The Gaia Foundation will be joined by Greenhouse PR and a roll call of famous photographers at Petersham Nurseries on May 17th to raise funds for the We Feed the World project. This has been a mammoth global effort bringing together more than 40 high profile photographers, charities and sustainable brands from around the world to highlight the urgent need for a more sustainable food system.
A taste of what’s to come; a stunning photograph of a woman farmer in Burkina Faso, taken by Andrew Eseibo.
Over the last two and a half years, the photographers (who include Rankin, Martin Parr and Magnum’s Susan Meiselas and Carolyn Drake) have visited 50 communities, across six continents, to document the lives of the families that produce 70 per cent of the world’s food every day.
Their extraordinary images and accompanying stories are being shown in a series of exhibitions that will kick off in October at London’s Bargehouse Gallery. Alongside the exhibition, a ten-day schedule of talks, workshops and films will run, plus there’ll be a daily farmers market so visitors can immediately engage with the people that produce their food or learn how to produce it themselves.
The aim of the project is to reach out beyond the converted, and with a bit of help from likeminded brands, to create a new narrative that would debunk the myth that we need an industrial food system, or quick fix technologies like GM, to feed a growing global population.
The stories showcase the many benefits of a regenerative system of agriculture, from providing nutritious and chemical-free food to reversing climate change, increasing biodiversity and reviving community wellbeing. They show communities from the depths of the Amazon to the Scottish islands who are working together to preserve their traditional food and seed systems as well as pioneering new methods to feed their families, sometimes in the face of extraordinary challenges.
The project now needs to raise the final funds to print these 300+ images and exhibit them in October, both in London and simultaneously in all 50 communities around the world. Making this a truly global narrative from production through to the grand unveiling. To do this, The Gaia Foundation is hosting a dinner at the amazing Petersham Nurseries on Thursday 17th May. In exquisite surroundings, the dinner will be a coming together of supporters, brands and photographers who want to see the creation of a new food and farming system. Raj Patel, author of the Stuffed and Starved, will be speaking alongside many of the projects ambassadors. Actor, Jeremy Irons, who is also the UN’s Ambassador on Food, says –
“We Feed the World’s beautiful images and the moving stories of farming communities around the world bring us face-to-face with the people who provide the majority of the food we eat everyday. Challenging the pervasive and damaging myth that we need an industrial food system to feed a growing global population, the exhibition is a wake-up call. Only regenerative agriculture can keep our planet, our climate and our communities healthy into the future.”
You can support the project and its goals, by buying a ticket or a table here.
This post was originally published at Greenhouse PR.