CLIMAVORE CIC co-designs community-led food systems that are ecologically restorative and socially reparative. Established in 2019 in Skye and Raasay, CLIMAVORE collaborates with local residents, schools and restaurants alongside international researchers and activists to share new approaches to regenerative sea-farming and food waste. This work has been acknowledged by multiple awards, including nominations for the 2021 Turner Prize, the Visible Award, and the Special Award at the Future Generation Art Prize, as well as featured in dozens of international exhibitions and media.
Our mission is to create ways of living on and with the coast as humans change the climate. Our vision is to empower coastal communities who are custodians of their land, culture and futures, to review local food systems through CLIMAVORE and drive a just transition in the wake of the climate and biodiversity crises.
Our work operates around three pillars: Relearning, Regrowing, Rebuilding.
Relearning
Restaurants across Skye and Raasay have removed farmed salmon from their menu and incorporated bivalves and seaweeds in their dishes—ingredients that can regenerate, filter and oxygenate seawater while breathing. Through new cooking apprenticeship programmes set up in collaboration with the local high school in Portree, restaurants are also training the island’s next generation of climavore cooks to work closely with chefs, foragers, divers, bakers, brewers and kitchen teams. In parallel, the Station assembles memories, recipes, songs through radio, archival photographs and film footage, and captures coastal experiences through Gaelic place names, folklore and traditions—key knowledge for a shared understanding of what the coast once was and what has the potential to be.
Regrowing
Conceived as a sea orchard, a pilot for a community-owned intertidal farm uses the coast as a space for sourcing food while cultivating multiple ecologies. Through collaboration with marine scientists CLIMAVORE promotes a modular system to grow multiple low-trophic species—those that generally feed on plankton and are at the bottom of the food chain. This system on the intertidal zone is accessible on foot, and consists of ropes, trestles and tidal gardens for different species of seaweeds, sea vegetables and bivalves that regenerate ocean water, absorb carbon emissions, contribute to food security, and strengthen food supply.
Rebuilding
Cement is the second most consumed product in the world after water and a major contributor to climate breakdown. Sourcing materials based on waste streams of intertidal origin is a way to connect the food and construction industries. Learning from experiments CLIMAVORE developed in New Orleans, Taiwan and Los Angeles, the Station has worked with fabricators, chemists and material scientists to prototype a new material that replaces cement and petrochemical resins with crushed seashells collected from CLIMAVORE restaurants. Partnering with the West Highland College for their Construction Skills Course, a new syllabus encourages learning from historic techniques for tabby concrete, seaweed thatching and insulation, and shell composites, connecting food-webs with wall building, exploring ways to construct CLIMAVORE.
CLIMAVORE: On Tidal Zones was initiated by Cooking Sections in 2017 as a public art commission for Atlas Arts. Since 2019, the Station continues the long-term legacy of the project as a Community Interest Company.
CLIMAVORE Station Skye & Raasay: Director Shona Cameron, Director of Material Research Rosa Whiteley, shell collection Rachel MacLeod, fabricator Joel Franklyn
Local Advisory Group: Fiona MacInnes, Jon Macleod, Ailsa MacLennan, Calum Munro, Ben Oakes, Iain Ross, Michael Smith
Board of Directors: Matthew Baqueriza-Jackson, Daniel Fernández Pascual, Suzy Lee, Artemis Pana, Freya Rowe, Alon Schwabe
Enquiries: shona@climavore.org
Registered in Scotland: SC640874
We are grateful to our generous supporters who have made this work possible including: Gaia Art Foundation, Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, The National Lottery Community Fund, British Council, Creative Scotland, Coast and Waters Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, Sea Changers, The Graham Foundation, The Pebble Trust, Patagonia, UKRI and those who wish to remain anonymous.
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