Imagine a world without fields’: Heinz borrows van Gogh’s brush to raise awareness about soil degradation | Environmental News

2023-10-04 10:03:31

HEINZ, the world’s largest buyer of ketchup tomatoes and maker of the ketchup consumers know and love, joined the Museo Nacional Thyssen Bornemisza in Madrid last weekend to raise awareness about the rapid degradation of soil health around the worldusing art as a means to put the focus on the impact devastating of a world no healthy fields.

For three days, the “Imagine a World Without Fields” activation invited visitors to travel into the future and witness Vincent van Gogh’s Les Vessenots in Auvers as never seen before: presenting a version of his iconic landscape, as if it had been painted 50 years from now.

Visitors were immersed in a journey through the activation, beginning in the year 2074where they experienced the harsh reality of a world without healthy fields, represented by a cracked and dry soil, lacking fertilitya great contrast to the original painting, which stands out for its wide expanse of fertile crops.

From here, they were transported to giftwhere they faced the image of a impoverished soil, absence of vegetation and a noticeable lack of hedgerows, reflecting the global rate of soil health degradation, which currently stands at 40% and leaves only one generation of healthy soil remaining.

The tour ended with the original masterpiecetransmitting a message of hope characterized by a abundant vegetation, the presence of water and its vibrant and fertile colors.

Julieta De Laurentiis, Marketing Director of The Kraft Heinz Company in Iberia, comments: “The prospect of a world without fields is difficult to imagine, which is why we wanted to paint a picture for our audience. Les Vessenots in Auvers is an iconic painting, and with it as our canvas, we are shining the spotlight on the stark reality of soil degradation and what this could mean for our food system if we don’t act now“.

“Imagine a world without fields” is one of several soil-related initiatives launched by Heinz and forms part of the brand’s broader ambition to protect the good ones foods for future generations. Earlier this year, the brand partnered with Fortnite to launch “SOS Tomatoes“, an experience of game immersive game that challenges players to confront soil degradation.

“Spain is the second largest producer of tomatoes for Heinz Ketchup in the world, and its unmistakable flavor depends on the favorable conditions of these regions to grow quality tomatoes.“adds Andrea Egido, International Marketing Manager at Heinz. “That is why improving our soil is so important and why we are working closely with our farmers. These agricultural practices will allow us to achieve our goal of sourcing 100% of ketchup tomatoes sustainably by 2025, and reduce net carbon emissions to zero by 2050.“.

Heinz has a long history of supporting farmers, like the Váquez family in Badajoz. This collaboration, for more than a decade, has helped improve the health of their fields by implementing sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices such as crop rotations, cover cropping and reducing over-plowing.

Evelio Acevedo, Managing Director of the Thyssen Bornemisza National Museum, comments: “At the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, we greatly value the HEINZ initiative, we consider it to be an excellent and innovative idea to communicate to today’s society the need to take measures to protect our soils, an inexhaustible source of wealth. We share the idea of ​​using art as a driving force to raise awareness in society regarding the sustainability of our planet.“.

In addition to supporting farmers in transitioning existing practices toward approaches that support regenerative outcomes, Kraft Heinz is also a member of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI), a global food industry initiative that promotes sustainable agriculture to help protect the future of food.

Press contact: María Hernández 914 58 54 90