They are both such impactful leaders in this movement because they are called to bring these concepts to farmers and ranchers everywhere. Ray: Yes, absolutely. We already use 3-4 times more fertiliser for each bushel of grain than in the 60s. 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! 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. My hubby is from Alberta, the beef province of Canada and he was telling me about how land intensive pasture raised animals are. 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. (Source: Kiss the Ground). But I wish people with platforms like documentary films or acting stardom would start framing issues with words that suggest physical work, like "repair" or fix or even "care for/take care of" (i.e. One of the first characters introduced in Kiss the Ground is Ray Archuleta, a conservation agronomist. 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. The farmers are now starving or have moved on as the soils wont grow anything anymore, they have become dirt. 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 is bio sequestration using plants to capture and store carbon. Proof that this works if given the chance. 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. 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. Humans have created such a massive disturbance in our topsoil and atmosphere that the only way out is forward. Grazing livestock are net contributors to the climate problem, as are all livestock. We started ploughing/tilling because it was easier for us to upscale. Understanding Ag is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Grow your own veg using your home compost! Were trapped on a planet to which we've already done irreparable damage. Two-thirds of the worlds land is currently desertifying leading to millions of climate refugees and further environmental destruction. 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. If not, heres what you can do to join the regenerative farming movement, or at least help make things better . The message gets across, but the film downplays a meaningful call to action. Links to some of the recent research supporting HM, Teague, W. R. (2018). Local water cycles produce 40% of our rainfall. Gabe: An increased awareness as to how and why all society should come together to work on the 80% of the things we can agree on such as loss of biodiversity, water quality and quantity issues, poor farm profitability, the decline of rural America, climate change and human health. 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. If we adopt regenerative farming practices, we can reverse carbon release into the atmosphere and stabilise the climate, and it wont take long! Real change requires drawdown: year to year reduction in carbon dioxide levels. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Ray: I met the Kiss the Ground group in 2015. While I was attending the COP21 conference in Paris in 2015, I was again contacted by Josh Tickell and participated in a follow-up interview regarding the 4per1000 Initiative. 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. 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? Take the Inflammation quiz - what's your level? The review is plain evidence that we see what we believe and the reviewers beliefs greatly clouded their vision. Im Alexa, the Founder and Editor of Novel Hand. 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. 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. Scientists work hard to do science, yet despite thousand of papers produced by human nutrition scientists, the diet health of US occupants is at its worst level ever. 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. Biodiverse cover crops to feed the soil biology and protect the soils. Unfortunately, overtly telling people they need to cut down on their meat consumption for this change in agriculture to work isnt going to help with the documentarys popularity. Specifically, regenerative agriculture is a holistic land management practice that . Your email address will not be published. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Xu, S. (2016). Less meat to go around and significantly higher prices per unit. Narrated and featuring Woody Harrelson, Kiss the Ground is an inspiring and groundbreaking film that reveals the first viable solution to our climate crisis.. 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. Many countries signed, including the UK, but not the US, China or India, the biggest agricultural and CO2 producers. 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. Please read our Comment policy before commenting. 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. This process of soil destruction is detrimental to agriculture. Monocropping further exacerbates the issue, as the same crop is grown year on year, for miles in the case of US farms, microbial diversity cannot increase. However, this was taken from a United Nations speech, which leading soil scientists say isabsolutely not supported by science. Either way, shifting the typical diet in such a way is a certain win for humanity and all life on Earth, and thus something that not only should have been made clearer in Kiss the ground, but something that everyone reading should strongly consider. In March and April, he says, farmers are tilling. 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. Healthy soils can store more carbon than all the trees and plants combined, so is more important than saving the rainforests or the ocean phytoplankton in reversing climate change! 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. 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. However, after spending time with the Kiss the Ground team particularly in Paris, I understood howpassionate the filmmakers are about the soil solution. A group of activists had gathered to see what could be done about Climate Change. Since chemical agriculture ramped up in the 70s, we have lost 1/3 of the worlds topsoil. 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! It was better than most but could have hit that point harder. For millions of years the world has self-healed and self-balanced. Ray: That a large audience will come away with a basic awareness about the transformative power of our living and life-giving soil. 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. Several scientists featured in Kiss the Ground are clear that simply reducing carbon emission wont be enough to save the planet. Our farming systems have moved too far out of alignment with mother nature. He's a lover of people and of life. 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. Get exclusive content in your inbox each Monday. GHG Mitigation Potential of Different Grazing Strategies in the United States Southern Great Plains. you can help by supporting our work today. I was in California at a meeting and met Finnian Makepeace, who is the groups co-founder. 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., . Every version got better, and the last version was the best one. ), Pollinator garden/market flowers at Copper Cricket Farm. star wars fanfiction terran alliance; when a girl says i'll keep that in mind; hillsborough disaster who was to blame; how to get into stanford with a low gpa 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. A prime example of this is their claim that there is only 60 years of farming left. Science can provide us with some valid assumptions, but it does not provide recipes. Above all, its great to see this conversation growing from what has very much been a fringe movement to now entering the mainstream. Heres the big picture: a wide-screen projection of the surface of the Earth. Post war, these have been rebranded as farm chemicals. 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. "Kiss the Ground" is based on the fact that modern industrial agriculture is devastating our planet. Hosted by Robbie Lockie, Plant Based News delivers pioneering vegan news and ethical views weekly. Do you ever think about where your food comes from. 2 Creation of a false dichotomy. But the #1 US crop is GMO corn, sprayed with Glyphosate, which is now found in their drinking water and kills the microbes in our guts. "We should be thriving, the planet booming with life and abundance and the healthiest generation walking the earth. The long term prognosis for our survival with business as usual is very, very poor , Topsoils are disappearing and the land is desertifying, Regenerative farming principles explained, Examples of regenerative farming restoring land. Our modern farming methods are not concerned with soil longevity or quality and are significantly to blame for the destruction of the soils. There are over 200 peer reviewed papers that tie/correlate the increase of these chemicals with increases in ADD, child cancers and birth defects. Gabe: Yes, I am very optimistic about our future if regenerative practices are widely adopted. Jemima is the Head of Editorial of Plant Based News. kisstheground. What the writers ignored is that it was SCIENCE that led to that preferred plan of action. Over the years, tilling causes the soil to dirt, leaving it vulnerable to erosion and desertification. Its especially interesting to me as I am working towards a biology degree and hope to become a soil scientist. Sign up for the latest courses, learning resources, news and events. By Grazing management impacts on vegetation, soil biota and soil chemical, physical and hydrological properties in tall grass prairie. 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 . There is not enough money in the world to get me to move from Gods country, North Dakota! One of the . Enterprise, AL 36330. We need to spread the word to drive this important movement forwards! On one hand, the use of celebrity ambassadors is an unsubtle but effective tactic to draw casual viewers and followers. In the past, I did not like how certain environmental groups portrayed farmers. When those are plants that we eat, healthy soil is crucial. These carbon rich sugars are used by microorganisms in the soil and (in return for providing minerals and other soil nutrients to the plant roots) secrete a carbon rich glue to hold effectively build their mini environments under the surface. As long as its grass-fed. Since chemical agriculture ramped up in the 70s, we have lost 1/3 of the worlds topsoil. A Facebook video shows aerial footage of what appears to be large fissures or cracks in the Earth . This idea reminded me of what I learned from Cradle to Cradle. Watching attentively, a classroom full of farmers. Tilling loosens the soil, disturbing microorganisms that live within it, drying it out so. Its not too long, but youll learn a lot from it. It took a Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady cameo to hit this point home. I promise its way easier to mail one ballot than to cut meat out of your diet or petition your city to collect compost! This sounds like something else that he would likely regret in the near future. 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? But its the reality we face. Its not a bad thing per se. If we can only get everyone on board!
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