The bonus being that plant-rich dietary patterns just so happen to also be whatmajor health institutionsand progressive Government departments likeHealth Canadaare advocating for to tackle rising rates of obesity and chronic disease, and improve quality of life. Hotter soils during the day create hot rising air, which pushes any of these clouds away, and is how deserts are formed and grow. Personally, I thought this was one of the better Netflix documentaries, mainly because, whilst theres a lot of negatives about where the world is heading, the overall message is one of hope. As someone who has spent the past 25-plus years working to educate anyone who will listen as to the benefits of regenerative ag, I can say with certainty that the snowball is finally rolling downhill! You can reach me at novelhandco@gmail.com or connect with me on LinkedIn. For millions of years the world has self-healed and self-balanced. It does include grazing planning and management, but also many other things. Modern agriculture was not designed for the betterment of the soil, instead for the short term maximisation of yield. Kiss the Ground has the perfect documentary mix of celebrity activists and wise elder scientists. While the efforts of Archuleta and others are slowly gaining traction, crop subsidies fuel a system that depletes the soil and leaves farmers dependent on the government for aid. I promise not to sell your information, and if you don't like what I send, you can easily unsubscribe at any point. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on our website. Sure, its easy to see with our own eyes that there is more life on land that is managed in a regenerative way, but in order to really know that it is a climate solution, we would need evidence that carbon levels in the soil are not only increasing but increasing by more than the emissions emitted by the animals involved in the system. I asked Finian Makepeace, the co-founder of the Kiss the Ground organization, to tell me more about how he and the films producers and directors selected our trio of regenerative experts to appear in the movie. Your email address will not be published. Will you join us? After 14 years, it is lush farmland again. No topsoils; no food! San Francisco have an amazing system, and are the most sustainable city in the US! For teachers, educators, schools, community organizers and home schoolersthanks to a generous grant from the Bia Echo Foundation and Triptyk, there is a free 45-minute-long Educational Version of the Kiss the Ground movie and also a free DVD with both the 85 minute long feature and the educational cut on one disk. There is too much in the air now and too little in the earth (released by tilling and soil degradation and burning fossil fuels and plants/trees) causing global temperatures to rise. Ground News rates Kiss the Ground Film's media bias as unknown. There are a few clues within the documentary that speak to this but they are by no means overtly clear to the viewer. Regenerative farming restores soils; storing carbon and reducing the need for chemical help to improve yields by harnessing natural processes. But efforts have been made to restore the soils since 1994. There are over 200 peer reviewed papers that tie/correlate the increase of these chemicals with increases in ADD, child cancers and birth defects. However, after spending time with the Kiss the Ground team particularly in Paris, I understood howpassionate the filmmakers are about the soil solution. The farmers are now starving or have moved on as the soils wont grow anything anymore, they have become dirt. Kris: No, but I am working on creating a virtual party with friends and family as we are scattered throughout the U.S. Ray: I will have a few people over. Lots of problems with Poores paper as well which didnt account for soil carbon or regenerative systems in any of its meta-analysis of averaged LCAs. Impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems. Potential mitigation of midwest grass-finished beef production emissions with soil carbon sequestration in the United States of America. Harvard research has shown that these chemicals can build up in breast fed babies this use of chemicals has to stop! Im not saying the filmmakers should have gotten a token Black person, but they couldnt have gone wrong centering the voices of people for whom the stakes of not reversing climate change are much higher than their own. The documentary tiptoed around this, failing to make it explicitly clear that the food on our plate has to change, while seemingly wanting us to believe that holistic grazing on its own can reverse climate change. Our modern farming methods are not concerned with soil longevity or quality and are significantly to blame for the destruction of the soils. Farming like nature has also been shown to reduce inputs (costs) and improve yields. Savorys claims dont stand up when you put them under the microscope. I was also pleased the documentary shone a light on food waste and composting these are two things that many of us can introduce into our daily lives with minimal barriers to entry. Its filled with intelligent people who refuse to shy away from the impending climate cataclysm and have instead dedicated themselves to the daily work of facing itas farmers, educators, scientists, and yes, even as politicians. A plant-rich dietary pattern that places emphasis on regeneration but really could be chopped in a number of ways to suit the individual Mediterranean, paleo, pescatarian, vegetarian, vegan, etc can all be done in a plant-predominant manner. Because whereKiss the Groundlacks in science, it makes up in celebrity power with the likes of Woody Harrelson, Jason Mraz, Ian Somerhalder, Gisele Bndchen, and Tom Brady all featured. To achieve this, we have to change the way that we do agriculture, with less synthetic chemicals and GMOs and use the most powerful carbon capture process ever invented photosynthesis. Heres my critique of that paper: https://lachefnet.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/its-the-soil-biology-stupid/ This paper includes a number of these soil science papers. Until then, its going to be hard to truly transform our agricultural system to benefit all life on the planet. Let me show you how , Get my FREE guide, and receive eco-friendly eating tips, recipes and motivation. Its within this context, that it becomes so vividly apparent, that in this conversation we are not just talking about planetary health, but at its core, human health. So the the more microbes, the more necromass and the faster SOM including soil organic matter is built. Regenerate America is an unprecedented coalition of farmers, businesses, nonprofits, and individuals from every corner of our country and all political stripes, convened by the national soil health 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization, Kiss the Ground. Since chemical agriculture ramped up in the 70s, we have lost 1/3 of the worlds topsoil. can scoop up and heroically rescue. They thought I had lost my mind, but through hard work and perseverance weve been able to open many eyes through the years. You can make change and make a difference, even if you have struggled in the past to make change and feel like a failure. This idea reminded me of what I learned from Cradle to Cradle. There are a number of others as well as many more in the pipeline. But I also experienced the same misleadingparadigms from the conservative groups like Farm Bureau and other commodities groups. The French Minister for agriculture proposed a 4 in 1000 plan, to increase the organic content of our soils by 0.4% per year. Regenerated healthy soil greatly increases the carrying capacity of land, so the amount of land needed for regen grazing isnt an issue. Im sure we can all agree that factory farming is a blight on humanity, and there is far too much mono-cropping, but assuming that its either this intensive form of animal agriculture or holistic grazing, is not accurate. I just heard of the movie and wanted to find out a little more about it until I get time to watch it. After all, this method of grazing, which Gabe Brown and Alan Savory speak about at length, is being positioned in the documentary as the solution we have all been waiting for to reverse climate change. Plowing the earth, preparing fields for planting, exposing bare soil. The animals themselves arent the problem, where and how is the issue. Kris: We are facing a catastrophic cascade in Earths ecosystems impacting human health and the global economy which fundamentally rests in pressures stemming from changes in the economic and ecological agricultural landscape due to climate change and escalating worldwide competition for natural resources and commodities, including petroleum, natural gas, grains,oilseeds, and proteins. Its absolutely good to love the earth and want to save the soil. Tilling and chemical agricultural methods have disrupted this cycle and increased the rate of carbon release. It carries pleasant stuff. Scientists and researchers in the documentary back them up. Kiss the Ground is a nonprofit on a mission to awaken people to the possibilities of regeneration and inspire participation in this movement by educating and engaging through media, communications . Is it possible that some of the great empires that seemingly vanished, like the Myans and Incas, did so because they over farmed, and could not feed their rising populations? Farmers need to make profits but we need to be transparent here and lay down all solutions on the table to have an open discussion. In turn, this means shifting to more plant-based diets. Sign up for the latest courses, learning resources, news and events. Focussing on this review was a clever move by Kiss the Ground Paul Hawken and the Project Drawdown are incredibly well respected. Although, when I watched it for the third time, it became obvious that the biology 101 lessons from Ray were cleverly used to dance around the fact there is no solid science to back up Savory and Browns claims. The role of ruminants in reducing agricultures carbon footprint in North America. All of us make critical decisions every day as we manage our lives and we dont consult the literature when making those decisions. Links to some of the recent research supporting HM, Teague, W. R. (2018). We all know that science has its failings. doi:10.1093/jas/skx060 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jas/skx060, Stanley, P. L., Rowntree, J. E., Beede, D. K., DeLonge, M. S., & Hamm, M. W. (2018). The sort of solution you might suspect is at the top of all climate scientists lists. Support regenerative farming movements like Regeneration International Donate Regeneration International | Organic Consumers (netdonor.net) and Kiss the Ground Kiss the Ground (ktgcommunity.com) which are spreading the word. Our independent team of journalists Its a story about hope and solutions. Heres the big picture: a wide-screen projection of the surface of the Earth. There are also clear spikes in the CO2 levels in the atmosphere during the ploughing/tilling months with the lowest levels coinciding with maximum plant coverage before harvest. Bare ground is hotter in the day, and cooler at night; threatening the microorganism populations within, and increases water evaporation, as the ground temperatures rise, the soils become dryer, again, impairing the ecosystem the microorganisms exist within. These will be using less chemicals and therefore come from healthier soils than normal veg; hugely better for soil biodiversity, natural biodiversity and your health. In fact, the documentary claims that greenhouse gases are sequestered (stored/drawn down) in grazing herds, due to the generation of healthy soils, but released in feed lots where the animals are not a part of the natural cycle. We have now decoupled these so farmers are either crop or livestock, and each are done on an intensive scale, with no natural cycles in place. While Morgan Freemans voice might have been a better match for shots of billowing fields of grain, perhaps Harrelsons raspy tone is an appropriate fit for the seriousness of the climate crisis. Skip on down to the final thoughts if you dont have time to get more into the facts! Nature strives for balance, and has a system for reversing the carbon released into the atmosphere using the growth of plants and their relationship with soil microbes. While the film can at times feel like a jumble of connected concepts and issues with an occasional celebrity cameo, the documentary is overall optimistic. Ill summarise the main points for you in this article; what the issues are, why soil is the answer, and how you can help to save you having to invest the time to watching it yourself. Regenerative agriculture is a more resilient system based on principles of soil health and biodiversity that integrates multiple crops, cover crops, and livestock animals. Its genuinely remarkable post, I have got much clear idea regarding from this post. He did several versions of this movie. This dirt then cannot store water, and heats up massively under the sun with no protection, baking the soils and exacerbating the problem. He also heard about the NRCS soil health effort and my role in encouraging the agency to bring more resources to support the regenerative ag movement. Many would argue soil degradation is the most critical environmental threat to humans". Kris:The time and effort that the team put into the interviews and edits as well as probably debating and refining the perspective the film takes should be commended. In the 1930s the Dust Bowl was created. This is a review Im very familiar with having read through it front to back a handful of times. 3 Unclear about how the proposed solutions would affect our diets. As the plants struggle to grow following the removal of organic material year on year, and in the absence of their supporting microbial populations, our farmers resort to chemical fertilisers. There is one hyperlink in error. If we want to lower our environmental footprint the single most important thing we can do iseat more plants. Its not just about more trees, the carbon that can be stored in healthy, organic material rich soils is much greater. Required fields are marked *. If he is the only one that can achieve the carbon sequestration that he claims, I fail to see how thats a hopeful solution. A Feb. 27, 2023, video of U.S. President Joe Biden purportedly shows him announcing a new national draft, in which 20-year-olds would be conscripted into military service on account of a growing . Ray: That a large audience will come away with a basic awareness about the transformative power of our living and life-giving soil. The evidence for this claim is research-based, clearly communicated, and visually supported with animations that illustrate submicroscopic events like carbon cycling and expansive drone shots for grand reveals, like the actual desert plateau that is turned back into rolling green farmland. Kris: Im always excited by the opportunities to discuss Regenerative Agriculture. Id be willing to donate it to them. However, this was taken from a United Nations speech, which leading soil scientists say isabsolutely not supported by science. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. This is where a report written by Dr. Tara Garnett for the University of Oxford becomes very interesting a report titleGrazed and Confusedthat I have written about beforehere. Rising animal production and consumption, whatever the farming system and animal type, is causing damaging greenhouse gas release and contributing to changes in land use. Enteric methane is broken down in a short period of time, and microbial methane is the same carbon cycling and recycling over and over. Instagram @maggie.eileen.art). Its not a bad thing per se. Copyright 2021 Understanding Ag, LLC | Website by RVT Solutions. Having dedicated many years to researching and communicating the science behind an optimal diet for humans, I understand first hand how our health isinextricably tied to the planets(as detailed inmy upcoming book). This sounds like something else that he would likely regret in the near future. The film uses creative graphics and visuals, along with striking NASA and NOAA footage, and illustrates how, by drawing down atmospheric carbon many of humankinds most pressing climate and environmental problems can be solved. Kiss the Ground is a full-length documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson that sheds light on an "new, old approach" to farming called " regenerative agriculture " that has the potential to balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world. (2015). I also thoroughly enjoyed Pauls episode onRich Rolls podcastwhere he speaks at length about Project Drawdown. That was good enough for me. Its the same reason we dont call doctors healers anymoretheir body of knowledge has been formalized, their work recognized and legitimized as a profession, and their value become obvious. Soil organic matter [SOM] is largely created through microbial necromass. Im Sarah, a Sustainable Nutrition and Behaviour Change Coach, and Im here to help if youre done with feeling guilty about doing too little to reduce your environmental impact and feed yourself healthy foods. Heres what he said: From the beginning stages of pre-production for the movie, Ray and Gabe were proposed because of their profound passion and dedication to soil health and their amazing ability to share it with others. Suppose you don't have enough time to read, then watch the KISS the GROUND MOVIE (streaming on Netflix) hosted by Woody Harrelson and directed by Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell. As Hannah Ritchie, Phd (Geosciences) puts it: Whether you buy it from the farmer next door or from far away, it is not the location that makes the carbon footprint of your dinner large, but the fact that it is beef.. Its especially interesting to me as I am working towards a biology degree and hope to become a soil scientist. By taking carbon dioxide from the air, and sending it down to soil microbes in exchange for nutrients, plants can not only remove carbon from the atmosphere, but store carbon in the soils.