“We see many youths being dragged into mining because mining is a priority in my country... So many people are shunning farming because there's money there. My dream is that those youth come back to the rural side because that's where the means of surviving are." Hendrick Mgcini Ndhlovu is a member of Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum (ZIMSOFF) and La Vía Campesina.

The peasant youth who are fighting to remain on the land and feed their communities around the world are defying expectations and reshaping what it means to be a peasant farmer today. Their stories challenge old ideas of what a farmer looks like, and ask us to imagine a movement bold enough to shift its politics to meet them.

Interviewer: Katie Brimm
Editor: Jaime Roque
Producer: Tanya Kerssen
Photographer: Erika Piñeros
Music: “We made it to the other side” by Alvaro Acevedo

Learn more about La Vía Campesina: viacampesina.org
3rd Nyéléni Global Forum: nyeleniglobalforum.org/3rd-nyeleni-global-forum
Real Food Media: realfoodmedia.org
Seeds, Stories & Solidarity, Vol. 1, No. 1: https://real-food-media.paperturn-view.com/seeds-stories-solidarity-fall-2025?pid=ODk8911433&v=10.2