What’s one of the biggest problems with the discussion on the climate crisis? “It focuses excessively on emissions,” Kristin Ohlson, author of “The Soil Will Save Us” says in the trailer for the film “Dirt Rich.” 

Ohlson explains:

“Unless we undertake very serious work making our soil healthier, revegetating the land, not doing things that release the carbon from the soil, there’s no way we can deal with the climate crisis.”

According to this new film, carbon drawdown is the only viable and timely solution to reverse the effects of global warming.

In fact, sequestering carbon in the soil and transitioning to regenerative agriculture was ranked the 11th most important solution to climate change in the New York Times bestseller “Drawdown, the Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.”

So what makes a farm regenerative? It’s adherence to these agricultural practices:

• no tillage

• diverse cover crops

• in-farm fertility (no external nutrients)

• no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers

• multiple crop rotations

This shovel-ready solution couldn’t come at a better time. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that under current conditions, the world on average has just 60 more years of growing crops. With 24 billion tons of fertile topsoil lost every year, 25 percent of the earth’s surface already degraded and at least 50 percent of the carbon in the earth’s soils already released into the atmosphere, now is clearly the best time to save our soil by quickly transitioning to regenerative farming.

Steven Farrell, co-owner and general manager of Finca Luna Nueva, a regenerative farm and hotel in Costa Rica, is one of many interviewed for the “Dirt Rich” documentary. As he puts it:

“I think that farming regeneratively is the only way we will have a world worth living in for the near future.”

How can you watch “Dirt Rich?” You can catch the film at festivals and community screenings. The film will also be available soon at Eco Dox.

Dirt Rich Trailer from Passelande Pictures on Vimeo.

Want to get involved? Help us rapidly scale up the signatories of Regeneration International’s 4 per 1000 initiative, which calls for countries to draw down more carbon than they emit, and to store it in the soil. Connect us with your local farmers, NGOs, agencies and companies that would be interested in signing on.

Increasing the number of those committed to healthy soil is the first step toward building a regeneration movement in your community.

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