The fix is simple: Mimic nature, cover the soil andunderstand how soil is intended to function. Eco-friendly eating - better for your health and the planet :). Francis Ge is News Fellow at Stone Pier Press and an aspiring first-generation regenerative farmer. This movie has given soil a voice to say, I am not dirt! We should harness the regenerative power of the earth and its processes. Plowing the earth, preparing fields for planting, exposing bare soil. The rest of our topsoils are projected to be lost within 60 years. Byck, P. (2016). Its not too long, but youll learn a lot from it. #2 - The planet is desertifying (more land is becoming desert), #4 - Our modern farming methods are killing the soils, #5 - Nature has invented the most sophisticated carbon capture method - photosynthesis, #6 - Soils are a huge potential carbon store, #8 - Regenerative farming can reverse climate change, The way we are feeding ourselves is undermining the very ecology were dependent upon. If we adopt regenerative farming practices, we can reverse carbon release into the atmosphere and stabilise the climate, and it wont take long! Ray Archuleta, previously a conservation agronomist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the co-founder of the Soil Health Academy, stands at the front talking to the farmers, and to us. Hailing from Newcastle, Australia, she predominantly writes about climate and animal rights issues, alongside her work in psychology. Check out Kiss the Ground website, where you will find other ways to be involved and even learn how to Become a Soil Advocate! Eating less meat, of all types, is. The trouble is, our farmers are not taught this; our growers know nothing about how the soil works or the basic ecological principles. Shop organic where you can. Biodiverse cover crops to feed the soil biology and protect the soils. There seems to be an incredibly fine line between grazing just enough and overgrazing, which speaks to potentially whycrediblepeer-reviewed science has to date, failed to produce results that come close to what Alan Savory claims. and experts are committed to making an impact through a wide range of contentand The film begins by examining . 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 Ian Somerhalder says in the documentary, Cows can be good. While many blame cows for carbon emissions, and rightfully so, they can actually be a part of the solution. 70% of US cropland grows only corn, soy and hay, and this is mainly to feed livestock (99%!). That was good enough for me. This process of soil destruction is detrimental to agriculture. One can only presume that the slaughtering of the animal is not about soil quality, but about profits. 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. Im not suggesting we should only be changing our diet but given it has greater potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions you would think it would have been given more emphasis than putting cows on pasture. They correctly state that Bison would pass through land and not be seen for around a year. Jemima is the Head of Editorial of Plant Based News. He's a lover of people and of life. Kiss the Ground features successful composting programs in San Francisco, Detroit, and Haiti. https://blog.whiteoakpastures.com/hubfs/WOP-LCA-Quantis-2019.pdf. To me, it undermines the articulate, informative explanations offered by the professionals with actual working farms and advanced degrees who are given the floor for much of the film. The animal point here is controversial I know. Water and carbon escape into the atmosphere in enormous plumes blanketing the entire northern hemisphereshown onscreen as ominous swirls of red. What the writers ignored is that it was SCIENCE that led to that preferred plan of action. There is extraordinary potential in the layers beneath our feet our Earths soil. Check out her story here or take a look at HOW she can help you on the Services page. Emerging land use practices rapidly increase soil organic matter. 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. https://asu.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/potential-mitigation-of-midwest-grass-finished-beef-production-em, Machmuller, M. B., Kramer, M. G., Cyle, T. K., Hill, N., Hancock, D., & Thompson, A. Finally, the elephant / cow in the room (not sure which is more fitting) duringKiss the Ground is how are we going to produce enough meat using holistic grazing to meet current demands? Theres no sense in wasting a precious resource like attention by skirting the truth that transitioning to regenerative agriculture, or changing any entrenched industrial-economic system, is a lot of work. Compost your food scraps. 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. Over the years, tilling causes the soil to dirt, leaving it vulnerable to erosion and desertification. I promise not to sell your information, and if you don't like what I send, you can easily unsubscribe at any point. A revolutionary group of activists, scientists, farmers, and politicians band together in a global movement of "Regenerative Agriculture" that could balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world. Unfortunately, there are still very few about, especially in the UK. 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. forests are typically far better at doing this than grasslands, when you factor in the land that would be freed up if the entire world shifted to a plant-rich diet, there are many types of regenerative agriculture that do not involve animals, available grasslands would only be able to produce 27 percent of the countries current beef supply. can scoop up and heroically rescue. 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. Its especially interesting to me as I am working towards a biology degree and hope to become a soil scientist. Your email address will not be published. Despite the documentary not spelling it out, its very clear. Chemical fertilisers mask the problem of degraded soils by providing the basics for plant growth, but also exacerbate the soil microorganism damage. shabu shabu groupon. Clearly this is something that needs our urgent attention and resolution! Instagram @maggie.eileen.art). Often, our best solutions arent actually that innovative; they simply mimic natural processes and what the Earth already does. Scientists and researchers in the documentary back them up. I would simply build on the work of Michael Pollan, a well-known science writer: Where possible eat regenerative food, not too much, mostly plants.. The other 60% are the large sea-driven cycles. And lets not forget, this is the same man who ordered40,000 African elephants to slaughterbecause he incorrectly thought they were damaging the land. The claim: Video shows cracks in the ground that formed after earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. If we pull the pin on that, it means one thing and one thing only. I am optimistic because the major issues we are currently facing economic stress, climate change, and food quality are all addressed by the same solution regenerating soil. From rehabilitating entire ecosystems to growing home victory gardens, there are plenty of ways to get involved in regenerative agriculture. Integrating animals grazing the cover crops for their manure and the beneficial effects of their hooves. 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. Check out their simple yet profound Soil Story: 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! Since chemical agriculture ramped up in the 70s, we have lost 1/3 of the worlds topsoil. Still, its hard to ignore that the filmmakers featured almost exclusively rich, white American celebrities in a film about global systems change released in the middle of a national reckoning about our ability to be a diverse and equitable society. Look no further than Kiss the Ground, a newly-released Netflix documentary that explores the relationship between climate change and dirt. Kiss the Ground reveals that, by regenerating the world's soils, we can completely and rapidly stabilize Earth's climate, restore lost ecosystems and create abundant food supplies. Harvard research has shown that these chemicals can build up in breast fed babies this use of chemicals has to stop! worlds leading climate scientists have to say about diet? Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture & Society, 4(3), 8. Any plans to hire an agent or move to L.A? This movie will also counterbalance the cowspiracy environmentalists and others with incorrect understanding of cows. Skip on down to the final thoughts if you dont have time to get more into the facts! Hotter soils during the day create hot rising air, which pushes any of these clouds away, and is how deserts are formed and grow. It was better than most but could have hit that point harder. I also thoroughly enjoyed Pauls episode onRich Rolls podcastwhere he speaks at length about Project Drawdown. Ground News rates Kiss the Ground Film's media bias as unknown. It took a Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady cameo to hit this point home. Now all debates have two sides and Savory has been confronted with this information before. With topsoils disappearing and temperatures rising, about 2/3 of the world is desertifying. I live in a rural area and have seen first hand the difference in soils farmed using modern, industrial methods and smaller fields farmed in a more traditional way. Tilling and chemical agricultural methods have disrupted this cycle and increased the rate of carbon release. So the the more microbes, the more necromass and the faster SOM including soil organic matter is built. Copyright EAT THINK EXPLORE 2020 Powered by WordPress Theme Divi Hosted sustainably by Ecohosting, Join my mailing list to receive the latest news, tips and scientific advice to help you move to a more eco-friendly way of eating and get your FREE guide to get you started on your journey today! Bundchen and Brady point to the health of the soil as directly influencing the health of the plants we eat and our health as well. Its a system of thinking and working that takes knowledge, skill, experience, endurance, affinity, if you've got it, and a lot of hard work, just like any other difficult undertaking. 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. Regardless of the above claims being scientifically supported or not (well come to that) if one is to advocate for a shift to holistic grazing this will inevitably result in a dramatic reduction in global meat supply. Its not a bad thing per se. In the past, I did not like how certain environmental groups portrayed farmers. Focussing on this review was a clever move by Kiss the Ground Paul Hawken and the Project Drawdown are incredibly well respected. If he is the only one that can achieve the carbon sequestration that he claims, I fail to see how thats a hopeful solution. ), Pollinator garden/market flowers at Copper Cricket Farm. Did you have any reservations about appearing in it? There was a huge opportunity for the filmmakers to ask open-ended questions and seek new avenues of thought and action, but they went the safe route of trying to be inspiring. Anyway, I can go on and on doing a review of the shortcoming of this review, but the author is obviously more interested in justifying the supposed superiority of his food religion than he is in actual peer reviewed range, soil or atmospheric science by people who actually understand agricultural systems. But tilling is incredibly intrusive to the soil structures, destroying the balance of microbial life which create organic matter and help the plants get the nutrients to grow. My hubby is from Alberta, the beef province of Canada and he was telling me about how land intensive pasture raised animals are. The key points in Kiss the Ground. No big deal. Many of them are based on anecdotal evidence and experience. Check out this map for farms local to you Regenerative Farm Map Regeneration International. They love their land and lifestyle, they are just trying to survive, while being poisoned themselves by the chemicals they must use to keep their fields producing. Work your way down the list until you find the things that youre willing to do. 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. This will not only better their own wellbeing because they will be consuming foods higher in nutrient density, but they will also support those who are making a positive impact on the environment. Its genuinely remarkable post, I have got much clear idea regarding from this post. 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). I enjoyed Woody Harrelson as a narrator; he felt genuine. What do you hope will be an outcome from the movie? With that said, any time a new study, book, documentary, or other media publication is published, I read or watch with great interest. Our mission is to awaken people to the possibilities of regeneration and inspire participation in this movement through media, communications, education, workshops, immersive programming, and advocacy. Kiss the Groundgave the microphone to Ranchers Alan Savory and Gabe Brown, but we didnt hear about any legitimate science testing out whether the claims they were making truly hold up? Science can provide us with some valid assumptions, but it does not provide recipes. Garnetts FCRN self published paper basically just repeated Norborgs paper verbatim. And Norborgs paper rehashed papers by Briske and Holechek that looked at short duration rotational grazing systems rather than holistically planned grazing systems [HPG] known in the peer reviewed scientific literature as adaptive multi-paddock or AMP managed grazing systems. This isnt the only literature review that has found a lack of science to support Savorys claims about holistic grazing with another detailedreviewof the literature out of Sweden by Maria Nordborg, coming to the same conclusion. . Sign up for the latest courses, learning resources, news and events. When receiving subsidies for crops like corn and beans, farmers know that they will make a profit. And this isnt just my own speculation. Our current farming methods are simply not sustainable. Stardom is a complicated thing, but at least all that money and power are being put to good use. 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. So its incredibly facile. This is why science is so important. Animals grazing is a part of the carbon cycle, and part of every healthy ecosystem in wild. The documentary is well-produced and in the eyes of a layperson an extremely compelling case for changing the way we grow food. 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. Narrated and featuring Woody Harrelson, Kiss the Ground is an inspiring and groundbreaking film that reveals the first viable solution to our climate crisis.. Many farms are barely making a profit and are heavily subsidised by tax payers, if they can be taught to grow food this way, they may see a rise in profits and governments can cease the massive subsidies and use these funds elsewhere! Juries have now even started to pay out to people who have developed cancer after using glyphosate!! Although I would have liked more with real life farmers and ranchers, it is hard to put together a documentary that will appeal across the spectrum from rural to urban communities, young and old, and everyday people to activists. Ive listed these below in short, and then we will go through each together looking at the claims made and where the science lies: (These have also been covered in detail with Environmental Researcher Nicholas Carter (co-author of this article) in episode 104 and 111 on thePlant Proof podcast). Your email address will not be published. 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. Having gone from being a vegetable hating, stressed out and sick corporate mum who felt constant guilt for not feeding her family properly and not doing enough for the planet to a healthy, veggie loving and eco-minded mother with much less stress, she's been where you are and can definitely help you overcome your barriers! After all, its communities of color, low-income communities, and immigrant communities who do the majority of the essential work of growing food and yet are most exploited and harmed by the agroindustrial complex. The documentary carefully positions holistic grazing as the answer to intensive animal agriculture (including the mono-cropping that occurs to feed factory-farmed animals). Farmers, scientists, cows, and celebrities work together in this documentary to spread the good word about regenerative agriculture and its potential to mitigate climate change. Not to mention, I got a chuckle out of Bundchen calling Earth, Big Mama.. 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. Awesome! It turned out to be more involved than I imagined. Makes sense why the documentary didnt go there! Heres the big picture: a wide-screen projection of the surface of the Earth. Everything in natural systems is a cycle and aimed at maintaining balance. Required fields are marked *. Unless we save our soils, we have 60 harvests left before global starvation. Repeatedly using abstractions to sum up complex issues makes people comfortable talking about soil as if there is one entity, soil, that we (who is we, anyway?) It also doesnt spend most of its time talking about whos to blame, and its actually mostly about looking for solutions for our futures, and did include suggestions about what we, as ordinary people, can do. Those sharing the video said that Zelenskyy sought young Americans to help fight on the ground war. Jeff Creque, Rangeland Director, Carbon Cycle Institute. Potential mitigation of midwest grass-finished beef production emissions with soil carbon sequestration in the United States of America. All whilst minimising our 'footprint'. Gabe: I would have liked the movie to highlight the importance of grazing animals. berger 215 hybrid 300 win mag. Carrie Richards is not giving up. Holistic management is a decision making framework which has been developed over the years to deal with complex situations. With this in mind, I feel obliged to point out the uncomfortable contrast between the two main types of interviewees in the film. Here are five things I learned from Kiss the Ground. You can see all of thisherefor yourself. Even though we werent farmers, scientists or experts we knew that together, we could still make a difference! His response: holistic management does not permit replication, and youll find the scientific method never discovers anything.. care as a social process). If we can only get everyone on board! While, there were very subtle hints that people would have only caught if paying very close attention, it was not made overtly clear by the documentary that the proposed solutions means transitioning the world to plant-rich diets. Overlaying it, a swirling heat map of global atmospheric carbon, changing from dark red to cool blue over the course of a year. Ill start with the hardest and get easier. It was very much positioned as absolutely crucial to confronting this climate emergency we find ourselves in. We knew the film would really embody the spirit of the regenerative agriculture movement if Ray and Gabe were in it., And from the first days that Kiss the Ground the organization started, the work and research of Kris Nichols were fundamental to grasping why rebuilding soil was not only possible but the biggest solution to the climate, water, and food crises. Soil is the solution and we have numerous options and opportunities to actualize this solution as consumers, farmers, ranchers, and environmentalists by focusing on the integration of biological processes. Using perennials and trees as protection for the soils. 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 . Her main aim is to help people to start making some small (but significant) changes to the way they eat so they can enjoy all the benefits, like more energy, less sickness, reduced risks of future disease and less guilt - because we all need less stress and guilt in our lives! Ray: Not at the moment, but if Steven Spielberg calls, I WILL answer. Something went wrong. 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. Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates. This is the central statement of Kiss the Ground, an eco-educational Netflix documentary directed and produced by Josh and Rebecca Tickell. Carrie's ranch is comprised of 6,500 acres, Thank you to the @apnews for sharing an art. 114k square miles regenerated! In fact, if we look at the solutions outlined in theDrawdown Reportand their potential to draw down carbon from our atmosphere, shifting to a diet that favours calories from plants is twice as powerful compared to shifting to silvopasture and four times as powerful compared as shifting to managed grazing two forms of regenerative agriculture that involve livestock. We need to talk about agriculture in a way thats meaningful to people with boots on the ground and enumerate specific steps that lead to material change. A degenerative system that decimates life in our soil, releases immense amounts of greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere, pollutes our waterways, and disrupts the biodiversity and biology on our land and in our oceans.