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Escaping an unjust food system

Viral film The Scarecrow raises awareness of the impacts of factory farming on the global food system.

A three minute animated video that was released by American restaurant chain Chipotle last week has already been viewed over 5.8 million times on YouTube. The Scarecrow aims to educate people about the global food system and encourages people to make more sustainable food choices.

The world produces enough food for everyone but injustices in the food system mean that 1 in 8 people go to bed hungry. Astonishingly 80% of the people that go to bed hungry are involved in food production. They can spend their days producing food but often do not have enough food to feed themselves.

Showing food production in a dystopian fantasy world, all food production is controlled by fictional industrial giant Crow Foods. The Scarecrow illustrates how the global food system dis-empowers workers by showing scarecrows that have been displaced from their traditional role of protecting food, and are now servants to the crows and their food system. An interesting analogy! Dreaming of something better, a lone scarecrow sets out to provide an alternative to the unsustainable processed food from the factory.

Chiplote shows that food companies can take responsibility for their role in the global food system and source their ingredients sustainably and ethically. We would love to see more food companies move away from unsustainable food practices and do their part to improve our global food system.

The world’s largest food companies care what you think. Our Behind the Brands initiative is harnessing consumer power to encourage the world’s largest food companies to improve their policies to make the global food system fairer and more sustainable.

Join Oxfam and GROW a more just and help build a future where everyone has enough to eat.