We are delighted to announce the launch of a brand new photo book from The Gaia Foundation- We Feed The World: A celebration of smallholder farmers and fishing communities.

Untold stories

Through world class photography, our new book tells the little-known stories of small-scale farming and fishing communities who really feed the world.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, smallholder farmers grow seventy per cent of the world’s food on less than a quarter of the planet’s agricultural land. Meanwhile, traditional fishing communities provide over fifty per cent of all the fish we eat.

Hailing from the Arctic to Africa, Burkina Faso to Finland, these communities’ methods are diverse, but they are all, in their own ways, custodians of fertile lands, clean waters, pollinators, seed diversity and wild relatives necessary for a healthy planet and healthy societies.

Order your copy of the book here.

Solutions to multiple crises

In chapters themed around biodiversity, water, seed, pollinators and more, We Feed the World explores the myriad ways in which small-scale producers are trailblazing positive paths into the future. Each communities story is explored in texts accompanying beautiful photographs.

Despite facing major threats from Big Agriculture, mining corporations and the industrial food system, these farming and fishing communities are living the solutions to many of the most pressing problems we face today.

Research released this week has revealed  that the industrial food system is responsible for up to 1/3 of all carbon emissions and its expansion jeopardises our ability to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees celsius.

Employing agroecological, low-impact and low-emission techniques, small-scale famers and fisher-people feed the world, care for Nature and help cool the planet.

World class photography

Released on 10th November 2020, the new We Feed the World book follows on from our 2018 exhibition of the same name, which reached 50 million people worldwide.

The book features photos taken by some of the world’s more pre-eminent photographers, including Graciela Iturbide, Pieter Hugo, Tanya Habjouqa, Martin Parr and Omar Victor Diop. Each photographer travelled to the communities in question to spend time with them, learn about their way of life and learn how growing food can nourish people and planet, body and spirit.

With a foreword written by renowned food sovereignty advocate Vandana Shiva, this is a beautiful work of art and activism not to be missed.

Order your copy of the book here.

Sneak preview

To bring We Feed the World to the page, Gaia collaborated with Little Toller, an independent UK-based publisher behind the award-winning book, Diary of a Young Naturalist, by Dara McAnulty.

Sample some of the wonderful photos found in the book below.


Stay up to date with Gaia’s work alongside farmers and fisherfolk around the planet: