The rest is projected to be lost within 60 years. When receiving subsidies for crops like corn and beans, farmers know that they will make a profit. Unless we save our soils, we have 60 harvests left! Looking for a way to kill the quarantine boredom? This process of soil destruction is detrimental to agriculture. It only takes a quick read of theDrawdown Reportto realize that this is absolutely unfounded its going to take an enormous amount of solutions to radically transform our energy and food systems to reverse climate change, and holistic grazing, while certainly better than intensive farming, is not the miracle carbon-sequestering practice that those watching are led to believe. Gabe: I would have liked the movie to highlight the importance of grazing animals. Also that we can fix this and the fix is quite simple. 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). A major criticism is that there is a lack of science to back up claims. Gabe: HaHa! Ultimately, if high consuming individuals and countries want to do something positive for the climate, maintaining their current consumption levels but simply switching to grass-fed beef is not a solution. There are a few clues within the documentary that speak to this but they are by no means overtly clear to the viewer. I also thoroughly enjoyed Pauls episode onRich Rolls podcastwhere he speaks at length about Project Drawdown. (Source: Maggie Eileen Lochtenberg, freelance artist and transformational witch. This gets the nutrients back into local farmlands, and helps reduce the impacts of droughts and the need for fertilisers, which are polluting your local rivers. 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. Impactfull April 2022, What Does Voluntourism Look Like? Whats glaringly clear from Hawkens report is that when it comes to our food and greenhouse gas emissions, thetwo areas we can make the biggest impactare reducing food waste (number one solution)and moving to a plant-rich diet (number three solution). Great news! Did you have any reservations about appearing in it? Kiss the Ground is a new, feature-length movie that explores key soil health and regenerative agricultural principles, and features interviews with a wide range of authors, experts, farmers, researchers and scientists. I do feel bad for the farmers trapped in the cycle though. Kiss the Ground | School for Good Living The animals themselves arent the problem, where and how is the issue. Hopefully, this movie will help open many more. 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. In short:- If you act with maturity and consideration for other users, you should Or this breakdown of the many myths he perpetuates inThe International Journal ofBiodiversity. Other soil-based carbon capture solutions like composting are crucial to regenerative agriculture. IMPRESS, 16-18 New Brige Street, London, EC4V 6AG. So what we are talking about here is how to better use the land dedicated to animal agriculture (83 percent of all agricultural land) that is responsible for 80 percent of food-related greenhouse gas emissions yet provides only 18 percent of our total calories. But efforts have been made to restore the soils since 1994. "We should be thriving, the planet booming with life and abundance and the healthiest generation walking the earth. For people who have an hour and a half to watch something like this, For people who are time strapped or not sure that this is their kind of thing, The way we are feeding ourselves is undermining the very ecology were dependent upon. Everything in natural systems is a cycle and aimed at maintaining balance. Plus FCRNs paper simply ignored the existing peer reviewed science with its claim that no such science exists. One of the . Tilling, the process of pulling up the soil to plant seeds, is destructive to the soil. He did several versions of this movie. Sustainability, 7(10), 13500. http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/10/13500, Teague, W. R., Dowhower, S. L., Baker, S. A., Haile, N., DeLaune, P. B., & Conover, D. M. (2011). Since chemical agriculture ramped up in the 70s, we have lost 1/3 of the worlds topsoil. Many countries signed, including the UK, but not the US, China or India, the biggest agricultural and CO2 producers. Farmers need to learn how to regenerate and take care of the soil. Links to some of the recent research supporting HM, Teague, W. R. (2018). Gabe: That each and every person needs to step up and make a differencethat they can make a difference by purchasing from farmers and ranchers who practice regenerative ag. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Makes sense why the documentary didnt go there! 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. If you cant get them into a council waste system, there are a variety of small compost bins you can put in your garden at home. Since chemical agriculture ramped up in the 70s, we have lost 1/3 of the worlds topsoil. Tilling, the process of pulling up the soil to plant seeds, is destructive to the soil. Kiss The Ground - YouTube This is a review Im very familiar with having read through it front to back a handful of times. 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. Its especially interesting to me as I am working towards a biology degree and hope to become a soil scientist. As a side note, the documentary routinely employed uses numerous fear-mongering tactics to scare the viewer into grasping for whatever solution comes next. On-the-ground agricultural practices carried out by millions of individual farmers directly affect the health of the soil, and by extension, global atmospheric carbon levels and the pace of climate change. This movie has given soil a voice to say, I am not dirt! GHG Mitigation Potential of Different Grazing Strategies in the United States Southern Great Plains. Ganrett also doesnt have a clue how tropospheric hydroxyl oxidation works. you can help by supporting our work today. 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. We are healthier, as is the earth. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on our website. Using livestock is thought to make this process 7 times faster! Understanding Ag is an equal opportunity provider and employer. 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. https://blog.whiteoakpastures.com/hubfs/WOP-LCA-Quantis-2019.pdf. View and change your settings here, Regenerative Farm Map Regeneration International, Donate Regeneration International | Organic Consumers (netdonor.net), Compost Toilets in Africa: Human Feces as Fertilizer | Thrive4Good (thriveforgood.org). 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. Over the years, tilling causes the soil to dirt, leaving it vulnerable to erosion and desertification. Healthy soils can store more carbon than all the trees combined! Suggestions for viewers to compost and eat a plant-based diet come off as both insignificant and off the mark after the grand scheme of carbon cycling via production agriculture the whole film had been setting up. The short clip featured Zelenskyy speaking and the audio was that of a translator. Not to mention, I got a chuckle out of Bundchen calling Earth, Big Mama.. Hailing from Newcastle, Australia, she predominantly writes about climate and animal rights issues, alongside her work in psychology. #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 pull the pin on that, it means one thing and one thing only. The rest of our topsoils are projected to be lost within 60 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. However, this was taken from a United Nations speech, which leading soil scientists say isabsolutely not supported by science. "Kiss the Ground" has a bevy of information to impart, however, and its plucky resistance to politicizing any of it while also acknowledging that so much of this is indeed at the mercy of. Science experts and celebrity activists unpack the ways in which the earth's soil may be the key to combating climate change and preserving the planet. They agreed and heres what they told me, How and why did you become involved the movie, Kiss the Ground?. 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. The filmmakers additionally say "Kiss the Ground" has earned the attention of scientists, farmers and activists alike, crossing boundaries in terms of a highly politicized issue and even being . Ill start with the hardest and get easier. Ray: Yes, absolutely. These animals then emit greenhouse gases. I approached this film with professional interest, not just as a News Fellow with Stone Pier Press, but as someone trained in biology at college, regenerative farming at the Rodale Institute (three of the films agricultural experts work/ed here), and food systems at graduate school. 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. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Its not the most interesting topic of conversation for most, so try just mentioning a one or two of the following points and see if that gets a conversation going. Awesome! Kiss the Ground has been active in this space for a while and is a California-based 501(c)(3) environmental non-profit telling a new story about our ability to regenerate land and reverse climate change by building back healthy soil. have no problems. Kiss the Ground review and summary | EAT THINK EXPLORE 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. We already use 3-4 times more fertiliser for each bushel of grain than in the 60s. Did Biden Call for a Military National Draft? | Snopes.com A major strategy deployed in the documentary is offering two distinct choices for where consumers should source their food: conventional chemical-filled monocrops, or lush open fields of regenerative agriculture. This is bio sequestration using plants to capture and store carbon. For a climate change documentary its actually vey upbeat, because this is the way we can not only slow, but reverse global warming, sucking CO2 out of the air to stabilise our climate again. Your email address will not be published. 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. (PLEASE VOTE November 3rd or earlier!! 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. My hope is that this film will give consumers, farmers, and ranchers all of us the hope, courage and knowledge to choose biologically-based practices and tools to regenerate soil. Did you know that we can save the world with soil? Kiss the Ground features successful composting programs in San Francisco, Detroit, and Haiti. . 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. 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. This is the central statement of Kiss the Ground, an eco-educational Netflix documentary directed and produced by Josh and Rebecca Tickell. Regenerative agriculture is a more resilient system based on principles of soil health and biodiversity that integrates multiple crops, cover crops, and livestock animals. Dont get me wrong. Humans have created such a massive disturbance in our topsoil and atmosphere that the only way out is forward. 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. 2023 Farm Bill | What is it and Why it matters? - Kiss The Ground For a great deal of land, there are other, more evidence-based ways to sequester carbon. I promise not to sell your information, and if you don't like what I send, you can easily unsubscribe at any point. This seems like pretty important information that was left off the table. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 71(2), 156-164. doi:10.2489/jswc.71.2.156 http://www.jswconline.org/content/71/2/156.abstract, Rowntree, J., Ryals, R., Delonge, M., Teague, R. W., Chiavegato, M., Byck, P., . Why not let the viewer know what theworlds leading climate scientists have to say about diet? They correctly state that Bison would pass through land and not be seen for around a year. Regenerative agriculture describes farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity - resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle. are needed to help heal the earth. No, Zelenskyy Did Not Say US Will Have To Send Their Young To Fight For Its a story about hope and solutions. This movie will also counterbalance the cowspiracy environmentalists and others with incorrect understanding of cows. Ray: I met the Kiss the Ground group in 2015. Gabe: No, but only because I am on to the next project, bringing society together in supporting regenerative ag. It's a nonprofit organization that he leads today as executive director. Talking about the importance of beingbetter stewards of our land, and why we must do a better job at protecting our natural resources and ecosystems, is absolutely crucial if our species is to not just thrive on Planet Earth, but survive. berger 215 hybrid 300 win mag. If not, heres what you can do to join the regenerative farming movement, or at least help make things better . Check out Kiss the Ground website, where you will find other ways to be involved and even learn how to Become a Soil Advocate! 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. 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! Overlaying it, a swirling heat map of global atmospheric carbon, changing from dark red to cool blue over the course of a year. Theres also a lot of new recent PEER REVIEWED soil science that demonstrates this. They are both such impactful leaders in this movement because they are called to bring these concepts to farmers and ranchers everywhere. Its sad, really, seeing gray, dead soil devoid of life. Cited as the worst man made environmental disaster in history, by the end of 1934 about 200 million acres of croplands had been permanently damaged. I was in California at a meeting and met Finnian Makepeace, who is the groups co-founder. It really feels like he cares. The fix is simple: Mimic nature, cover the soil andunderstand how soil is intended to function. In fact, in theDrawdown Report,when you factor in the land that would be freed up if the entire world shifted to a plant-rich diet, this becomes the single biggest lever that each of us can pull to lower our individual environmental footprint. However, given the notable absence of well qualified environmental scientists discussing evidence to support their ambitious claims, in favor of anecdotal experience from ranchers, just how much of the information in this documentary can we trust and reliably use to shape our food system and inform our food choices? The documentary is well-produced and in the eyes of a layperson an extremely compelling case for changing the way we grow food. Kiss the Ground is a 501 (c)(3) Nonprofit This is how the natural carbon cycle should work. Ray: Initially, when I first met the Kiss the Ground group, I told them that I was really concerned about how they should approach the landowners. Tilling loosens the soil, disturbing microorganisms that live within it, drying it out so. The basic premise of Kiss the Ground is that the destruction of soil is contributing to the severity and intensity of climate change. kiss the ground fact checking - xarxacatala.cat I doubt this will require an agent or a move haha! Watch the film trailer here and the full movie on Netflix. No topsoils; no food! Specifically, regenerative agriculture is a holistic land management practice that . Many of the pesticides and fertilisers have been derived from poison gases used in warfare (chemical warfare and poison used in gas chambers). Theres nothing Netflix and chillabout that. Your email address will not be published. Here are five things I learned from Kiss the Ground. About Kiss The Ground - Kiss the Ground Fund charities that are helping people to compost their poo in toilets in the third world. Mitos y realidades sobre las algas | Mitos y realidades sobre las algas Their mob grazing action and the impact of their hooves is important. Firstly, just so we are clear, the majority of the worlds mono-crops are fed to livestock. and experts are committed to making an impact through a wide range of contentand The message gets across, but the film downplays a meaningful call to action. Garnetts FCRN self published paper basically just repeated Norborgs paper verbatim. Carrie Richards is not giving up. Get exclusive content in your inbox each Monday. Factory farms are good at one thing producing a lot of meat in a short period of time to feed a growing appetite for meat. The central tenant is that its a diet that places enormous emphasis on calories from plants and de-emphasizes calories from animal products. How 'Kiss the Ground' Directors Avoided Making Soil - Yahoo Josh Tickell, the director of the movie, was associated with Kiss the Ground and was making a film on organic farming when I met him. I wanted the filmmakers to first understandto let the soil speak and to let nature teach us. I honestly thought it would stand on its own. Every version got better, and the last version was the best one. Ryland Engelhart is a philanthropist. Whilst maintaining a large veg bed to feed the whole family takes up a lot of space and requires time, there are many crops that require very little maintenance or space, and actually like growing in your flower beds amongst the flowers!