Submitted by Sarah Bailey on Fri, 26/03/2021 - 08:35
As part of the 2021 Cambridge Festival, we curated a free online exhibition showcasing stunning photos from India. The festival may be over, but you can read about the exhibition below.
Exhibition description
Photographs are powerful storytelling tools. However, their meaning is often open to interpretation; an image can hold different meanings depending on the accompanying headline, hashtag or meme. Photographs depicting food production often evoke strong feelings and increasingly divide opinion. Food production is either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. But nothing is ever that black and white.
Contrasting solutions for reducing food systems’ contribution to the climate crisis are emerging. Industrial-scale sustainable intensification and smallholder farming represent two very different approaches. While both are valid, they sit in opposition to each other. Even within the same research project, there can be conflicting opinions on how best to create sustainable food systems.
In the large and rapidly growing country of India, with its diverse landscapes, increasing urbanisation and widespread drought, developing a sustainable food system must be balanced with feeding those who live there, many of whom live below the poverty line.
Is industrial farming inherently bad? Is subsistence farming too marginal to make a difference? Is the best solution a combination of the two?
There are two sides to every story.