kiss the ground (doc)
https://kissthegroundmovie.com/
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. Using compelling graphics and visuals, along with striking NASA and NOAA footage, the film artfully illustrates how, by drawing down atmospheric carbon, soil is the missing piece of the climate puzzle.
This movie is positioned to catalyze a movement to accomplish the impossible – to solve humanity’s greatest challenge, to balance the climate and secure our species future.
narrated by woody harrelson
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notes/quotes:
ray archuleta: if we get soil right.. we can fix a lot of our issues.. the more you farm like nature.. more you reduce your input and more money you can make
ugh to money making
3 min – erosion is when soil becomes dirt
rapid erosion began long ago when humans developed the plow.. to break the soil to plant seeds.. as soils eroded.. empires vanished into dust
agri surplus et al
bush herbi/pesticide law et al
bush mono crop law et al
5 min – 1930s largest man made environ disaster – the dust bowl.. tilled once fertile ground.. by end of 1934 200m acres crop land permanently damaged
practice of plowing/tilling soil continues to this day
today .. nrcs – conservation agronomist.. people like ray try to reduce tilling..
ray: we have a social/ed problem/issue.. until we get that right can’t fix eco issues
7 min – ray: people don’t understand basic principles of soil.. everyone runs by carbon.. we’re built by carbon
carbon dioxide is a gas.. we breathe it out and plants breathe it in.. we also make co2 by burning fossil fuels.. the carbon isn’t bad.. it’s the basis for all life on earth
8 min – john wick – there’s a tendency right now for us to be at war w carbon.. carbon’s the good guy.. i’m 16% carbon.. comes from eating vegetation and things that eat vegetation
kristin ohlson: plants use sun as energy and they pull co2 out of atmosphere and turn it into a carbon fuel and that’s how they grow.. but 40% of that carbon fuel they send down to their roots.. leaking it out in a very strategic way to soil micro organisms.. feeding them carbon.. and the soil micro organisms are bringing plants mineral nutrients.. and in process of all that soil mircro org’s make a carbon glue (glomalin) and they make habitat.. little pockets.. in the soil.. to control the flow of air/water.. and that’s one of the ways that carbon gets fixed in the soil
9 min – soil has the innate ability to sequester co2 out of the atmosphere.. that’s a big deal.. even more amazing.. the soil contains an entire universe of life
ray: soil is alive
kristine nichols: in every handful of soil there are more organisms than the number of people who have ever lived on planet earth.. and those org’s are processing organic matter that’s in the soil and putting the nutrients into a form that the plant needs
kristine: comparing the soil microbial diversity to the microbial diversity we’re now seeing inside the human organism.. you have more bacterial cells in your body than you have human cells..
10 min – mark hyman: yeah.. we’re about 1% human and 99% microbes
gut et al
kristine: the food we eat.. we chew.. and break food into bits that get eaten by the bacteria in our gut.. the bacteria consume the food and you feed off of what the bacteria have processed and released by the consumption of that food
11 min – mark: the key to health is eating dirt.. we need to eat what’s in the dirt.. that’s transferred to the plants
gisele bundchen: quality of soil is huge.. because it’s the beginning of the quality of the food.. our health and the health of our planet are connected.. if we choose healthy food.. the earth is healthier
12 min – taking care of the microbes in the soil is critical for human health
13 min – spraying soil w toxic chemicals kills the very microbes we need to give us health.. and pull the carbon from the atmosphere.. the more tilling that’s done.. weaker soil gets and more compelled farmers are to use the sprays..
this is the vicious cycle of industrial agri.. and that cycle was developed because of war.. roots go back to german scientist named fritz haber.. invented product for making fertilizer that increased food production.. his other.. was creation of poison.. known as pesticides
haber used his pesticides as the first chemical weapons in history.. the he developed the poison used in the gas chambers of the holocaust..
14 min – when the war ended.. us chemical co’s brought haber’s poisons back to america and rebranded his toxic chemicals as pesticides for american farms
wow.. using gas chamber poison on our soil – for our food
maria rodale: when the war ended.. all the energy that went into fighting the enemies in the world.. went into fighting the enemies on the farm
kristin: all of a sudden.. chemical fertilizer.. nitrogen was available and (the war on bugs) .. farmers could toss that on their field and get a good crop for a while
together.. these war time innovations created the most powerful industrial food production system the world had ever seen
15 min – kristin – created an infra around single types of industry and then we de coupled livestock and row crop production.. ushered in big philosophical shift of how we approached farming.. instead of understanding and honoring natural processing we could just throw out these chemicals
it takes more nitrogen now (2020) to raise a bushel of grain than it did in 1960 [20 to 6]
ray: our chemical fertilizers mask the problem of degraded soils.. modern agri was not designed for the betterment of the soil
17 min – these chemicals used to harm to begin with.. now being used at inconceivable rates.. enough to get into our drinking water
maria: not just on the food you eat.. it’s everywhere
most of the pesticides/herbicides transfer thru breastmilk.. there are over 200 peer reviewed studies.. that correlate the spraying of these toxic chems to affects like add, cancers, birth defects.. that’s why trials are beginning to award large sums to people who have contracted cancer.. ‘jury hist monsanto – roundup – w 2b judgment in cancer lawsuit’
18 min – just as toxic chems kill microbes in soil.. they also kill microbes in our bodies
ray: your body can handle stresses.. but not chronic stresses.. soil is the same way
19 min – since chem agri ramped up worldwide in the 70s.. we have lost 1/3 of the earth’s topsoil.. but not just our soils.. climate change..
20 min – ted talk: when damage soil.. carbon goes back to the atmosphere
healthy soils absorb water and co2.. but when damaged it releases water and co2.. dries out soil and turns it into dust.. desertification
soil and plant and climate are connected.. if no healthy plant will have more evaporation.. 40% of rain .. comes from inland.. we’ve disrupted that.. too much heat coming out of soil.. instead of attracting rain.. about 2/3 of world is desertified..
23 min – every year 40 million people are pushed off their land.. by 2050 estimated that 1b people will be refugees of soil desertification
allan savory – agri destroying the planet.. globally.. poor land leads to poor people.. poor people leads to social breakdown.. poor land leads to increasing floods/droughts.. et al.. leading to ideal recruitment conditions (war)
24 min – jeff creque – the way we are feeding ourselves now is undermining the ecology..
unless we find a way to save our soils.. we have 60 yrs left
a covered planet is a healthy planet.. we can fix climate issues if put co2 back into soil where it belongs
28 min – kristin: agri is biggest way humans impact our landscape
paul hawkin – drawdown – biosequestration – storage and removal of carbon from atmosphere by photosynthetic plants/bacteria.. using plants to capture carbon and restore it
kristin: plants.. seems too simple a solution for climate
30 min – because involves politics
38 min – jason mraz: san diego – agri forestry.. agri thru trees.. if you want to do something.. plant a tree.. grow food instead of shipping it.. regen agri
regeneration et al
40 min – gabe brown – regen ranger
45 min – kristine: feed lot situations..
gabe: problem isn’t the animal.. it’s where they’re at
ian somerhalder: using cattle and allowing them to roam..
allan – using livestock to reverse desertification can be done at extremely low cost
49 min – ian: the one thing we desperately need out of the air – carbon – plants/livestock – can do.. we can get the earth back to the garden of eden by regen
51 min – doniga markegard – permaculture (regen farmer) – found there could be a permanent agri – feeds planet and people
doniga – carbon back into the ground.. where it belongs.. all of that wildlife flourishes under an agri system.. vs a tilled/cropped field which is denued of life
55 min – the vast majority of those tilled lands (70%) grow animal feed.. corn, soy, and hay..
in those spaces.. 99% goes to feed animals.. only because they are subsidized by our tax dollars.. $25b annually.. give farmers for growing specific crops.. ie: tax subsidizes farmers to grow what feeds animals in feed lots.. that emit green house gas.. result.. land turning to dust and farmers going bust..
58 min – even w/chemical sprays and subsidies.. farmers make little.. but profit is huge
gabe: i build resiliency into the ecosystem with diverse crops.. then don’t care how much ie: corn makes..
bush mono crop law et al
much like gershenfeld something else law
michael doane – most of land farmed by farmers.. is done by somebody other than the farmer.. we believe land owners.. will encourage farmers to prioritize this..
59 min – by switching to regen agri.. farmers could increase profits to over 100b annually.. and eliminate their subsidiaries
paul: food waste is ubiquitous.. every body does it
well.. not everybody
robert reed: collect food scraps and turn it into compost.. most trash gets insinerated or turned to a landfill.. we need to model nature
1:01 – san fran residents are fined for not putting in green (composting) bin – collecting 7 tons of food scraps per day
1:02 – compost – most important kind of garbage there is.. it’s where the nutrients are.. that’s a simple solution
1:03 – michael martinez – compost is the natural decomposition organic matter in nature.. in a forest floor it’s when the leaves drop.. fungi and bacteria take it over and literally build the soil at the root zone.. compost is all about community.. community of microbes to community of individuals turning/sifting/contributing to pile
pashon murray (detroit dirt founder): i collect manure from zoos.. to make rich dirt.. repurpose waste.. because it’s really not waste..
1:04 – patricia arquette – when we went to haiti to run this compost pilot.. everyone thought i was crazy
david arquette – well haiti earthquake happened.. wanted to do something.. patricia is a problem solver.. sanitation problem.. water under soil was getting contaminated..
1:05 – patricia: we train people around the world to have their own compost toilets.. so they can collect own waste for communities
peepoople et al
patricia: most noticable change.. smell.. no more smell .. and very easy to learn.. people can learn how to do this everywhere.. helps address multiple climate change issues.. less waste.. more nutrients to plants.. then to people
david: whole problem in general is our general poo phobia
patricia: the poop had to stay in the loop
the more we choose regen foods.. the more farmers will grow them.. we’re articulating it.. the regen diet..
1:07 – david bronner – most important.. what are we eating.. destroying or regen ing the earth
1:09 – gabe: better eggs from chickens that forage whatever they want .. even better than cage free – because their diet is limited
1:10 – ray and gabe working together to move regen forward – soil health
gabe: regen agri: 1\ diverse crops 2\ no till (machine) 3\ perennials & trees on land 4\ animal compost/mob grazing.. those principles are universal.. can get them to work anywhere in world
1:13 – john liu (china – commonland foundation) – 25% of world’s land mass degraded by humans.. cradles of civilization.. greece, rome,.. many have turned into deserts.. settled agri first began in () china.. 1994 – most eroded place on earth.. so i felt i had to spend rest of my life dealing w this.. was hard to imagine at that time that you could restore that.. so from 94 to 2009 – stunning results.. 14 000 sq miles regenerated
1:15 – john: 100s of millions of people lifted out of poverty
john: human beings emerged in paradise.. we can restore that.. this is where everyone can find tremendous satisfaction
1:16 – john: so lets’ restore a little bit of paradise everyday.. not that difficult
1:18 – ray: i will drive forever to change one mind..
if we take care of them.. (microbes) they’ll take care of us
for millions of years.. has self healed.. but today.. we must harness the regen power of earth itself
i won’t give up.. woody
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