Welcome to
WE FEED THE UK
Ground breaking stories told through radical collaboration, to celebrate those nourishing people and planet.
We Feed The UK is a major storytelling campaign, pairing photographers and poets with the UK’s best custodians of soil, sea and seed.
Food forms us, and producing it with care for human and more-than-human communities can re-form our home for the better. These are the stories of regenerative farmers, urban growers, sustainable fishers and grain rebels: the quiet revolutionaries with grassroots solutions to climate change, biodiversity collapse and social justice. The time is ripe to celebrate their efforts and inspire widespread support for sustainable farming.
AS SEEN IN RESURGENCE & ECOLOGIST
“We Feed The UK is a monumental undertaking – with a clever premise – whereby ten poets and ten award-winning photographers have been commissioned to tell ten stories of ‘hope’ in an otherwise battered and bruised food-producing landscape: one damaged by Brexit, climate chaos, the cost of living crisis and heart-breaking biodiversity loss”
powerful stories to inspire change
cross-sector collaborators from growers to poets
thousand attendees at events across the UK
million farmers and food eaters reached
“WE ARE MAKING THE CULTURE AND CULTURE MAKES MINDSETS”
Featured on BBC Radio 4 – The Food Programme
“It’s important to remember that we are making the culture and culture makes mindsets. We can inspire this change that needs to happen.” Hot Poet, Dizraeli, speaking to the BBC Food Programme
Jimi Famurewa, host of BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme, visits three producers and poets taking part in We Feed The UK, to ask whether poetry can convince us to care about our food…
EXPLORE THE STORIES
COMING NOVEMBER 2024
DOWN TO EARTH: RESTORING SOIL
Inspired by Wharmley Farm in Northumberland
Poetry by Kate Fox | Photography by Johannah Churchill | Exhibited with North East Photography Network at The Sill in Northumberland
JUST LAUNCHED
FROM CRISIS TO KINSHIP: HEALING PEOPLE AND PLACE
Inspired by Fordhall Organic Farm in Shropshire
Poetry by Jasmine Gardosi | Photography by Aaron Schuman | Published with GRAIN Projects as an immersive book
JUST LAUNCHED
FOOD JUSTICE: SERVED FRESH FROM COMMUNITY FARMS
Inspired by Black Rootz and Go Grow With Love in London
Poetry by Zena Edwards | Photography by Arpita Shah | Exhibited with Photo Fringe ONCA Gallery in Brighton and across Buildhollywood billboards in North London
RETURNING OCTOBER 2024
CUSTODIANS OF THE LAND: INTERGENERATIONAL RESTORATION
Inspired by The Penpont Project in Wales
Poetry by Ifor Ap Glyn | Photography by Andy Pilsbury | Exhibited at Penpont Estate in Wales
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
NO DIGGITY: COOLING OUR CLIMATE
Inspired by No Diggity Gardens in the West Midlands
Poetry by Bohdan Piasecki | Photography by Ayesha Jones | Exhibited with Multistory in Walsall
MORE SUSTAINABLE FARMING STORIES
In the emerald peaks of the Scottish highlands, in tranquil pockets of new life in North London, and in rich fields nestled between Cumbria’s ancient hedgerows, farmers tend their land, nurturing pastures of quiet rebellion and hope.
Click a pin to discover the seeds of change being sown near you.
Through telling these ten powerful stories we are sowing seeds for a future where regenerative farming is the norm.
“71% of the UK is farmland. The potential for this to become the place where we support biodiversity, sequester carbon and address so many of the other problems we are facing is enormous. The arts have the power to speak to the heart. Apathy is such a big barrier, and hope activates.”
Co-Director of The Gaia Foundation, Rowan Phillimore
“We believe that photography has a tremendous power to bring communities together to affect positive social and environmental change.”
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
COMMUNITY EVENTS
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Unearthed: Soil Restoration in Northumberland: The Exhibition
9 November 2024 – 12 January 2025 @ National Landscape Discovery Centre in Northumberland
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Unearthed: Soil Restoration in Northumberland: Regenerative Conversations
7 December 2024 @ National Landscape Discovery Centre in Northumberland
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Unearthed: Soil Restoration in Northumberland: Exhibition Launch
9 November 2024 @ National Landscape Discovery Centre in Northumberland
“MANNERS OF SPEAKING ARE MANNERS OF WORLDBUILDING”
Featured on BBC Scotland Outdoors
Listen to the partners collaborating on our Scottish sustainable farming story speak to BBC Radio Scotland:
“My relationship with nature is through language. I love that there is lichen called Water Speckled Midnight, and a mushroom called the Flirt. It has been interesting using that skillset to translate the great work being done at Lauriston Farm… Manners of speaking are manners of worldbuilding, so even if you don’t have access to green space you can access it through literature. To name something is to know it.” Hot Poet, Iona Lee
“WHERE ARE THE WOMEN’S STORIES?”
“I’ve been visualising our landscape through the eyes of those who are often underrepresented for a long time. I really think our landscape is part of our identity in Scotland. Yet, that’s a story predominantly told by men. Where are the women’s stories? Where are their viewpoints?” Photographer, Sophie Gerrard
See Sophie’s photography, commissioned for We Feed The UK, in the high-profile arts magazine, Aesthetica:
REGENERATIVE FARMING NEWS
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Standing for food justice by sharing seeds in North London
Seeds: locally grown, saved, and freely shared with the community, bring bursting window boxes, biodiverse allotments, full bellies, and community…
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We can all grow our own food: an exhibition in Brighton
On an autumnal evening, as the sun was setting on the streets of Brighton, a warmly lit gallery overflowed with…
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Regenerative Conversation: Growing Young Custodians
From deforestation to over-grazing to chemicals, farming has become associated with environmental degradation rather than solutions. Yet it is here…
“We Feed The UK is important in getting positive stories to the public – the current vilification of farmers needs to stop. There are small pockets of us trying to be better, which We Feed The UK can help the consumer see and understand, whilst also offering hope to farmers stuck in an imperfect system. This project proves that there are other ways to do it that can not only enhance biodiversity and battle climate change, but also bring people together and improve financial performance. Everyone wins and that story needs to be told.” Farmer, Stuart Johnson
ARTS & ENVIRONMENT PARTNERS
Grown by The Gaia Foundation with collaborators across the country, We Feed The UK pairs ten photographers and ten Hot Poets with ten regenerative farming stories. Their work is being shared in partnership with ten arts organisations between February 2024 and June 2025, supported by evidence from ten environmental allies who are leading the regenerative sustainable farming movement.
