A trio of artist-led interventions to confront our broken food system
“Food has become both an emblem and embodiment of the troubles around us” says Bad Taste artist Dr JC Niala. With the acceleration of climate change, food insecurity, the cost of living crisis, and the persistence of racial injustice, these age-old inequitable structures of wealth and power within the UK and globally have never been felt more keenly.
As ever, imaginative strategies are needed to create change. That’s why, strategically, the Bad Taste projects sit at the intersection of art and activism and are taking place at sites of political and corporate structural power.
Recognising the inequities in the food system, all three of the Bad Taste projects produced in collaboration with Greenpeace, are led by artists who are majority Black or people of colour.
The projects were selected via an open call process that ran in December 2022 and was supported by a group of independent artistic advisors. After a collaborative development process, the projects will be shared publicly in Autumn/ Winter of 2023.
A giant pig that appears in augmented reality in specific locations linked to industrial pork production across England. Artists: Naho Matsuda and A Drift of Us
Taking the form of a digital sculpture, SOW is a symbol of protest and resistance and you can only see her through your phone’s camera superimposed onto your environment.
SOW invites you to visit the locations where she appears and contemplate the many industrially farmed pigs that you cannot see and the one that you can: what is your relationship to them and to her? What would you like to say to SOW and what kind of future does she have? How much do you know about how pigs are bred in the UK – and how much do you want to know?
Similar to the industrial meat industry, SOW is only visible if you choose to look…
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Tesco store on Morning Lane in Hackney, London. Tesco is the biggest seller of industrially produced meat and dairy in the UK.
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Cargill Tower, Seaforth, Liverpool Docks. This is the main gateway for soya entering the UK. Often grown on land that was once rainforest, this soya is mainly used to feed livestock.
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Tesco store on Bold Street in Liverpool. Tesco is the biggest seller of industrially produced meat and dairy in the UK.
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Danish Crown factory, Rochdale. Danish Crown is the biggest pork producer in Europe.
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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Westminster, London. The UK government has failed to ban imports of products linked to deforestation.
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Barclays Tower, Canary Wharf, London. Barclays is the bank of choice for JBS, one of the world’s most destructive companies in the food sector.
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“SOW is a female breeding pig, she’s monstrous and beautiful at the same time. But similar to the industrial meat industry, SOW is only visible if you choose to look.
We hope people will travel to see SOW, to the places we’ve identified as key players in the violent and exploitative supply chain of industrial meat, and especially pork, production. Some of these places are inconvenient to get to and may appear anonymous, sitting on large industrial estates not designed for visitors. Working with visual artist Luigi Honorat, we have created SOW AR, a digital sculpture that aims to make people look at and think about these places differently.
“AR technology is rapidly evolving and offers new and experimental ways to share art in an ephemeral but powerful way. We hope SOW helps viewers to reflect on the invisible structures in their everyday lives and to imagine a world where power is divided differently.”
The industrial food system and its infrastructures are out of sight, behind nondescript industrial walls or in places inaccessible to us. The project website pulls back the curtain and explores this system in detail.
SOW has a belly that is worryingly big, she is obviously exhausted and her tired body is evidence of the many breeding cycles she had to endure to produce piglets. Sometimes she is asleep, sometimes she twitches her ears or moves her tail, blinks her eyes and huffs. Sometimes she squeals and screams a painful loud scream.
SOW does not put the blame on the average consumer. Instead, she opens up a space for provocative questions and new imaginations.
What does the food system that we are part of actually look like? How are we implicated in it? Where are the escape routes and where is the hope? Where is the solidarity with animals and with the natural environment?
Collaborating with young activists in Greater Manchester to challenge the UK’s damaging industrial food system. Artist: Fauziya Johnson
A group of young people from Greater Manchester have been inspired to think more about activism and to challenge the UK’s damaging industrial food system through taking part in a project initiated by Manchester-based artist Fauziya Johnson.
Fauziya’s aim was to facilitate discussions with young people to learn about the social, economic and environmental impacts of industrially produced food and reimagine a better system that worked for people, the planet and the natural world. She developed the project in response to the industrial meat producer Danish Crown opening a new bacon factory in Rochdale.
Following an open call for participants, twelve 16-25 year olds signed up to take part in a series of four half day workshops that included activities such as sustainable cooking, a visit to the Danish Crown factory and a visit to the Liverpool-based factory of industrial animal feed supplier Cargill. They visited neighbouring Crosby Beach – which overlooks Cargill’s operations and the gateway for deforestation entering the UK in the form of soya imports from South America, as well as a gateway for the historic international slave trade.
In the workshops, the young people explored the violent history of the food system and links to deforestation and the transatlantic slave trade. They talked about the likely impacts of Danish Crown’s huge new bacon factory on the local community in Rochdale and discussed more broadly how they felt about sharing their views as artists and activists to create positive change.
Over the course of the creative sessions, the group decided they’d like to continue to meet and talk about issues that matter to them within the environmental movement. They have called themselves Nourish and Flourish. Fatima Bangoura, aged 17, based in Manchester, Fajar Kayani, aged 22, based in Manchester, and Amina Hassan, aged 24, based in Bolton are three of its members. Fauziya invited local photographer and food solutions environmentalist, Hellen Songa, to document the workshops.
“I think a lot of the time I have activist thoughts, wanting to make a difference, wanting the world to be better, but a lot of the time when you don’t voice it, you feel very alone. But coming to a space like this, it's been so nice to feel the solidarity.”
Fatima Bangoura, workshop participant
“Being an activist means to me actively engaging in advocacy or actions to make a positive change. It means using my voice and energy to raise awareness, to also challenge norms, and to create a better future.”
Amina Hassan, workshop participant
“I think big companies like Danish Crown pick less affluent areas to build their factories because it benefits them. It's very, very, very rare that they actually give back to the community that they're using for their own profit.”
Fajar Kayani, workshop participant
The Waiting List
A living artwork reclaiming land from the industrial food system and demanding community access to plots from the government. Artists: JC Niala, Julia Utreras and Sam Skinner.
Every person in the UK has an enshrined right to a plot of land to grow food. The 1908 Allotment Act states that if six people apply for an allotment together (in England and Wales), their council has an obligation to find them a space.
When Dr JC Niala and her artist collective asked Greenpeace to find out the exact number of applications waiting, nobody knew that the Freedom of Information requests would reveal 174,183 applications, nearly doubling the waiting list in England over the last decade.
Exploring themes of land justice through the lens of allotments, Dr JC Niala in collaboration with Julia Utreras, and Sam Skinner at fig.studio – created a physical waiting list artwork visualising this new data. At over 30 metres long, and covering the size of a doubles tennis court, the artwork is the same size as a standard allotment.
This living artwork, along with a seedpaper letter for Secretary of State Michael Gove, was offered to the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities by the artists and allotmenteer community. It then travelled to Liverpool to reclaim unused Tesco-owned land in the heart of the UK’s industrial food system, planted within sight of the entry point of deforestation into the UK – the Cargill-operated soya import site at Liverpool.
To create the vast artwork the artists layered edible seeds and ash from burned Amazon rainforest between wheat pasted tissue paper. A hand-cut message was wheat pasted on top featuring an emblematic print representing both people and seeds: “We, 174,183 on The Waiting List demand allotments”
The artwork’s embedded seeds are already sprouting on Tesco-owned land. Starting to work their magic in the industrially contaminated soil. The seeds were selected to remediate the soil creating possibilities for it to regenerate and thrive. The ash which is from burnt Amazon rainforest will both enrich the soil whilst and remind us that UK food giants’ (eg Tesco) rely on imports of soya for meat and dairy production from places like South America, where soy production is driving deforestation and human rights abuses. Millions of tonnes of Cargill-imported soya is used every year in the UK to feed chickens, pigs and dairy cows.
On top of driving deforestation across the Atlantic, the industrial food system is also a major driver of biodiversity loss at home, making the UK one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. At present, 70% of the UK’s land is farmed, with nearly all of it used to produce meat and dairy. Just 15% of UK farmed land is used to grow food directly for people.
The allotment-sized land this artwork covers could feed a family of 4. If everyone was issued the land they’re waiting for it could feed cities of Nottingham and Leicester combined, and while this isn’t a comprehensive solution to food insecurity, it’s a part of it. The Waiting List artists are urging everyone who wants to grow their own food to stake their claim with their local council and demand an allotment – you can find out how long your waiting list is by visiting the artists’ website.
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With this 30-metre-long living artwork, artists and allotmenteers are urging the government to enable people to exercise their rights to allotments. It reads “We the 174,183 on THE WAITING LIST demand allotments”
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This living artwork, along with a seedpaper letter for Michael Gove, was offered to the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities by the artists and allotmenteer community.
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The artwork was transported from Westminster to the heart of the industrial food system in Liverpool to be planted by artists and volunteers.
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“We 174,183 on the waiting list demand allotments” is guerilla planted at a disused Tesco-owned site in Litherland, north Liverpool.
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The Waiting List was covered over with 8 tonnes of locally sourced soil and compost.
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The artists in their studio, wheatpasting layers of seeds and ash into the living artwork. Sam Skinner on the left, Julia Utreras right, and Dr JC Niala in the right foreground.
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JC Niala in the studio, hand cutting lettering to be wheat pasted on the seed paper.
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Julia Utreras working on the print symbol that represents the people waiting for land and the seeds that they will grow.
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The Waiting List artists
JC Niala, Julia Utreras & Sam Skinner from Fig Studio are independent artists who come together to make interactive public artworks grounded in research. They collaborate with nature to grow edible living collections that also feed the soil. Their work encourages people to find ways to reclaim space to grow their own food.
JC is a poet who did her doctoral research on urban gardening, Julia is a socially engaged designer, and Fig Studio is a project that develops art projects focused on nature culture and community.
“With the acceleration of climate change and the persistence of structural inequality within the UK and globally, food has become both an emblem and an embodiment of the troubles around us.
Allotments quite literally provide a lifeline for some. They bring good local food back to people and take away the bad taste of the global industrial food system. They improve people’s mental health and wellbeing by creating a sense of purpose and increasing opportunities to connect with others as well as spend time in nature.”
Bad Taste collaboration and the open call selection process
Shortlisted artists joined leaders from across food campaigning, art and activism to map out the campaign landscape together – we called this the foodscape. This collaborative workshop informed project proposals and has become the backbone of the broader Bad Taste campaign work.
JC Niala, Julia Utreras and Sam Skinner from Fig Studio are independent artists who come together to make interactive public artworks grounded in research. They collaborate with nature to grow edible living collections that also feed the soil. Their work encourages people to find ways to reclaim space to grow their own food. JC is a poet who did her doctoral research on urban gardening, Julia is a socially engaged designer, and Fig Studio is a project that develops art projects focused on nature culture and community.
Naho Matsuda is a visual artist based in London. Her practice is socially-engaged and situated, often involving local people, public places and the natural environment. A Drift of Us is an anonymous UK-based interdisciplinary collective questioning the established norms of food production and re-evaluating the position of multiple species through an eco-feminist perspective.
Fauziya Johnson is a Somali-Dominican queer curator, artist and producer based in Manchester. Fauziya creates with a focus on current social and political issues through community-centred workshops, art projects, and exhibitions. Her work creates thought-provoking, engaging and trusted spaces for the public to engage in, making collective care, deconstructing harmful systems, and activism the core of the work for marginalised groups, in particular Queer, Black and disabled communities.
People and collaborators
The Bad Taste project team has collaborated with various practitioners throughout the development process including:
Hannah Davey is the art and action coordinator at Greenpeace and has long championed the creative field of art activism. Hannah initiated Bad Taste and is the project team lead, overseeing the design, development and production of the artworks.
Sandra Ata is the allyship coordinator at Greenpeace and leads on movement building. She runs the Movement Support Fund, which is a small micro-grant programme for grassroots activists. Sandra is part of the core Bad Taste project team and supports the design, development and production of the projects.
Mary Jane Edwards is an independent arts director, producer and cultural organiser. Mary Jane co-initiated Bad Taste and has supported the design, development and delivery of the project with the artists and Greenpeace project team.
Internationally renowned, Cuban-born, artist and activist, Tania Bruguera supported the project by reviewing final proposals from the shortlisted applicants.
Larry Achiampong is an artist, filmmaker and musician whose work explores ideas surrounding class, gender, cross-cultural and digital identity. Larry supported the project by reviewing final proposals from the shortlisted applicants.
