Climate change and global warming continue to be at the forefront as population growth and energy consumption continues to increase globally. A large majority of energy is still sourced from non renewable fossil fuels which emit greenhouse gases, an extremely non sustainable practice. Although many solutions have been enacted to reduce fossil fuels, such as renewable energies, society needs to adopt ways to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as well.
The 2020 documentary, Kiss the Ground, introduced ways of using soil and regenerative agriculture to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Regenerative agriculture keeps soil healthy, and healthy soil holds carbon. Industrial farming, the dominant way that the United States grows crops, practices monocropping, pesticides, tilling, and other practices that dry out the soil. Dry and unhealthy soil can’t hold carbon but rather releases it, further contributing to climate change. Therefore, the film worked to educate on how to use regenerative practices to fix this. The film was a success, winning several awards and praise from The New York Times’ which says that the film “Inspires a rare feeling of hope.” It included ecologists such as Allen Savory and Paul Hawkens and well known American performers such as Woody Harrelson, Ian Somerhalder and Jason Mraz. It was educational, hopeful, and inspiring.
Then why has it faced so much criticism? Isn’t science science? It is important to think about who is presenting these discoveries and getting credit for them. Kiss the Ground, as well as many climate and holistic farming scientists, claim their own innovation in this field. However, it is important to wonder where these ideas actually came from. By answering this question, can the solutions to global warming and problems facing society be more effectively solved through expanding one’s worldview? Does society need more than Savory and Hawkens to save it?
The beginning news clips really drew me in! The music kept me tuned in. Your transitions were clean and I loved how each transition provided an answer to the previous question. I learned about the concept of “draw down.” I also learned about some of the controversy surrounding Kiss the Ground. When I watched it I enjoyed it and did not see any problems. However, after this podcast and the class in general I can be much more critical about who gets credit.
You did a really great job of seamlessly incorporating different audio clips. The questions you asked were a great way of guiding the topics from one to the next. I learned that 8 of the top 10 solutions to global warming are in the food system, this is not surprising, but is a reminder of how important it is to look at our food system, particularly where it starts, on the farm. This is such a broad topic you could have taken it in many directions, I love that you highlighted issues of justice and equity. The background music and sound effects you added were so creative! They had a great effect on the overall quality of the podcast.
Firstly, I loved how you started the podcast off with news clips about the serious climate change warnings. This really showed the severity of environmental changes, and showed how nothing has changed since these news recordings from 2018 and 2019. I have learned in the past about the large effects that the food industry has on climate change, but I have never heard of the Regenerative Agriculture movement so this was very informative for me. I loved hearing about the history of the movement, but also hearing about where the movement is projected to go in the future. It was cool that you included sound effects throughout the podcast, even as a background to your speech, rather than just music at the beginning and end of your podcast. My favorite part was learning about creating too much “bare ground” and Kiss the Ground.
I really liked this podcast! All the different elements such as inserted news clips and music helped to keep it interesting, and you provided a lot of really good information in an easy to follow way. I had not known about this movement before, and so I learned a lot, especially how tied global warming is to the food system. This was really well done.