TUESDAY, 25 MAY 2021
A star-studded documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson, ‘Kiss the Ground’ optimistically explores the potential climate crisis solution beneath our feet: soil. Viewers are taken on a journey from the dawn of common (and polluting) agricultural practices to how future farming can address the climate crisis. This documentary’s basis is illustrated by a poignant projection of the atmospheric carbon heat map overlaid onto the Earth’s surface.Using occasionally scaremongering imagery, Harrelson described the erosion and desertification that are decimating our food supplies, before directing the viewers to the proposed solution: regenerative agriculture. Interviewees, from scientists to celebrities, call for focus to be brought to soil health and restoration. Aside from the slightly nebulous ‘healing the Earth’ language, the evidence was clearly communicated.
Despite being recently produced, this film fundamentally lacked diversity in all forms. It focused intensely on the US agricultural system and on US farmers pushing for regenerative agriculture. This included American farmers showing small rural communities in other countries how to do agriculture ‘better’. I felt that there was far more to learn from traditional practices than this documentary cared to explore. However, on the whole, it was a rare and freshly optimistic film about the climate crisis, which provided some real hope for the future.
Written by Ellie Wilding.
