The True Cost of Meat



There is no shortage of reports about the degradation of the environment by the oil and coal industry and the clearing of large tracts of rainforest to make room for more palm oil plantations. Less talked about, despite growing scientific evidence, are the equally devastating consequences of our voracious appetite for meat and dairy products. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Brazil, in the US and around the Baltic Sea: over 90% of the deforestation in the Amazon rain forest serves no other purpose than to make room for more soybeans. The soy harvest is mostly used to feed the livestock of big landowners. In California, which has been suffering from a historic four-year drought, more than a million hectares of agricultural land are dedicated to the cultivation of water-intensive alfalfa to be used as animal feed. The result are dry rivers, sinking water tables and drastically diminished wild salmon populations. Today, the Baltic Sea is one of the world’s most polluted bodies of water mostly because of the large agricultural operations in the surrounding countries. Their run-off of excess nitrogen and phosphorus from chemical fertilizers and animal excrement has lead to a substantial increase in undesirable nutrients (eutrophication).

Robin Hammond wants to document the effects of our meat and dairy consumption with large format images shot in Brazil, California, and the Baltic Sea coast of Poland. Large format photographs of landscapes transformed by the cultivation of feed crops or livestock will be contrasted with views from a time before the arrival of industrial agriculture, allowing viewers to get lost in the images and become part of the story unfolding before their eyes. Close ups of plants or microbes will be included as a contrast. They will be shot before a white background in a mobile mini studio and tell a symbolic tale of a changing local environment.

Robin Hammond (b.1975) was born in New Zealand and later lived in Japan, Great Britain, South Africa, and France. His specialty is documenting environmental destruction and social change. He has worked for National Geographic and Time Magazine, among others.

www.robinhammond.co.uk