As snowdrops, crocuses, and daffodils begin to surface, so too comes a new phase of We Feed The UK. Four stories of community food production kick off our thematic touring exhibition; enriching, connecting, and strengthening the grassroots agroecology movement.
We Feed The UK began with ten respective stories, each shown regionally to draw in and nourish their surrounding local networks. Now that these islands of coherence have been established and fed, the next stage is to spread these stories widely: to share their knowledge and practices and to web up arising custodians and communities in flourishing locales across our isles.
“…our work is to foster critical connections. We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect kindred spirits.”
Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze
The inaugural exhibition of We Feed The UK’s next chapter launched with a feast for the mind, body, soul, and spirit. Hundreds of creatives, growers, farmers, food enthusiasts, and members of the local community braved the February rain to gather at renowned artist-led gallery, Primary. The afternoon was abuzz as attendees journeyed their way through the four exhibiting stories, heard live poetry from Bohdan Piasecki, had portraits captured by Ayesha Jones, befriended worms with Neville Portas of No Diggity Gardens, and sampled bread made with population wheat from Gothelney Farm, freshly prepared by Small Food Bakery.
The iteration of We Feed The UK shown at Primary was carefully curated to nurture the blossoming community growing scene in Nottingham with radical inspiration from other regions.
Photographers: Ayesha Jones,Arpita Shah, Sophie Gerrard, Andy Pilsbury
Poets: Bohdan Piasecki, Zena Edwards, Iona Lee, Ifor Ap Glyn, Diz Undone (formerly Dizraeli)
Growers: No Diggity Gardens (West Midlands), Black Rootz and Go Grow With Love (London), Lauriston Agroecology Farm (Scotland), The Penpont Project (Wales), Gothelney Farm and Field Bakery (South West England)
It’s very interesting to see the connection between women and the soil and seeds…and [the idea] of going beyond the model of individual allotments.
Martina, event attendee
Attendees witnessed tales of women in Scotland reclaiming the custodianship of seed, farming, and food that they hold in most Indigenous cultures; of Black-led collectives in London sharing soursop, watermelon, and cane, ripened in glasshouses with the expertise of 80-year-olds who carried agroecology to these isles from their ancestors; of elders in Wales sharing their wisdom with young people in an intergenerational, interspecies exchange that is giving nature space to flourish afresh on our oldest hill farms.
It’s given me some fantastic ideas from things that people have done in their gardens. It’s inspired me.
Tracy, Windmill Community Gardens
By showcasing these diverse yet connected stories of regeneration, the touring exhibition is also – physically and symbolically – connecting burgeoning isolated efforts with the momentum of the UK’s wider grassroots movement.
The national movement really is made up of all these smaller interpersonal relationships…and that’s where the real strength and resilience stands.
Randa, Seed Sovereignty Programme
It was fantastic to witness the magic of sharing these cross-regional examples with the local community in Nottingham and the hope, drive, and sense of wider purpose it offered. The day reaffirmed our alignment with Wheatley and Frieze’s theory of Emergence and the power of creating the conditions for critical connections to germinate.
Our community engagement isn’t necessarily with people around us, it’s with more regional projects [elsewhere] to make us feel more connected as a whole.
Xanthea, Notts Seed Network
The day also marked the strengthening of another critical connection, between We Feed The World and Gaia’s complementary work around agroecological food systems transformation in the UK: the Seed Sovereignty Programme. At the heart of the gallery, the team held a bustling seed swap, where open-pollinated, diverse, regionally-adapted delights were shared between the local community.
Seed is important because it’s linked with farming, it’s linked with large scale food production, and I think it’s really visible: doing the two things together.
Catherine, Seed Sovereignty Programme
Seeds are the core of our food system and the answer to inextricably linked issues from soil health and climate resilience to nutrition and flavour. Achieving widespread agroecological food production relies heavily on getting open-pollinated seed back in the hands of growers. The convergence of farmers, growers, allotmenteers, and seed guardians at the launch felt incredibly potent; the physical backdrop of hope surrounding conversations making this moment all the more exciting.
We’ve got the gardeners and the allotmenteers and the people who are interested in the arts…it’s a perfect combo.
Katie, Seed Sovereignty Programme
Already, the legacy of this exhibition is starting to take shape in Nottingham and beyond. The launch event evoked the launch of Notts Seed Network, a new local seed sovereignty initiative. Filled with regionally-adapted seeds shared at the event, a community seed library has found its home for the duration of We Feed The UK’s time at Primary, with unfolding plans to make this a permanent fixture at Nottingham Central Library. Growers in Sheffield, Leicester, and other surrounding areas have expressed their interest in establishing new seed libraries, inspired by the momentum in Nottingham.
Over the next four weeks, a programme of events – including garden walks, community meals, and a women’s grain circle 0 will draw in more local audiences, building on the brilliant receptivity of attendees thus far. We are incredibly eager to watch as more emerges from this first leg of our thematic We Feed The UK tour.
As part of Primary’s long-term Nourishment programme, We Feed The UK is on display until 14 March. Primary is open Thursdays – Saturdays, 10:00 – 17:00.
Event photography by Tom Platinum Morley. Videos by The Gaia Foundation.
