-fascist food sovereignty by challenging white theories and histories of fascism. Click through to read the second half of the article: seeding.org.uk/wp-content/u...
HAT DOES AN ANTIFASCIST FARMING MOVEMENT LOOK LIKE? BY SOPHIA DOYLE & ALEX HEFFRON, ROOT AND BRANCH COLLECTIVE The threat of fascism is growing in the UK and food and farming are becoming battlegrounds. What can we do? British land is seen as the natural abode of the white male farmer. 99% of land is owned (or managed) by white people1 and around 85% by men2. It is no surprise that Jeremy Clarkson is able to step in as one of the de-facto leaders of the farmers’ protests. Worryingly, he uses his newspaper columns to show sympathy for the “legitimate concerns” of the racist rioters we’ve seen across Britain in the last 12 months3. He also propagates racist conspiracies about farmers being “ethnically cleansed” and “carpet bombed” by immigrants and wind farms4. Unfortunately, these ideas are catching on. Welsh protestors in Llandudno have yellow and black signs talking about a “government genocide” of farmers and Facebook is awash with racist lies about Muslims stealing sheep. That government policy is undermining farming and that sheep rustling is a growing problem (though often by other white farmers, not Muslims) provides a hook for these racialised conspiracies but does not explain them. To understand them requires a deeper insight into the workings of race and coloniality. Groups like Land In Our Names (LION) have put the coloniality of British land on the table in recent years5. In Britain, we are taught to think about fascism in a particular way. Most schools teach it as something that mostly happened “over there” in Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, or Franco’s Spain. Perhaps we learn a tiny bit about the British Union of Fascists. We might learn that fascism was defeated and superseded by liberal democracy. A black and white story. So is the ascendancy of the far–right today merely an ugly remnant of the past returning, like the swing of a pendulum, to haunt us once again? Other perspectives on fascism provide a different picture.
063
Reposted by Alex Heffron
Arbeitology @arbeitology.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
we got jumped last night (me and wife) by a group of lads calling us “lefties“ - it didn’t come to punches but got quite close - so I guess we are approaching the “having to fight on your way home from the pub” level of fascism
1921333