written and photographed by Douglas Gayeton
“A Tale of Two Chickens” short film
produced by Laura Howard-Gayeton
written and directed by Douglas Gayeton
edited and animated by Pier Giorgio Provenzano
in collaboration with Sustainable Food Trust
IN 1972, ALEXANDER HAMILTON HELPED FOUND the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures and constructed the nation’s first industrial park at the Great Falls of New Jersey’s Passaic River. There, a succession of industries utilized the river’s energy to build everything from textiles to steel, Colt pistols to locomotives. These companies capitalized on nature. They depended on energy generated by the Passaic and saved money by dumping waste directly into the river. Externalizing natural resource costs led to lower prices and greater profits, at least for a time.
Those companies have since vanished, but the steps they took to produce cheap goods left a lasting legacy; the river is now one of the most polluted waterways in America, transformed from a symbol of American entrepreneurial spirit into a Superfund site.
Many Americans now buy their food from the same stores that sell them tube socks and lawn chairs, but cheap food comes at a cost, one that’s hidden from most consumers. Helping the public understand the consequences of their purchases is perhaps the greatest obstacle to mending our broken food system. Everything costs money. You pay at the checkout stand or you pay in other, more oblique ways. External costs are hard to see. In fact, sometimes they’re only visible to future generations. Just ask anyone living in central New Jersey.
IN 1833, A BRITISH ECONOMIST NAMED WILLIAM FORSTER LLOYD introduced a principle: if a community shared a common resource like a pasture, and if farmers were motivated by self-interest, they’d prioritize their individual short-term needs over those of the group, grazing their animals as much as possible to get the maximum benefit from this shared resource until no grass remained.
Nearly 150 years later, Dr. Garret Hardin further popularized a concept, which he termed the Tragedy of the Commons, saying, “an unmanaged commons in a world of limited material wealth and unlimited desires inevitably ends in ruin.”
The same can be said for our food system. Basic economics teaches us that supply feeds demand, and that producers grow what consumers want. For the past fifty years, what consumers have wanted is increasingly cheaper food, and the food industry has proven staggeringly efficient in meeting that challenge.
Not long ago, people spent nearly 30% of their disposable incomes on food. Today that number is under 10%. We’ve grown accustomed to markets that efficiently deliver goods at the cheapest price, but what if the “cheap” food we’re buying isn’t really cheap, but instead the trigger for long-term consequences consumers pay for elsewhere: to clean up waterways polluted by factories and agricultural runoff, to pay higher healthcare costs that treat uninsured workers, to pay taxes that support social services for workers who cannot afford to raise their families? When you add these health, social and environmental costs back into the price of cheap food … it suddenly isn’t so cheap after all. “At some point, we have to recognize that what we pay for food at the supermarket counter is not the true cost,” noted Fred Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. “But determining the true cost of cheap food will be difficult given the food industry’s lack of transparency.”
Dr. Garret Hardin might’ve called this conundrum the Tragedy of the Supermarket.
We live in a world where two economies operate in parallel. The first is extractive. It depletes our natural resources for the sake of production, taking without giving back. Conventional agriculture would be an example of an extractive industry. Farmers who once grew for nutrition now grow for yields, planting commodity crops that depend on fertilizers and pesticides while using practices that deplete topsoil.
The second type of economy is generative. In this economy, people work together to conserve and even generate new resources. They create, restore, and sustain. They build community. “That’s the future we’re moving toward,” Kirschenmann predicts. “We’ll probably go through a painful transition — some of us will continue to insist on using the extractive economy to enhance our own personal wealth — but when the ecosystem services of our natural communities and the social services of our communities can no longer support us, the world is going to become increasingly dysfunctional.”
HOW DID CHICKEN COME TO BE CHEAPER, pound for pound, than bread?
The answer has everything to do with how most chickens are now raised. In fact, the ubiquity of chicken as a relatively inexpensive global source of protein serves as an apt metaphor for the downfall of an industrial food system.
Pasture-raised poultry lead healthy lives with ample time spent outside. When chickens are organic, their feed is grown without the use of synthetic pesticides. Factory-farmed poultry, on the other hand, are raised in intensely crowded conditions, usually inside warehouses. Their feed is made from crops, like corn, that depend on industrial farming practices whose pesticides and fertilizers degrade our biodiversity, soil, and water. Waste from factory-farmed poultry operations often pollute groundwater and waterways and contribute to aquatic dead zones. They can also emit huge amounts of ammonia into the atmosphere, which affects the air we breathe and contributes to climate change.
Meanwhile, crowding poultry into warehouses increases the likelihood of sickness and infection, which often requires the use of preventive antibiotics. When humans eat industrially grown chickens, they can develop infections resistant to these very same antibiotics, which can lead to serious health problems. Our own taxes help support many of these farming practices through agricultural subsidies. When you add up all these hidden costs, cheaper chicken isn’t so cheap after all.
Yet it isn’t so simple to place blame.
Food producers are stuck in an economic system that only rewards companies that provide us food at the cheapest price. Walk down the aisle in any supermarket and you’ll find that this story repeats, from carrots to peas, milk to cheese. Even with breakfast cereal. Our food system has two prices: the one you pay now, and the one society collectively pays later. At some point we need to ask ourselves… Why do we support such a destructive system?
As Patrick Holden, founding director of the UK’s Sustainable Food Trust, notes, “The food we eat is cheap because it’s a commodity grown in a completely rigged economic system. If you grow food in a way which exploits natural capital, diminishes soil fertility, causes emissions that lead to climate change, pulverize biodiversity, and causes rainforest destruction, you don’t pay for any of that damage. However, farmers who deliver positive benefits to health and the environment, create jobs, reduce emissions while building soil carbon, and produce food which coexists with biodiversity get no financial reward.
How can consumers break up such a “rigged” food system? To start, they can become more aware of what things really cost. “Smart” shoppers reward themselves by looking for the best deal. When they see two similar products, they resort to purchasing decisions based on “value”, which they define as the cheapest price. What if “value” was defined not in terms of cost but in terms of human, social, or environmental values that benefit all of us and contribute to the world we want to see? With that in mind, the Sustainable Food Trust has defined six straightforward ways both consumers and producers can help build a more equitable, sustainable food system.
rBST IS A SYNTHETIC GROWTH HORMONE used to increase milk production by dairy cows. A number of well-documented consequences of its use—ranging from increases in clinical mastitis to infertility in dairy cows exposed to these hormones—led a host of nations to ban its use, including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and all 27 member countries of the European Union. Today, the US is the lone remaining country in the developed world that still permits its sale.
While the FDA maintains that “no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rbST-treated and non-rbST-treated cows,” consumers have already learned about rBST’s ill effects. They read news articles, noticed the strange term written on a milk carton, or overheard a conversation at a farmers’ market. In short, consumers became educated, upped their food literacy, and reached their own conclusions about which milk to buy.
Want proof? Scan the refrigerated case at Costco, Safeway, Walmart, Kroger, Publix, and a hundred other supermarkets: you won’t find any milk made using rBST. Consumers learned a simple term, paid a little extra at the cash register, and shifted an entire industry through the power of words.
“For decades consumers walked down the supermarket aisle, encountering brand after brand, only seeking out the ones they were loyal to,” observes Ken Cook, co-founder and president of Environmental Working Group. “What we’re seeing now is a different kind of habit-forming among consumers. They’re starting to ask questions. They don’t necessarily seek out their favorite brand. Instead, they consider other factors: ‘Didn’t I read somewhere that this food might lead to concerns about allergies in my family?’ ‘Didn’t I hear that if I buy this food I’m going to be contributing to pollution?’
When provided with tools and knowledge that demystify the food industry, consumers can make value-based choices that force industries to change their practices, just as we’ve seen with cage-free eggs, antibiotics in meat, and rBST milk.
IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS, FOOD BUYERS base their purchasing decisions on finding the lowest price. To achieve profits within this model, producers concentrate on higher yields. Transactions in this “high yield / low cost” paradigm mostly happen against the backdrop of opaque (or blind) supply chains; buyers see commodities at low prices while any associated externalities that negatively impact livelihoods, the environment, the welfare of workers, and our climate remain hidden.
If purchasers could identify the various costs associated with cleaning up polluted water, safeguarding the health of food chain workers toiling in dangerous conditions, or simply the economic losses felt by rural communities negatively impacted by the industrialized food system, our food would undeniably cost more, but how much more?
True cost accounting represents an attempt to identify these external costs, then factor them into the price of food to make both food companies and consumers aware of the “long tail” that results from purchasing decisions based on a “high yield / low cost” model. It may also help to explain why a dozen eggs from pasture-raised chickens are closer in true price to a dozen eggs from a factory farm. Until true costs are made visible, getting consumers to pay more for real pastured eggs, organic produce, or grass-fed beef will remain a challenge.
Unfortunately, the cost of data collection required to inform true cost accounting is prohibitive. In the interim, technology can help bridge this knowledge gap by linking otherwise discreet networks across supply chains. For instance, highly sophisticated remote sensing devices can track a wealth of data on food, moving from seed to field to harvest to truck to cold storage to truck to aggregator to truck to processor. This approach, generally referred to as blockchain, integrates data moving through multiple companies and their dedicated technology platforms to make food supply chains traceable. Unfortunately, determining who pays to build this data-integration infrastructure, install and maintain precious sensing devices, and determine who ultimately owns the information that’s captured remains a mystery.
One benefit from assembling value chain awareness tools may be the increased literacy of food purchasers. By surfacing data on a wide range of subjects, from regenerative agriculture to biodiversity, equity to the circular economy, purchasers will be better equipped to ask suppliers the right questions, and reward producers who utilize more sustainable practices.
By participating in a more connected market, producers will be empowered to deliver high quality goods at a fair price. They can therefore support both the communities where food is grown and the global marketplace. Additionally, by becoming a partner in a mutually beneficial value chain, food purchasers can source ingredients that champion a food system aligned with their values – even when ingredients come from halfway around the world.
A connected market is a mindful market.
Produced by Laura Howard-Gayeton
Written, directed, illustrated, and narrated by Douglas Gayeton
Edited and animated by Pier Giorgio Provenzano
The series introduces viewers to the terms and principles that enable them to be more responsible, sustainably-minded consumers. For this series, we’ve worked closely with hundreds of thought leaders from every aspect of our food system to explain the real cost of cheap food, we’ve explored concepts like GMO and Organic, and we have discovered solutions to such challenges as food waste and seafood fraud. By learning these key principles, consumers can do their part to fix our food system.
True Cost Accounting
By considering all the external costs factored out of the cost of food, an economic principle called true cost accounting helps consumers understand the real cost of the food they buy.
The Story of an Egg
Can learning the meaning of a single term actually help change the food system? David Evans and Alexis Koefoed think so. These poultry farmers explain the real story behind such terms as “cage free, “free range” and “pasture raised” so that consumers can make informed decisions when they go to their local supermarket.
Antibiotic Free
Nearly 80% of the antibiotics in this country aren’t used on people. They’re used on animals, animals we eat. And most of them aren’t even sick. Bill and Nicolette Niman share their insights on the growing movement to remove sub-therapeutic antibiotics from American beef.
A Tale of Two Chickens
A short film for the Sustainable Food Trust that explains the real cost of cheap food by explaining what happens when you live in a world where bread is cheaper, by the pound, than chicken. Narrated by Nikki Silvestri.
Hog Farms in Arkansas
What happens when a factory hog farm that produces enough waste as a small town — with none of the waste management infrastructure costs — appears in a rural community in Arkansas?
Agricultural Runoff in Iowa
In 2015, the Des Moines Water Works, Iowa’s largest water utility, filed a lawsuit in federal court against upstream drainage districts in three counties, citing that for years fertilizer runoff on agricultural land had leached into local waterways and polluted the drinking water of nearly 500,000 Des Moines residents. The case was a test. Could a federal law, the Clean Water Act of 1972 and its provisions for safe drinking water (SDWA), be used at the local level to compel farmers to change their farming practices? Would the Environmental Protection Agency join the fight?
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We have no idea who grows our food, what farming practices they use, the communities they support, or what processing it undergoes before reaching our plates.
As a result, we have no ability to make food purchases that align with our values as individuals, or our missions as companies.
To change that, we’ve asked experts to demystify the complexity of food purchasing so that you can better informed decisions about what you buy.
The Lexicon of Food’s community of experts share their insights and experiences on the complex journey food takes to reach our plates. Their work underscores the need for greater transparency and better informed decision-making in shaping a healthier and more sustainable food system for all.
Over half the world’s agricultural production comes from only three crops. Can we bring greater diversity to our plates?
In the US, four companies control nearly 85% of the beef we consume. Can we develop more regionally-based markets?
How can we develop alternatives to single-use plastics that are more sustainable and environmentally friendly?
Could changing the way we grow our food provide benefits for people and the planet, and even respond to climate change?
Can we meet the growing global demand for protein while reducing our reliance on traditional animal agriculture?
It’s not only important what we eat but what our food comes in. Can we develop tools that identify toxic materials used in food packaging?
Explore The Lexicon’s collection of immersive storytelling experiences featuring insights from our community of international experts.
The Great Protein Shift
Our experts use an engaging interactive approach to break down the technologies used to create these novel proteins.
Ten Principles for Regenerative Agriculture
What is regenerative agriculture? We’ve developed a framework to explain the principles, practices, ecological benefits and language of regenerative agriculture, then connected them to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Food-related chronic diseases are the biggest burden on healthcare systems. What would happen if we treated food as medicine?
How can we responsibly manage our ocean fisheries so there’s enough seafood for everyone now and for generations to come?
Mobilizing agronomists, farmers, NGOs, chefs, and food companies in defense of biodiversity in nature, agriculture, and on our plates.
Can governments develop guidelines that shift consumer diets, promote balanced nutrition and reduce the risk of chronic disease?
Will sustainably raising shellfish, finfish, shrimp and algae meet the growing demand for seafood while reducing pressure on wild fisheries?
How can a universal visual language to describe our food systems bridge cultural barriers and increase consumer literacy?
What if making the right food choices could be an effective tool for addressing a range of global challenges?
Let’s start with climate change. While it presents our planet with existential challenges, biodiversity loss, desertification, and water scarcity should be of equal concern—they’re all connected.
Instead of seeking singular solutions, we must develop a holistic approach, one that channel our collective energies and achieve positive impacts where they matter most.
To maximize our collective impact, EBF can help consumers focus on six equally important ecological benefits: air, water, soil, biodiversity, equity, and carbon.
We’ve gathered domain experts from over 1,000 companies and organizations working at the intersection of food, agriculture, conservation, and climate change.
The Lexicon™ is a California-based nonprofit founded in 2009 with a focus on positive solutions for a more sustainable planet.
For the past five years, it has developed an “activator for good ideas” with support from Food at Google. This model gathers domain experts from over 1,000 companies and organizations working at the intersection of food, agriculture, conservation, and climate change.
Together, the community has reached consensus on strategies that respond to challenges across multiple domain areas, including biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, food packaging, aquaculture, and the missing middle in supply chains for meat.
Lexicon of Food is the first public release of that work.
Over half the world’s agricultural production comes from only three crops. Can we bring greater diversity to our plates?
In the US, four companies control nearly 85% of the beef we consume. Can we develop more regionally-based markets?
How can we develop alternatives to single-use plastics that are more sustainable and environmentally friendly?
Could changing the way we grow our food provide benefits for people and the planet, and even respond to climate change?
Can we meet the growing global demand for protein while reducing our reliance on traditional animal agriculture?
It’s not only important what we eat but what our food comes in. Can we develop tools that identify toxic materials used in food packaging?
Explore The Lexicon’s collection of immersive storytelling experiences featuring insights from our community of international experts.
The Great Protein Shift
Our experts use an engaging interactive approach to break down the technologies used to create these novel proteins.
Ten Principles for Regenerative Agriculture
What is regenerative agriculture? We’ve developed a framework to explain the principles, practices, ecological benefits and language of regenerative agriculture, then connected them to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Food-related chronic diseases are the biggest burden on healthcare systems. What would happen if we treated food as medicine?
How can we responsibly manage our ocean fisheries so there’s enough seafood for everyone now and for generations to come?
Mobilizing agronomists, farmers, NGOs, chefs, and food companies in defense of biodiversity in nature, agriculture, and on our plates.
Can governments develop guidelines that shift consumer diets, promote balanced nutrition and reduce the risk of chronic disease?
Will sustainably raising shellfish, finfish, shrimp and algae meet the growing demand for seafood while reducing pressure on wild fisheries?
How can a universal visual language to describe our food systems bridge cultural barriers and increase consumer literacy?
This game was designed to raise awareness about the impacts our food choices have on our own health, but also the environment, climate change and the cultures in which we live.
First, you can choose one of the four global regions and pick a character that you want to play.
Each region has distinct cultural, economic, historical, and agricultural capacities to feed itself, and each character faces different challenges, such as varied access to food, higher or lower family income, and food literacy.
As you take your character through their day, select the choices you think they might make given their situation.
At the end of the day you will get a report on the impact of your food choices on five areas: health, healthcare, climate, environment and culture. Take some time to read through them. Now go back and try again. Can you make improvements in all five areas? Did one area score higher, but another score lower?
FOOD CHOICES FOR A HEALTHY PLANET will help you better understand how all these regions and characters’ particularities can influence our food choices, and how our food choices can impact our personal health, national healthcare, environment, climate, and culture. Let’s Play!
The FOOD CHOICES FOR A HEALTHY PLANET game allows users to experience the dramatic connections between food and climate in a unique and engaging way. The venue and the game set-up provides attendees with a fun experience, with a potential to add a new layer of storytelling about this topic.
Starting the game: the pilot version of the game features four country/regions: Each reflects a different way people (and the national dietary guidelines) look at diets: Nordic Countries (sustainability), Brazil (local and whole foods instead of ultra-processed foods); Canada (plant-forward), and Indonesia (developing countries).
Personalizing the game: players begin by choosing a country and then a character who they help in making food choices over the course of one day. Later versions may allow for creating custom avatars.
Making tough food choices: This interactive game for all ages shows how the food choices we make impact our health and the environment, and even contribute to climate change.
What we eat matters: at the end of each game, players learn that every decision they make impacts not only their health, but a national healthcare system, the environment, climate and even culture.
We’d love to know more about you and why you think you will be a great fit for this position! Shoot us an email introducing you and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
Providing best water quality conditions to ensure optimal living condition for growth, breeding and other physiological needs
Water quality is sourced from natural seawater with dependency on the tidal system. Water is treated to adjust pH and alkalinity before stocking.
Producers that own and manages the farm operating under small-scale farming model with limited input, investment which leads to low to medium production yield
All 1,149 of our farmers in both regencies are smallholder farmers who operate with low stocking density, traditional ponds, and no use of any other intensification technology.
Safe working conditions — cleanliness, lighting, equipment, paid overtime, hazard safety, etc. — happen when businesses conduct workplace safety audits and invest in the wellbeing of their employees
Company ensure implementation of safe working conditions by applying representative of workers to health and safety and conduct regular health and safety training. The practices are proven by ASIC standards’ implementation
Implementation of farming operations, management and trading that impact positively to community wellbeing and sustainable better way of living
The company works with local stakeholders and local governments to create support for farmers and the farming community in increasing resilience. Our farming community is empowered by local stakeholders continuously to maintain a long generation of farmers.
Freezing seafood rapidly when it is at peak freshness to ensure a higher quality and longer lasting product
Our harvests are immediately frozen with ice flakes in layers in cool boxes. Boxes are equipped with paper records and coding for traceability. We ensure that our harvests are processed with the utmost care at <-18 degrees Celsius.
Sourcing plant based ingredients, like soy, from producers that do not destroy forests to increase their growing area and produce fish feed ingredients
With adjacent locations to mangroves and coastal areas, our farmers and company are committed to no deforestation at any scale. Mangrove rehabilitation and replantation are conducted every year in collaboration with local authorities. Our farms are not established in protected habitats and have not resulted from deforestation activity since the beginning of our establishment.
Implement only natural feeds grown in water for aquatic animal’s feed without use of commercial feed
Our black tiger shrimps are not fed using commercial feed. The system is zero input and depends fully on natural feed grown in the pond. Our farmers use organic fertilizer and probiotics to enhance the water quality.
Enhance biodiversity through integration of nature conservation and food production without negative impact to surrounding ecosysytem
As our practices are natural, organic, and zero input, farms coexist with surrounding biodiversity which increases the volume of polyculture and mangrove coverage area. Farmers’ groups, along with the company, conduct regular benthic assessments, river cleaning, and mangrove planting.
THE TERM “MOONSHOT” IS OFTEN USED TO DESCRIBE an initiative that goes beyond the confines of the present by transforming our greatest aspirations into reality, but the story of a moonshot isn’t that of a single rocket. In fact, the Apollo program that put Neil Armstrong on the moon was actually preceded by the Gemini program, which in a two-year span rapidly put ten rockets into space. This “accelerated” process — with a new mission nearly every 2-3 months — allowed NASA to rapidly iterate, validate their findings and learn from their mistakes. Telemetry. Propulsion. Re-entry. Each mission helped NASA build and test a new piece of the puzzle.
The program also had its fair share of creative challenges, especially at the outset, as the urgency of the task at hand required that the roadmap for getting to the moon be written in parallel with the rapid pace of Gemini missions. Through it all, the NASA teams never lost sight of their ultimate goal, and the teams finally aligned on their shared responsibilities. Within three years of Gemini’s conclusion, a man did walk on the moon.
FACT is a food systems solutions activator that assesses the current food landscape, engages with key influencers, identifies trends, surveys innovative work and creates greater visibility for ideas and practices with the potential to shift key food and agricultural paradigms.
Each activator focuses on a single moonshot; instead of producing white papers, policy briefs or peer-reviewed articles, these teams design and implement blueprints for action. At the end of each activator, their work is released to the public and open-sourced.
As with any rapid iteration process, many of our activators re-assess their initial plans and pivot to address new challenges along the way. Still, one thing has remained constant: their conviction that by working together and pooling their knowledge and resources, they can create a multiplier effect to more rapidly activate change.
Co-Founder
THE LEXICON
Vice President
Global Workplace Programs
GOOGLE
Who can enter and how selections are made.
A Greener Blue is a global call to action that is open to individuals and teams from all over the world. Below is a non-exhaustive list of subjects the initiative targets.
To apply, prospective participants will need to fill out the form on the website, by filling out each part of it. Applications left incomplete or containing information that is not complete enough will receive a low score and have less chance of being admitted to the storytelling lab.
Nonprofit organizations, communities of fishers and fish farmers and companies that are seeking a closer partnership or special support can also apply by contacting hello@thelexicon.org and interacting with the members of our team.
Special attention will be given to the section of the form regarding the stories that the applicants want to tell and the reasons for participating. All proposals for stories regarding small-scale or artisanal fishers or aquaculturists, communities of artisanal fishers or aquaculturists, and workers in different steps of the seafood value chain will be considered.
Stories should show the important role that these figures play in building a more sustainable seafood system. To help with this narrative, the initiative has identified 10 principles that define a more sustainable seafood system. These can be viewed on the initiative’s website and they state:
Seafood is sustainable when:
Proposed stories should show one or more of these principles in practice.
Applications are open from the 28th of June to the 15th of August 2022. There will be 50 selected applicants who will be granted access to The Lexicon’s Total Storytelling Lab. These 50 applicants will be asked to accept and sign a learning agreement and acceptance of participation document with which they agree to respect The Lexicon’s code of conduct.
The first part of the lab will take place online between August the 22nd and August the 26th and focus on training participants on the foundation of storytelling, supporting them to create a production plan, and aligning all of them around a shared vision.
Based on their motivation, quality of the story, geography, and participation in the online Lab, a selected group of participants will be gifted a GoPro camera offered to the program by GoPro For A Change. Participants who are selected to receive the GoPro camera will need to sign an acceptance and usage agreement.
The second part of the Storytelling Lab will consist of a production period in which each participant will be supported in the production of their own story. This period goes from August 26th to October 13th. Each participant will have the opportunity to access special mentorship from an international network of storytellers and seafood experts who will help them build their story. The Lexicon also provides editors, animators, and graphic designers to support participants with more technical skills.
The final deadline to submit the stories is the 14th of October. Participants will be able to both submit complete edited stories, or footage accompanied by a storyboard to be assembled by The Lexicon’s team.
All applicants who will exhibit conduct and behavior that is contrary to The Lexicon’s code of conduct will be automatically disqualified. This includes applicants proposing stories that openly discriminate against a social or ethnic group, advocate for a political group, incite violence against any group, or incite to commit crimes of any kind.
All submissions must be the entrant’s original work. Submissions must not infringe upon the trademark, copyright, moral rights, intellectual rights, or rights of privacy of any entity or person.
Participants will retain the copyrights to their work while also granting access to The Lexicon and the other partners of the initiative to share their contributions as part of A Greener Blue Global Storytelling Initiative.
If a potential selected applicant cannot be reached by the team of the Initiative within three (3) working days, using the contact information provided at the time of entry, or if the communication is returned as undeliverable, that potential participant shall forfeit.
Selected applicants will be granted access to an advanced Storytelling Lab taught and facilitated by Douglas Gayeton, award-winning storyteller and information architect, co-founder of The Lexicon. In this course, participants will learn new techniques that will improve their storytelling skills and be able to better communicate their work with a global audience. This skill includes (but is not limited to) how to build a production plan for a documentary, how to find and interact with subjects, and how to shoot a short documentary.
Twenty of the participants will receive a GoPro Hero 11 Digital Video and Audio Cameras by September 15, 2022. Additional participants may receive GoPro Digital Video and Audio Cameras to be announced at a later date. The recipients will be selected by advisors to the program and will be based on selection criteria (see below) on proposals by Storytelling Lab participants. The selections will keep in accordance with Lab criteria concerning geography, active participation in the Storytelling Lab and commitment to the creation of a story for the Initiative, a GoPro Camera to use to complete the storytelling lab and document their story. These recipients will be asked to sign an acceptance letter with terms of use and condition to receive the camera.
The Lexicon provides video editors, graphic designers, and animators to support the participants to complete their stories.
The submitted stories will be showcased during international and local events, starting from the closing event of the International Year of Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022 in Rome, in January 2023. The authors of the stories will be credited and may be invited to join.
Storytelling lab participation:
Applicants that will be granted access to the storytelling Lab will be evaluated based on the entries they provided in the online form, and in particular:
Applications will be evaluated by a team of 4 judges from The Lexicon, GSSI and the team of IYAFA (Selection committee).
When selecting applications, the call promoters may request additional documentation or interviews both for the purpose of verifying compliance with eligibility requirements and to facilitate proposal evaluation.
Camera recipients:
Participants to the Storytelling Lab who will be given a GoPro camera will be selected based on:
The evaluation will be carried out by a team of 4 judges from The Lexicon, GSSI and the team of IYAFA (Selection committee).
Incidental expenses and all other costs and expenses which are not specifically listed in these Official Rules but which may be associated with the acceptance, receipt and use of the Storytelling Lab and the camera are solely the responsibility of the respective participants and are not covered by The Lexicon or any of the A Greener Blue partners.
All participants who receive a Camera are required to sign an agreement allowing GoPro for a Cause, The Lexicon and GSSI to utilize the films for A Greener Blue and their promotional purposes. All participants will be required to an agreement to upload their footage into the shared drive of The Lexicon and make the stories, films and images available for The Lexicon and the promoting partners of A Greener Blue.
