Food for Tomorrow

“On a recent project to our farm I met these amazing women who come from LA to NY and globally from Istanbul to São Paulo who are breaking that glass ceiling while simultaneously raising children. As women we have to work twice as hard and never quite feel it’s enough to do the balancing act required of us as mothers, partners and working women. But what we do is fulfilling as we make our mark in the world, manifesting our true prowess, doing better than the best we can and then some and showing our children that you can and you can do it well. It takes tenacity and conviction and I feel so proud to be with this group of strong women unleashing that power of true femininity.”

– Wendy Johnson, Jóia Food & Fiber Farm

AlterEgo partnered with the teams at Disney, Nat Geo CreativeWorks, National Geographic Society, and PepsiCo along with their local partners Practical Farmers of Iowa in the United States, GIZ in Thailand, and Milhão in Brazil to develop a 3-part global docuseries exploring the power of regenerative agriculture.

Our Nat Geo Photographer and host, Rena Effendi, had a mantra that resonated. “I am a photographer first and a woman second.” An award-winning filmmaker, writer and social documentarian, Rena provided a bespoke lens in which we captured the stories of three wildly different farmers fighting to evolve their farms in the face of escalating climate change. All three farmers just so happened to be farmers first …and women as well.

What a time to be covering farming. In the United States where we are based, trade tensions and a government shutdown has led to chaos for some American soybean and corn farmers. The challenge: How can we tell this positive story with such complicated roots in a way that focuses on growth in a time of stagnation?

Focus on the people. 

For this second film in the series we took a good ole fashioned road trip to Iowa. For hundreds of miles, driving through corn fields in various stages of growth, we saw the differences between tilled land and no till, between fields laden with cover crops and those rocking pure black soil, and between farms subsidized by our government’s insurance and those who chose to prioritize regenerative farming over conventional methods. 

Wendy of Center View Farms and Jóia Food & Fiber Farm graciously shared her sacrifices and successes with us since returning to her family’s multi generation farm to save it from possible sale. Her community was one of the many hollowed out by the 1980’s economic crisis and now today environmental threats loom. Watching Wendy chart a new path favoring the planet was inspiring beyond belief. And when you are on her farm – you feel, see, smell, hear, and taste the benefits of her choices in real time. We heard birds chirping, bees buzzing, and healthy newborn lambs bleating. The soft feel of fresh organic wool or a new born chick against our faces. Tasting kernza grain soup, and seeing the bright yellow yolk only found inside a farm fresh egg.

As a Director who grew up in a very small town, I saw each of these brand films as intimate vintage pieces … like a time capsule celebrating all that is good about rural life. And so we lensed our cameras to match the vibe with a set of 1977 Leica R Summicrons. Leaning into our cinematic style documentary roots we wanted to show early mornings in the kitchen, hard labor throughout the day, the joy of new life, the endless planning and pivoting, and sometimes, a successful harvest to celebrate. That made the choice to tag in our nimble RED Komodo mounted to a sleek low-impact RS4 handheld gimbal an easy one. Filming at the edges of light made for long days but those hazy dew dropped mornings and blazing summer sunsets are where the magic happens.

To everyone still reading this, I cannot stress enough how important it is for us to seek out and support these types of farmers and the companies who support their strength. The future of food, the future of agriculture, the future of these families depend on it.