Ticketing
Description
Book Launch
Exhibition catalogue “LandRush – Ventures into Global Agriculture” including written contributions by Dr. Wolfgang Brückle and Dennis Dimick
Book presentation, signing session and nocturnal guided tour of the exhibition
Agriculture uses about 40 percent of arable land and 70 percent of freshwater worldwide. As world population grows towards 10 billion over the next 30 years, we will cut down and burn more forests and plow more grasslands to graze livestock and grow crops.
Economists say we must grow twice as much food by mid-century to keep up with rising population and our growing taste for more high-quality protein like meat and dairy. Not only is agriculture a major contributor of greenhouse gases that heat the planet, but crop yields are threatened by droughts, heatwaves, storms, and floods caused by those same emissions.
In an epic-scale documentary project reminiscent of the famous 1930s work of Depression-era Farm Security Administration photographers, Huber and Martin use soil, water, and seeds as a framework. These elements provide the bedrock foundation for agriculture and for the work presented here in three sections: Land Rush (soil), Dry West (water), and White Gold (seeds).
Agriculture is nothing without soil, and Land Rush analyzes the race to secure land in the Amazon, Ethiopia, and Germany. In the U.S., Huber and Martin look at Iowa crops grown for energy, this while vital topsoil washes downstream after decades of industrial monoculture.
In Dry West, Huber and Martin live in the arid American southwest to examine the vital role imported water plays in propping up agriculture and society in a dry region historically prone to devastating drought. As snowpacks and aquifers decline, farming’s future is vulnerable here.
White Gold documents global cotton production in Texas, Africa, Central Asia, and India, probes its financial and environmental impact, and looks at damage to impoverished farmers and rural economies from overhyped genetically engineered cotton seeds. The poor get poorer.
Epic and eloquent, these in-depth reports testify to Huber and Martin’s persistence, curiosity, and passion in revealing agriculture’s huge and growing impact on people and planet.
Their reports are sweeping, yet personal. While agriculture has domesticated more of earth’s land than any other activity, our food supplies and fate rely on unyielding efforts of people they met who plant, weed, and pick. We owe thanks to Huber and Martin for reminding us of the sacrifices by those who sow and reap for our benefit.
Leave a comment
Event
Book Launch - LandRush
Organizer contact
Centre national de l'audiovisuel (CNA)
Marielle Kaufmann
Address : 1b, rue du Centenaire
3475 Dudelange
LUXEMBOURG
Phone : +352 52 24 24 01