A Visual Reckoning with the Global Food System: Reflections on Food For Thought with Kadir van Lohuizen

As food and beverage professionals, we often speak in numbers — yields, exports, margins, nutrition labels, P&Ls. But what happens when we replace data with imagery, supply chains with stories, and the familiar with the brutally honest?  At Gulf Photo Plus in Alserkal Avenue, award-winning photographer and filmmaker Kadir van Lohuizen did exactly that in an interview with Gulfood.

“We can feed this planet if we want to, even if there will soon be eleven billion of us, which is encouraging. But with a climate crisis in full swing, causing agricultural areas to dry up or be flooded, the system needs a major overhaul. I have become convinced that the way we are doing things in many places will not be sustainable in the longer or even the shorter term. The good news is that we can change it if we want to, and governments can also take the lead, particularly by providing farmers with alternative perspectives. — Kadir van Lohuizen

In his new project Food For Thought, van Lohuizen traces our food’s journey from seed to shelf across six countries: Kenya, USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, China and the Netherlands. Not just to show us where it comes from, but to challenge us to ask: at what cost?

"I was just curious because I realised, looking at my own plate, that I didn't really knew myself anymore how my food was produced and where it was coming from. Being from the Netherlands, I also found out that my own country is the second biggest producer and exporter of agricultural products in the world, just after the USA. Pretty crazy for a country as tiny as we are.”

“The other countries were selected for various reasons: The USA being the biggest producer and exporter and the biggest meat consumer. The UAE and KSA because they want to become less dependent on food imports, but how can you develop extensive agriculture when water is an issue? Kenya, being the vegetable garden of Europe, producing vegetables, fruits and herbs for European markets year-round, employs thousands of people, but this is only possible because of salaries off $2-3 per day. China being affected as well due to Covid, but rapidly becoming independent from food imports and heavily investing in robots and AI in the food industry."

Fresh from the opening of his Food For Thought exhibition in Oman and more to come later this year, van Lohuizen presented a selection of images and insights peeling back the polished sheen of the global food industry to reveal the machinery, the magnitude and the truth beneath. From industrial poultry farms to vertical agriculture projects, to t back-breaking labour, the imagery was stunning and sobering.

"I tried to go into the project with an open mind, but at the same time realising how disconnected we are from our food production and that we expect everything to be available at any given time of the year."

"It was a matter of making choices – I decided to focus on the industrialisation and the scale of the food industry. Show it as it is and not add my personal opinion in the story. I also wanted to show how differently  the regions operate, but at the same time the global food industry is totally connected and interdependent because of imports and exports."

Van Lohuizen’s lens does not romanticise. Instead, it questions: how future-proof are these systems? What are the human and environmental consequences of our demand for convenience, consistency and control? And can efficiency and ethics ever truly co-exist on a global scale?

"I believe visuals are essential because they showcase what we don't see anymore. We are surrounded by the food industry, like distribution centres, greenhouses, cattle barns, poultry farms, but we do not recognise them as such. So, the images are showing you the backstage."

The Netherlands, van Lohuizen’s starting point, is the second-largest agricultural exporter in the world, a nation built on the paradox of scarcity and abundance. But what Food For Thought underscores is that food sovereignty and innovation in one part of the world often comes at a silent cost in another. Carbon emissions, water scarcity, labour exploitation, loss of biodiversity – the collateral damage of our food systems is global.

For those of us working within F&B, this is not just an art project. It is a mirror. One that asks whether our models, however optimised, are sustainable. Whether our supply chains are just. Whether we are building systems that nourish or simply sustain. Van Lohuizen is not giving us answers. He is demanding we ask better questions.

"I hope that all professionals and consumers are thinking a bit better about what we eat and why, and if it's healthy for us and the planet. In the end, agriculture is the main emitter of greenhouse gases in the world."

And maybe that is the challenge we need right now. In an age where food has become both a commodity and a crisis point, Food For Thought is more than a photo essay. It is a call to responsibility. A call to rethink what we grow, how we feed and who bears the burden.

To discover more about Food For Thought and explore Kadir van Lohuizen’s full body of work, visit the official project page via NOOR Images. Want to dive deeper? You can order the Food For Thought book, featuring the full photo series and stories, here.

For more perspectives, insights and connections across the food and beverage industry, visit Gulfood – the world’s largest F&B event.