The Soil Health Institute has released a 60-minute documentary, Living Soil, that captures the history — and significance — of the soil health movement.
Our soils support 95 percent of all food production, and by 2060, our soils will be asked to give us as much food as we have consumed in the last 500 years. They filter our water. They are one of our most cost-effective reservoirs for sequestering carbon. They are our foundation for biodiversity. And they are vibrantly alive, teeming with 10,000 pounds of biological life in every acre. Yet in the last 150 years, we’ve lost half of the basic building block that makes soil productive. The societal and environmental costs of soil loss and degradation in the United States alone are now estimated to be as high as $85 billion every single year.
Living Soil captures the background of the current soil health movement and its momentum, beginning with painful images of the Dust Bowl, and then transitions to personal experiences of innovative women and men who are managing their land to enhance soil health.
The film features rural and urban farmers from Maryland to California, selling everything from corn to bouquets, united by their care for the soil.
The documentary is directed by Chelsea Myers, founder of Tiny Attic, a video production company located in Columbia, Mo. that specializes in documenting real moments and real people.
To view the documentary, visit https://livingsoilfilm.com.
Related Posts
This Week in Ag #83
Grandpa Fred never saw me. Despite the fact I was at his house nearly every day for over two decades. That’s because he was blind. From a farm accident. An anhydrous hose burst and shot the gas in his eyes.
This Week In Ag #97
New Year’s babies bring a renewed spirit of hope to those whose lives they touch. On January 1, 1865, a baby born in Diamond, Missouri, not only brought hope, but salvation to US agriculture. His name was George Washington Carver.
This Week in Ag #60
“They’re on 30s, we’re on 36s.” The cultural practice of row width is often as defining to a farm as the color of tractors they drive. Row width speaks to how far apart you plant your rows. This can vary greatly depending on the crop, geography, agronomic challenges and what the farmer wants to achieve. Here’s a look