Living Soil Film
4,237,375
Published 2018-11-15
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. Like any relationship, our living soil needs our tenderness. It’s time we changed everything we thought we knew about soil. Let’s make this the century of living soil.
This 60-minute documentary features innovative farmers and soil health experts from throughout the U.S. Accompanying lesson plans for college and high school students can also be found on this site. "Living Soil" was directed by Chelsea Myers and Tiny Attic Productions based in Columbia, Missouri, and produced by the Soil Health Institute through the generous support of The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation.
The film is freely available to download and stream at www.soilhealthinstitute.org/livingsoil.
A special thanks to Dawn Bradley, Brian Berns, Keith Berns, Bill Buckner, Mimo Davis, Dan DeSutter, Miranda Duschak, James “Ooker” Eskridge, Barry Fisher, Liz Graznak, Steve Groff, Jerry Hatfield, Trey Hill, Larkin Martin, Bianca Moebius-Clune, Jesse Sanchez, Larry Thompson, John Wiebold, Kristen Veum, Kevin Mathein, Ben Harris, Tim Pilcher, Josh Wright, Haley Myers, Rob Myers and Josh Oxenhandler.
All Comments (21)
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Wow, incredible feeling right now. I remember, years ago, stepping on this video and thinking : '' Wow this is very inspiring, I wish I could grow my own organic food and regenerate the soil in the process, if only I was not a notorious blackthumb''. Indeed back then even plastic plant died under my care. Well, right after watching this video that day I was so inspired, I started studying organic gardening right away. Everyday, alllll day, I got hooked. I eventually started my own compost stations, my food forest and an organic garden on my property, and had tremendous success. Now years later, this video got suggested to me again and im watching it thinking : I cant believe how much progress I made since I watched this video last time. Thank you so much, soil health institute. That day you planted a seed in my head, and today a forest has grown.
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Films like this feed my soul. I have a small farm. My land had rocky, eroded fields from years of tillage and corn planting. First I planted winter rye as a cover crop after the 2012 drought. Grazed it a little with goats and a couple horses then let it grow as we seeded in a pasture mix with several grasses and legumes. Baled it the following summer as a straw crop but the little bit of new grass and seed heads provided a welcome snack for my herd of 84 goats. Also warm bedding for the next year's kids. As the pasture thickened every year, I started feeding hay on the pasture in fall and winter. I'd roll a large bale out for about 600 feet and the animals would spread out on it - spreading the wasted hay and manure with no extra effort. I walked around with buckets of grass seed and filled in thin spots. I still do this every year and the dogs enjoy helping me. Even though my pasture gets grazed hard every year, it is thicker, taller and greener than most cow and horse pastures in my area. There's a mix of planted and wild perrenials in it along with native tallgrass prairie flowers and grasses coming back from seed spread by birds and a neighbor's prairie garden. The pollinators love it and I've identified several species of bumble bees that call my place home.
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Most people in the world don't understand that you need to feed the soil, so that the soil can feed us.
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This documentary is a must-watch for anyone with an interest in food security and the environment.
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the future is definitely in our soils. I am an urban worm farmer and a big fan of microbial soil health....chocolate cake soils! Happy Gardening and thanks for the video Marty Ware (Australia)
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Very well done, thank you. Now we just need about 600 million more views.
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I found this on Thanksgiving Day. I believe the Universe guided me here for a reason today.
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Stumbled across this to learn about soil for my garden. So glad I did.
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I like BEST what Trey @Harborview Farms(MD), said: “Let’s not battle with each other, let’s work together that will benefit us all.” Amen!
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I played this for the students today, and they liked it! They learned a lot. Thank you for this amazing video!
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I learned a lot. As a student of BS Agriculture I also want to help our country obtain a living soil. Thank you for inspiring me ❤️
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I have to say, overall this is just scratching the surface. I also have to say that myself and most other farmers I interact with know what is in this film and than some. Not to mention that what works on one piece of land often wont work the same - even across the road - on another piece of land. It's easy to talk about all this but much harder to actually do and grow a great crop. I am a winter wheat (soft red), corn and IP soybean (identity preserved) grower with layer chickens (eggs) and sheep (lamb). What most people miss is that manure - livestock farming - is extremely beneficial to soils. Barry Fisher is one of the best interviews in this video, wish he had more time in it.
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Also, what this documentary really doesn’t go into, is that when you do the cover crop and no till practice, it captures CO2 and sequesters it into the soil which helps offset the CO2 we are putting into the atmosphere.
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should be a must watch in every educational institution and for every organization farm and urban, promoting sustainability
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There are still smart people in the US who are grounded and not driven by greed. I second everything said in this lovely film.
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I loved this video. I am a student in college studying environmental studies and I loved this assignment. I learned a lot and it made me kind of want to be a farmer. Very educational, every farmer should see this!
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Check out Bealtaine Cottage in Ireland where one woman has transformed 3 acres of poor land into a permaculture based, woodland paradise, feeding herself with plenty over, creating biodiversity and doing what one individual can to save Mother Earth. A lesson for all...farmers, suburbanites, we can all make a change. Our planet is worth it.
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I forgot that soil must be taken care of, such a great movie that needs more views. I love being educated
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Thank you for continuing to provide information that advocates can use to inform others. We NEED to gain momentum, to get community groups, companies, corporations, nonprofits, governmental agencies, schools, and families to understand that RESTORATION can provide overwhelming benefits- from carbon sequestration to ensuring foos security. From mitigating floods, fraughts, and famine to increasing biodiversity for pollinators. There must be GLOBAL funding provided and easily accessible programs for individuals and organizations to start implementing TODAY. Support any and all efforts and be a part of SAVING the SOIL :) Please share more and more success stories so people will believe that this is possible.
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Humanity lives on soil, If soil dies we all will die ... It is time we take necessary steps to save our soil, most of us belong to a democratic nations and thats the best part, we can raise our voice and push this ajenda, if we together raise our voice no government will ignore it. Right now SADHGURU is ridiing 30,000 KM from London(U.K) to Coimbatore(India) to raise the awareness about soil degradation. He will be meeting various policy makers on his journey. Let us all come together and speak in one voice #Savesoil .Let us not miss this opportunity to save the humanity my dear brothers and sisters. Let us make it happen 🙏
