However, I was slightly apprehensive that the documentary may be too focused on California and Hollywood and not be relevant to farmers and ranchers across the U.S. and the globe. 'Kiss the Ground' review: The soil may save us, but it's not that Byck, P. (2016). Humans have created such a massive disturbance in our topsoil and atmosphere that the only way out is forward. The central tenant is that its a diet that places enormous emphasis on calories from plants and de-emphasizes calories from animal products. My greatest hope is for me to continue to do this and any chances I have to do so, I will take. Seven years in the making, the movies thesis proposes that by regenerating the worlds soils, humans can rapidly stabilize Earths climate, restore lost ecosystems and create abundant food supplies. Did you know that we can save the world with soil? 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. I promise its way easier to mail one ballot than to cut meat out of your diet or petition your city to collect compost! Kiss the Ground - Jefferson Center The elephant in the room during the documentary is that they completely failed to mention that a significant amount of the land dedicated to animal agriculture across the world (not all but certainly a lot) needs to be restored to forests (the number one driver of deforestation is animal agriculture) to get anywhere close to meeting our climate goals. Id be willing to donate it to them. Watch the film trailer here and the full movie on Netflix. A group of activists had gathered to see what could be done about Climate Change. Your email address will not be published. Emerging land use practices rapidly increase soil organic matter. Work your way down the list until you find the things that youre willing to do. Did you have any reservations about appearing in it? 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. He did several versions of this movie. This review revealed some all to common perceptions about holistic management, a decision making framework, which can be applied to grazing as well as other management situations. The review is plain evidence that we see what we believe and the reviewers beliefs greatly clouded their vision. Hi! We recently caught up with @mcgrathfamilyfarm. Which would net off the existing emissions we make, at least stabilising things. 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. This movie has given soil a voice to say, I am not dirt! Try: Compost Toilets in Africa: Human Feces as Fertilizer | Thrive4Good (thriveforgood.org) or GiveLove. Unfortunately, there are still very few about, especially in the UK. Our independent team of journalists To rotate cows like bison, it means leaving land free from roaming animals for at least six-nine months a figure that Alan Savory states himself in the documentary. The worlds top soils grow over 95% of the foods that feed the world. 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. care as a social process). The next thing I want to address, and perhaps the most important take-home message here, is the science underpinning holistic grazing is flaky at best. Ganretts white paper doesnt even mention soil microbiology. This positioning starts with the documentarys focus on theDrawdown Reportby Environmentalist Paul Hawken from Project Drawdown. All natural systems exist in balance, with a diversity of plants and animals. "All farmable soil could be gone in 60 years. Tilling, the process of pulling up the soil to plant seeds, is destructive to the soil. With topsoils disappearing and temperatures rising, about 2/3 of the world is desertifying. Here are five things I learned from Kiss the Ground. Put simply, there are no healthy humans without a healthy planet. The fix is simple: Mimic nature, cover the soil andunderstand how soil is intended to function. Unfortunately, Savory seems to have led himself to believe that his unscientific approach should be expanded across the world really, tear down more forests to make room for holistic grazing? Our current farming methods are simply not sustainable. As prices go up, pending one spends the same budget they had previously set aside for meat, their consumption naturally falls. Looking for a way to kill the quarantine boredom? I was in California at a meeting and met Finnian Makepeace, who is the groups co-founder. Sounds pretty ambitious to champion this form of animal agriculture as a climate solution without strong empirical evidence? And lets not forget, this is the same man who ordered40,000 African elephants to slaughterbecause he incorrectly thought they were damaging the land. 114k square miles regenerated! Using livestock is thought to make this process 7 times faster! Regenerative agriculture is an important part of the solution when it comes to climate change. Proof that this works if given the chance. Personally, I think its a must watch for people to truly understand the situation we are in with the soils, why its important to save our soils, and how we can help. 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. 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. Firstly, just so we are clear, the majority of the worlds mono-crops are fed to livestock. This movie will also counterbalance the cowspiracy environmentalists and others with incorrect understanding of cows. If youve tried and failed before youre definitely in the right place change is hard, but doable with the right process and support! Scientists and researchers in the documentary back them up. 'Kiss the Ground' Review: Celeb-Studded Doc on Fixing - IndieWire With this in mind, I feel obliged to point out the uncomfortable contrast between the two main types of interviewees in the film. 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.. Op-ed: 'Kiss the Ground' Misses the Complexity of Climate Solutions in Even though we werent farmers, scientists or experts we knew that together, we could still make a difference! After the country decided to increase yields and started intensively farming and tilling the fertile midwestern plains, leaving the soil bare for large periods of time. shabu shabu groupon. Unfortunately, these incredibly superior solutions are less sexy because they are not tying livestock, and more specifically the consumption of beef, to the solution. Due to its immense scale, and ability to sequester (store) greenhouse gases, it could be the one thing that can balance our climate, clean our water and feed the world! Before we get into a few major claims made inKiss the Groundthat are directly at odds with scientific knowledge, I want to preface this entry by saying that I wholeheartedly supportregenerative agricultureas a goal and think the documentary did a great job bringing light to the detrimental impact that intensive animal agriculture is having on our planet. And when it comes to the Savory Institute and Savorys claims Dr Garnett states that they are generally anecdotal, based on surveys and testimonies rather than on-site measurements. If we can only get everyone on board! And so, with these words, Harrelson immediately draws us into "Kiss the Ground," a documentary focusing on growing our food in a way that builds and protects our precious soil and also draws back into the ground the carbon dioxide that is causing climate change. 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. Heal the planet is a phrase that implies not only the existence of some kind of natural balance to which we can return, but the existence of a cure that human benevolence can deliver. by Sarah Read | May 18, 2022 | Eat, Eco-friendly eating, Sustainable living tips and advice, Think, Kiss the Ground is another in the line of eco-documentaries that Netflix is putting out there (albeit one of the first and most famous). This is a review Im very familiar with having read through it front to back a handful of times. With that said, any time a new study, book, documentary, or other media publication is published, I read or watch with great interest. This is the central statement of Kiss the Ground, an eco-educational Netflix documentary directed and produced by Josh and Rebecca Tickell.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. You can reach me at novelhandco@gmail.com or connect with me on LinkedIn. Yes, whats on our plate is even more important than where its come from or buying local. 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 . Just consider the thousands of peer reviewed papers advocating this diet or that diet and the people in the US are still among the most malnourished in the developed world. I enjoyed Woody Harrelson as a narrator; he felt genuine. Until then, its going to be hard to truly transform our agricultural system to benefit all life on the planet. 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. The claim: Video shows cracks in the ground that formed after earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. 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). Because not only does this mean less greenhouse gas-emitting ruminant animals, but it means we can draw down more carbon from the atmosphere forests are typically far better at doing this than grasslands. 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. kiss the ground fact checking - cnatrainingnyc.com Learn how your comment data is processed. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. If youve seen The People vs. Larry Flynt in all of its obscenity, like I did in Constitutional Law last semester, youll be a little surprised to hear the voice of actor Woody Harrelson narrating a documentary about social and environmental issues. No topsoils; no food! 'Kiss the Ground' Review: Regenerating Hope for the Climate There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. There are a number of others as well as many more in the pipeline. Nicholas Carter and Simon Hill (MSc Nutr). Often, our best solutions arent actually that innovative; they simply mimic natural processes and what the Earth already does. Kiss the Ground is a 501 (c)(3) Nonprofit One of the . What do you hope viewers will take away from the movie? worlds leading climate scientists have to say about diet? Kiss the Ground has the perfect documentary mix of celebrity activists and wise elder scientists. Data from almost40,000 farms, and 119 countries, clearly shows us that a plant-based diet results in less greenhouse gas emissions, less pollution, less ocean acidification, and uses less water and land land which we can therefore free up and convert to forests to rapidly sequester carbon from our atmosphere. Anecdote and expert opinion or theories are at the bottom of the evidence hierarchy, and its not until we see the findings from higher levels of science, reproduced on scale, that we can begin to have confidence in what we are observing. The rest of our topsoils are projected to be lost within 60 years. Watch the Film OUR COMMUNITY But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. I just heard of the movie and wanted to find out a little more about it until I get time to watch it. This is bio sequestration using plants to capture and store carbon. This is a huge problem. #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. Agricultural Systems, 162, 249-258. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2018.02.003, Teague, W. R., Apfelbaum, S., Lal, R., Kreuter, U. P., Rowntree, J., Davies, C. A., . To start tiny or full-size victory gardens, turn their lawns into meadows, petition their city councils to zone land for community farms/gardens, or donate to conservation nonprofits or farmland trusts? Sarah is a Nutrition and Behaviour Change Coach who focuses on helping people to eat in a way that's better for their health AND for the planet. The sort of solution you might suspect is at the top of all climate scientists lists. Fund charities that are helping people to compost their poo in toilets in the third world. All of us make critical decisions every day as we manage our lives and we dont consult the literature when making those decisions. 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. Our mission stands strong: to awaken people to the possibilities of regeneration and inspire participation in the regenerative movement. Do you or your families and friends have a special watch party planned when it streams onNetflix? All whilst minimising our 'footprint'. 2020 | Maturity Rating: TV-G | 1h 24m | Nature & Ecology Documentaries. Registration confirmation will be emailed to you. 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. 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. 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. Ray: Not at the moment, but if Steven Spielberg calls, I WILL answer. "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. 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. And of course, havinginterviewedthe co-founders ofKiss the Ground, Ryland Engelhart and Finian Makepeace, in early 2020, I was particularly excited to watch theKiss the Grounddocumentary(and I recommend you watch it too if you havent already). Minimising the amount of mechanical disturbance, with no tilling/ploughing. Kiss the Ground | Successful Farming 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. The Lhos plateau in China, an area larger than Belgium, had become a dusty wasteland after over farming. There was also no mention of tropical forest restoration which has significantly greater potential at pulling carbon out of the atmosphere compared to grazing cows on land no matter what practice is employed. 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! 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. 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. Integrating animals grazing the cover crops for their manure and the beneficial effects of their hooves. Kris: I see the soil as the real star of the movie and have said many times I am honored to be able to speak on behalf of the soil. In the 1930s the Dust Bowl was created. Our farming systems have moved too far out of alignment with mother nature. In the past, I did not like how certain environmental groups portrayed farmers. The basic premise of Kiss the Ground is that the destruction of soil is contributing to the severity and intensity of climate change. His response: holistic management does not permit replication, and youll find the scientific method never discovers anything.. We all know that science has its failings. Im Alexa, the Founder and Editor of Novel Hand. I doubt this will require an agent or a move haha! The movie doesn't just dive into the microbiology of soil and soil carbon interactions, it also covers the four main principles of soil health: increasing diversity, minimizing soil disturbance, keeping above ground covered and below ground active at all times, and animal integration. Impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems. So cows can actually be used to reverse desertification. This process of soil destruction is detrimental to agriculture. https://blog.whiteoakpastures.com/hubfs/WOP-LCA-Quantis-2019.pdf. But efforts have been made to restore the soils since 1994. Its sad, really, seeing gray, dead soil devoid of life. 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. Theres also a lot of new recent PEER REVIEWED soil science that demonstrates this. 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. Please check your entries and try again. 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. 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. BookstoreBook submissionsNewsNewsletter signupRecipesGardening, Our storyGet involvedJobs/FellowshipPartnersContact usPrivacy Shipping & return policy. 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. They thought I had lost my mind, but through hard work and perseverance weve been able to open many eyes through the years. Harvard research has shown that these chemicals can build up in breast fed babies this use of chemicals has to stop! Heres below are just a handful of recent PEER REVIEWED papers supporting HPG. Fact Check: Did Zelenskyy ask young Americans to go to war against 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. 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. 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). The first clue is when the documentary makes mention of the natural history of Bison roaming the United States.

Roger Waters: This Is Not A Drill Setlist, How To Fake A Sent Email In Gmail, V Drive Boats For Sale By Owner, Articles K