The biggest ever photography project to capture global food systems, coordinated by The Gaia Foundation. 300 portraits of regenerative farmers by renowned photographers were showcased across 50 exhibitions, from London’s Southbank Centre to strawbale barns. As a result, 55 million people stood face-to-face with the folk who feed 70% of the world using less than a quarter of its agricultural land, debunking the myth that we need intensive, industrial farming to survive.
In 2023, We Feed The World is evolving into WE FEED THE UK, celebrating the regenerative farmers nourishing life across these isles.
THE CAMPAIGN
From the icy waters of Northern Sweden to humid depths of the Amazon rainforest, We Feed the World explored the triumphs of the small-scale farmers and fishers who are using regenerative techniques to nurture biocultural diversity.
Their knowledge, practices and connection to our living planet also offer us solutions, to climate change and the mass extinction of species, pollution of water, depletion of soils, and the diminishing health and wellbeing of communities. The campaign encouraged us to grow a food system that cultivates equality, justice and diversity, so that small-scale producers can continue nourishing all on Earth.
We Feed the World brought their efforts to light in the context of current challenges – from land-grabbing to deforestation – calling for global support of small-scale, agroecological farming. We are often told by corporations, governments and the media that without a high-tech, chemically intensive industrial food system, we would soon starve. Launched in 2018, We Feed The World cut through this misinformation to creatively tell the stories of the farmers and fishers who really feed the world.
THE IMPACT
• 300 photographic portraits, by 47 award winning photographers including Ian Rankin, Martin Parr, Graciela Iturbide and Rena Effendi, captured 50 positive stories of agroecology in action
• 50 exhibitions took place internationally, including in the UK (London – Glasgow – Frome) and locally across each of the communities photographed, to grow grassroots support
• Press coverage from National Geographic, Marie Claire, The Telegraph, The Guardian and BBC Radio, fostered widespread awareness of food sovereignty
• A book was published by Little Toller, to ensure the legacy of these stories
• 55 million people engaged with the question of who grows our food, and how we can support those farming for the future
See a selection of portraits:
Sa Torre de’s Xebelins, Ibiza. Laura Hynd
This is about people, not production lines; farms not factories; agri-culture, not agri-business. The time is ripe for just food system that nourishes people and planet.
What people are saying about us
"'We feed the world' was an excellent and very timely project. As a small-scale farmer it was empowering to see our world and our work represented by such skilled photographers and presented to the public with a strong and considered perspective on the role that we play in feeding the peoples of the world. As a representative of the Landworkers' Alliance, a union for farmers, growers and land-based workers, it was an invaluable contribution to our campaigning and advocacy work. We particularly appreciated the awareness of the organising team to the reality of farmers and farmers organisations, and their sensitivity to the politics of representing these topics in print for the public."
- Adam Payne, Southern Roots Organics and the Landworkers' Alliance
