The Lexicon

Every challenge seeks a solution. That journey is a story.

The Lexicon is a US-based NGO that uses evidence-based storytelling, strategy, and mobilization to build movements tackling our food systems' greatest challenges.

We use evidence-based storytelling to help people pay closer attention to how they eat, what they buy, and where their responsibility begins for creating a healthier, safer food system.

Stories can inspire.

Words are the building blocks for new ideas. Increasing our literacy and fluency can help us embrace and share new concepts, shift our perspectives, and change the way we think.

It’s a process, one that can help everyone pay closer attention to how they eat, what they buy, and where their responsibility begins for creating a healthier, safer food system.

Stories can mobilize.

The Lexicon treats challenges as stories. The beginning is the problem, the middle is the series of actions taken to confront the problem, and the end is the solution.

Every story has a cast of characters, each with a clearly defined purpose. The Lexicon “casts” domain experts from across the value chain as the principle characters in this story, one where innovative thinking and problem-solving are required to find a solution.

Stories can activate.

The power of stories can turn a solitary journey into a shared experience, a shared perspective, and a shared vision of the world we all want to see.

The Lexicon uses story-based design thinking to help organizations and companies see themselves as protagonists in a narrative that begins with a problem and ends with a solution they’ve helped create.

What we make.

We’re platform agnostic. Our work includes films, tv shows, photography, books, traveling exhibits, curriculum for schools, online communities, and interactive tools for policy makers.

Information Artworks

It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. We beg to differ. Pictures often ask more questions than they answer. Douglas Gayeton's multi-layered approach mixes photographic collages with descriptive text to explain the core principles and practices of a more sustainable and just food system.

Short Films

Our award-winning short films are designed for people of all ages. They mix live action videography, photography, and text with hand-drawn animations.

Interactive Tools

Data on spreadsheets don’t make for the most compelling stories. We use game theory and storytelling tools that put a face and a place on data to make people care and move them to action.

Activators

We bring together the leading food experts, unite them on real solutions, then transform their ideas into freely available tools for the world to use.

Our partners include UN agencies, food companies, international NGOs, farmers, ranchers, researchers, and entrepreneurs.

Douglas is an award-winning information architect, filmmaker, photographer and writer.

He directed the KNOW YOUR FOOD series for PBS and GROWING ORGANIC for USDA, MOLOTOV ALVA for HBO, and has authored two books, SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town, and LOCAL: The New Face of Food & Farming in America.

He is also one of Crop Trust’s Food Forever champions and a visiting professor in the Masters Program at Slow Food’s University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy.

Laura is a producer, farmer, entrepreneur and executive director of the Lexicon. She pioneered the art of multi-layered narrative approaches to film and video during her life as a commercials producer in Hollywood, then later moved to Northern California and founded the first goat milk ice company in the United States, LALOO’S.

Pier Giorgio is The Lexicon’s Head of Digital. Based near Bristol, England, his projects include short films for PBS, USDA, Warner Brothers, and Napster, as well as a feature-length documentary for HBO. He also produces short films for Sustainable Food Trust and GrowEatGather, which showcases British farmers and their role in producing sustainable food.

Alberto is co-director at the Reawakened Food Initiative. He is also a member of Green Brown Blue, the Food System Solutions Activator by The Lexicon, that gathers domain experts from across the globe to develop solutions to our food systems' greatest challenges. Since 2018 Alberto has been part of Almacube, the innovation Hub and Design Factory of the University of Bologna. Here he leads and coaches multidisciplinary teams of designers and innovators focused on food innovation and regenerative business models.

Chloe is a Project Manager at The Lexicon. Her research focuses on biological pest control and agroecology and she is passionate about science communication and writing. She is a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.S. in Genetics & Plant Biology, a B.A. in Data Science, and a minor in Food Systems.

Douglas is an award-winning information architect, filmmaker, photographer and writer. He directed the KNOW YOUR FOOD series for PBS and GROWING ORGANIC for USDA, MOLOTOV ALVA for HBO, and has authored two books, SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town, and LOCAL: The New Face of Food & Farming in America. He is also one of Crop Trust’s Food Forever champions and a visiting professor in the Masters Program at Slow Food’s University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. — Douglas is an award-winning information architect, filmmaker, photographer and writer.

He directed the KNOW YOUR FOOD series for PBS and GROWING ORGANIC for USDA, MOLOTOV ALVA for HBO, and has authored two books, SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town, and LOCAL: The New Face of Food & Farming in America.

He is also one of Crop Trust’s Food Forever champions and a visiting professor in the Masters Program at Slow Food’s University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy.

Pier Giorgio is The Lexicon’s Head of Digital. Based near Bristol, England, his projects include a short film series for PBS, USDA, Warner Brothers, and Napster, as well as feature-length documentaries for HBO. He has also produced short films for Sustainable Food Trust and GrowEatGather, which showcases British farmers and their role in producing sustainable food.

We are storytellers.

The Lexicon was founded by social entrepreneurs Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton in 2009. Their work identifies and accelerates the adoption of practices that build more resilient food systems and help combat climate change.