Series description
Foodscapes is an aerial segment of my Feed the Planet project, which is a comprehensive examination of global food supply and how the world can meet the rapidly expanding challenge of feeding humanity without putting more natural lands under the plough. With the global population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, combined with a rising standard of living in rapidly developing nations, it is estimated that we will have to double the global food supply. Knowing more about how our food is produced and its environmental consequences is key to making more informed choices. This work was done with professional drones, as an elevated perspective is often the best way to show the scale required to feed all of humanity.
Biography
Best known for his aerial photography, George Steinmetz has a restless curiosity for the unknown: remote landscapes, our changing climate, and how we can meet the ever-expanding food needs of humanity. He has captured subjects ranging from the remotest stretches of Arabia’s Empty Quarter while piloting a motorized paraglider to the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest via an open-door plane. George’s current project is documenting the global food supply, primarily with professional drones.
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Combines gather for the last week of the soybean harvest on Fazenda Piratini, a 25,000 hectare farm on largely non-irrigated land in Bahia, Brazil. The farm is owned by SLC Agricola, the largest soybean grower in Brazil, which has over 600,000 hectares of mega-farms planted with soybeans, corn and cotton. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of soybeans, most of which are grown on large-scale farms like this.
© George Steinmetz, United States, Shortlist, Professional competition, Landscape, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards
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Before Poland regained its independence in 1918, this farmland around the village of Suloszowa was divided under a German system known as Waldhufendorf. The philosophy of these ‘forest villages’ was that settlements were built along the roads and streams, with narrow strips of farmland transitioning from fields to pasture and surrounding forest. The dominant crops are potatoes, wheat, oats, corn cabbage, beans, rye, beetroot and strawberries.
© George Steinmetz, United States, Shortlist, Professional competition, Landscape, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards
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Sorting sun-dried red chillies on a small family farm near Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. India is the largest producer of dried red chillies in the world, accounting for 41 percent of the 4.2 million tons of global production.
© George Steinmetz, United States, Shortlist, Professional competition, Landscape, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards
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Organic gardening is an art form at the Château de Villandry, France. The garden has 10 full-time gardeners and attracts around 350,000 visitors per year. The central grid of nine square plots measures a little over a hectare, with 90 percent of the plots planted in a rotating array of 90 percent seasonal vegetables and 10 percent planted with boxwood and flowers.
© George Steinmetz, United States, Shortlist, Professional competition, Landscape, 2023 Sony World Photography Ads
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Herding a flock of 5,000 Merino ewes and their offspring into the pens of the shearing shed at Mungadal Station, New South Wales, Australia. The sheep are sorted by size: the ewes will be shorn for their wool and the lambs will be sent to another station to fatten further before being sent to slaughter.
© George Steinmetz, United States, Shortlist, Professional competition, Landscape, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards
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Gathering salt for human and industrial use on Sambhar Lake, Rajasthan, India. Workers here earn about 250-300 INR (US$3-4) per day, and work from 8 am until 1 pm, when it becomes too hot – temperatures in this region can be as high as 49°C (120°F). These are privately owned salt evaporation ponds, with the reddish hyper-saline water supplied from wells that are 120-180 metres (400-600 feet) deep.
© George Steinmetz, United States, Shortlist, Professional competition, Landscape, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards
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Terraces of dry-land wheat fields have transformed the arid valleys of the Sierra de Alcumbierre in northern Spain. Most years there is not enough rain for a successful crop, and the area is now dotted with abandoned farmhouses. Agriculture is heavily subsidised in Western Europe, where more than 40 percent of the EU budget goes to supporting small-scale farmers and sustaining rural communities.
© George Steinmetz, United States, Shortlist, Professional competition, Landscape, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards
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A grid of stone walls and cattle paddocks cover the volcanic terrain of the Achada Valley on Terceira Island in the Azores. Dairy farming dominates the island economy, which produces ⅓ of Portugal’s milk and ½ of its cheese. Most of the farms are small family-run dairies of about 25 hectares, with fewer than 50 cows, and are supported by EU subsidies.
© George Steinmetz, United States, Shortlist, Professional competition, Landscape, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards