‘I felt hopeful about my daughter's future': the farmers fixing our eco crisis

The Guardian

12-06-2025

We Feed UK is a project pairing photographers with nature-friendly farmers to raise awareness of their positive solutions to the environmental crises we face. From all-women worker cooperatives in Edinburgh to traditional fishing practices off the southern coast, these stories touch every corner of the country. Sandra Salazar D'eca founded Go Grow With Love in Tottenham and Enfield, to support women of African and Caribbean heritage in nurturing a reciprocal relationship with local land. We Feed the UK is published by Papadakis with support from the the Gaia Foundation Photograph: Arpita Shah
In Haringey, London, Paulette Henry and team run Black Rootz. You can read more here Photograph: Arpita Shah
Oceans have nourished us for thousands of years, but the bounties of our blue planet are ebbing. You can see more images of fishers working off the coasts of Cornwall and the Scilly Isles in this gallery Photograph: Jon Tonks
Photographer Jon Tonks: 'Being a small-scale fisher offers a few metaphors for life. When the weather tells you not to fish, listen. Allow the seas to replenish. Sustainable fishing means something different to everyone, but real sustainability teaches us not to be greedy, to give nature a chance, and leave enough for the next generation. There is an understanding in these parts, an atmosphere, of people who live by the sea. Knowing when to fish, but more importantly when not to' Photograph: Jon Tonks
Sons inherit Scottish farms in 85% of cases, yet over half of UK family farm workers are women. In Edinburgh, Lauriston Farm is run by a majority-women workers' cooperative, who are drawing on the power of local people to restore a 100-acre urban growing site. When it started in 2021 it was the largest urban farm in Scotland Photograph: Sophie Gerrard/Sophie Gerrard 2023 all rights reserved
Photographer Sophie Gerrard: 'Our landscape is part of our identity in Scotland. Yet that's a story predominantly told by men. Where are the women's viewpoints? These photographs focus on their contribution. There is so much scope for positivity in these landscapes, with new opportunities constantly opening. This is a movement' Photograph: Sophie Gerrard
Incentivised by the increasing cost of artificial fertiliser, Stuart Johnson (of West WharmleyFarm in Northumberland) started to naturally restore the soil on his family farm by brewing up his own compost teas and introducing mob grazing. With dung beetles and earthworms as the crucial collaborators – recycling waste, excreting nutrients and improving drainage – wildlife is returning. Stuart won Soil farmer of the year in 2023 Photograph: Johannah Churchill
Photographer Johannah Churchill: 'When I met Stuart and his family I felt hope for the first time in ages. Post-pandemic, with the cost of living crisis, and war and destruction all around us, it is impossible not to get bogged down. This has been much more than a commission: it's felt like coming up for air' Photograph: Johannah Churchill
Irish flax has been turned into linen for 2,000 years, or so the peat bogs tell us. But a 20th-century tangle of changing circumstances, including two world wars, was the downfall of homegrown handkerchiefs. After 50 years, Helen Keys and Charlie Mallon from Mallon Farm, Co Tyrone are reviving the tradition of growing flax for fibre. Their 'wee blue blossom' is chemical-free, sown with a 'fiddle', harvested by hand, 'scutched' on a restored turbine, and threaded into local supply chains Photograph: Yvette Monahan
Photographer Yvette Monahan: 'The most profound lesson I learned at Mallon Farm is the transformative power of personal passion in creating change. Helen Keys and Charlie Mallon have turned the land from a dairy farm into a biodiverse flax, food and wildlife ecosystem. Caring is growing a plant that knows this landscape, preparing bare fields for tiny seeds and trusting the natural cycle of the earth and the unpredictable Tyrone weather patterns. After 100 chemical-free days, the harvest is pulled and tied by the caring hands of family and friends' Photograph: Yvette Monahan
The Black Country's identity was forged by coal mining. From this legacy of extraction, Neville Portas (from No Diggity Gardens) has sprouted allotments now nourishing the earth. The community's circular system of growing food and composting waste keeps No Diggity Gardens rolling. When that soil is left undug, carbon is kept underground, revealing the real value of the world beneath our feet Photograph: Ayesha Jones
Photographer Ayesha Jones: 'Through this project, I've witnessed how impactful nurturing the soil can be, not just for the earth but for everyone and everything. Nurturing soil is not just about growing food; it's about cultivating a deeper bond with nature and inspiring the next generation' Photograph: Ayesha Jones
Bannau Brycheiniog (the Brecon Beacons) is home to the UK's largest intergenerational nature restoration project, Penpont Photograph: Andy Pilsbury
Photographer Andy Pilsbury: 'Whether photographing tree grafting or sheep shearing or river surveys, it was always about community. This became the real strength and focus of the work. Every time I came away from the Penpont project, having observed the restorative harmony that was unfolding, I felt hopeful about my daughter's future' Photograph: Andy Pilsbury
Fordhall Organic Farm in Shropshire is the first community-owned farm in England. Photographer Aaron Schuman: 'Fordhall has grown into a nurturing farm for the surrounding community who can visit, volunteer and actively engage with the land. Each person is encouraged to develop a relationship with place that is intimate, immersive and 'hefted' to the land itself. This work represents my own profound experience of connection, and the immediacy and sensorial intensity of the nature I found there' Photograph: Aaron Schuman
On the organic, 300-acre Strickley Farm in Cumbria, James Robinson is weaving a wild tapestry of grassland, woodland and becks, threaded together by seven miles of ancient hedgerow. Through an intimate knowledge of the species that share this space, regenerative farming practices, and his family's unique hedge-laying language, James is creating an agriculture for the entire community of life Photograph: AJP/Johannes Pretorius
Lúa Ribeira photographed trial plots at Gothelney Farm in Bridgwater, part of the South West Grain Network
Photograph: Lúa Ribeira