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VITAL
VIEWING Iain Blackwell presents three crucially important documentaries you shouldn’t miss.
KISS THE GROUND
» Directors: Joshua Tickell, Rebecca Harrell Tickell Eloquently narrated by Woody Harrelson, a long-term vegan and environmentalist, the film succinctly shows how the modern-day farming practices of tilling the soil and applying pesticides are transforming healthy, biodiverse soil into barren earth which
cannot sustain crop generation. We see how soil sequesters carbon, from the CO2 absorbed by the plants it supports, releasing oxygen back into the air, and how soil is composed of microbes, bacteria, and decaying matter which are critical to its capacity to transport the nutrients required by all plants to grow. Stripping the land of its native grasslands, meadows and forests
and replacing them by vast tracts of single crops and cattle ranches has resulted in a fundamental loss of biodiversity. To make matters worse, bare soils release carbon back into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming in an ever-increasing vicious spiral. The makers present us with the startling statistic that within 60 years, the world’s topsoil will be gone, giving us only 60 more harvests. Although that is an extremely alarming claim, this documentary is compelling viewing as it conveys a message of hope, showing how we can readily reverse the situation, with a heartwarming demonstration of this having been achieved on a grand scale. Vital Viewing because without soil health, humanity is a lost cause. This film advocates a way forward that promotes diversity involving healthy crops and animal rearing. Everyone should take the time to absorb its message.
82 / FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021
