Worm charmers, wildflower whisperers, carbon capturers, insect allies: regenerative farmers and fishers are working with nature in a time-honoured team.
Across a country that is 71% farmland, where less than half of our biodiversity remains, restorative practices are the root to future resilience. The time is ripe to celebrate these efforts, in support of the regenerative agriculture transition.
We Feed The UK is a major arts project pairing critically acclaimed photographers and poets with regenerative farmers, urban growers, sustainable fishers and grain rebels: the UK’s custodians of soil, sea and seed.
The campaign is a message of hope, showcasing grassroots solutions to climate change, the biodiversity crisis and social justice.
Grown by The Gaia Foundation with collaborators across the country, We Feed The UK brings together over 40 partners from the environment and arts sectors to tell time-critical stories across urban, rural and coastal areas, ranging from multi-generational, Black-led growing projects in London, to a majority-women workers cooperative in Edinburgh, via sustainable fishing along the south coast.
Ten acclaimed photographers are nurturing close relationships with their subjects, shooting throughout the seasons. Their work, which will be exhibited nationwide with ten arts partners, ranges from experiments with bread by Magnum’s Lúa Ribeira, to a 12-month study on sustainable fishing by photographer Jon Tonks.
Spoken word artists, from award-winning organisation Hot Poets, have crafted a collection of ten poems in a diversity of languages and regional dialects. This includes a celebration of hedgerows by beatboxing champion Testament, grain rebels by legendary poet-singer Dizraeli, and the soil by BBC Radio 4’s Kate Fox.
These ground-breaking collaborations will be shared between February 2024 and May 2025:
- February 2024 | Agri-culture: A Lineage of Hedgerow Ligging in Cumbria | Inspired by Strickley Farm | Poetry by Testament | Photography by Johannes Pretorius | Exhibited at Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool
- April 2024 | Cultivating Equality: Women Working with Land in Scotland | Inspired by Grampian Graziers and Lauriston Farm | Poetry by Iona Lee | Photography by Sophie Gerrard | Exhibited at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow
- May 2024 | No Diggity: Cooling our Climate in the Black Country | Inspired by No Diggity Gardens | Poetry by Bohdan Piasecki | Photography by Ayesha Jones | Exhibited with Multistory
- June 2024 | Custodians of the Land: Intergenerational Restoration in Wales | Inspired by The Penpont Project | Poetry by Ifor Ap Glyn | Photography by Andy Pilsbury | Exhibited with Action for Conservation at Penpont Estate
- September 2024 | From Crisis to Kinship: Healing People and Place on England’s First Community-Owned Farm | Inspired by Fordhall Organic Farm | Poetry by Jasmine Gardosi | Photography by Aaron Schuman | Published with GRAIN Projects as an immersive book
- October 2024 | Food Justice: Served Fresh from Community Farms in London | Inspired by Go Grow With Love and Black Rootz | Poetry by Zena Edwards | Photography by Arpita Shah | Exhibited with Photo Fringe in London and Brighton
- November 2024 | Down to Earth: Restoring Soil in Northumberland | Inspired by Wharmley Farm | Poetry by Kate Fox | Photography by Johannah Churchill | Exhibited with North East Photography Network at The Sill
- January 2025 | Fibre: Nature-Friendly Flax Farming in Ireland | Inspired by Mallon Farm | Poetry by Abby Oliveira | Photography by Yvette Monahan | Exhibited at Belfast Exposed
- April 2025 | In Deep Water: Sustainable Fishing along the South Coast | Poetry by Chris Redmond | Photography by Jon Tonks | Exhibited at Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol
- April 2025 | Grain Rebels: A Food Revolution Starts with Seed in the Southwest | Inspired by Gothelney Farm and Field Bakery, part of the South West Grain Network | Poetry by Dizraeli | Photography by Lúa Ribeira | Exhibited at The Royal Photographic Society in Bristol
The project follows The Gaia Foundation’s We Feed The World exhibition and book, a global collaboration with some of the best-loved photographers of our time, celebrating smallholder farmers across the globe to bust the myth that we need industrial farming to survive.