We Feed the World is the culmination of a 3-year international photography exhibition. The idea is simple: let’s see and celebrate the small farmers who produce 70% of the food each day. This is to argue that industrial agriculture is not needed to nourish our global population.The walls of the Bargehouse are lined with over 400 images, taken by 48 photographers in 50 farming communities around the world.
The images and corresponding stories certainly do have impact. Their strength lies in the emphasis on diversity: vast, chemical-intensive monocropping practices are far more delicate than they seem. Climate change is incredibly complex in terms of expected consequences on different regions around the world. Industrial agriculture threatens the resilience of the whole global food system since it argues we should rely on just a few crops and companies to meet all our nutritional needs. Food resilience lies in diversity; diversity of practice and diversity of crops. The 50 farming communities platformed at We Feed the World show the multitude of ways food can be grown such that are not so deeply threatening to the land, water and wildlife upon which we rely and for which we must care.
Read the full article on the ARC 2020 site. Words by Helen Schulze.