Data Storytelling in our Food System

There is dignity, power, and even hope in the act of controlling one’s own narrative. One of the reasons we founded FrontLine Farming was to tell our own stories in our own voices.  To represent ourselves as we know ourselves. To convey the parts of our experiences that are often overlooked when they are gazed and reframed by others. To visibilize ourselves and our communities in spaces that have insisted we exist only as subjects of study, not agents of change. At FrontLine Farming, we gather, analyze, and convey the lived experiences of the communities we serve – and to which we belong.  We weave data and story together using data visualizations, community story archives, social media content, editorials, and more. Our data-ground storytelling does more than just transmit the insights from a dataset using compelling techniques like narratives and visualizations. We intentionally communicate in ways that allow a story-listener to absorb and make a personal connection to the insights.  We also focus on formats that allow story-listeners to carry our stories and their truths to others, reaching and impacting a wider audience. Projects such as Esencial Colorado, a digital community archive for agricultural workers’ stories, and the narratives we retell annually through our educational programs are examples of the tools we have created to further our liberation and resilience. As we grow deeper into these roots, we are engaging with new forms of media and platforms where we can share our stories, grow our audience, and ultimately widen the base of support for and engagement with our work.