Nearly 70 years on the same land using synthetics, and we’re more productive than ever. Exaggerate much? I can assure you that my family farm is far from an ecological wasteland. The Rodale Institute indicated that the sprayed soil is completely devoid of microorganisms. How? By supposedly killing off “good guy” microbes. Pervasive Chemophobia: My major beef (pun intended) with the entire documentary is talk about industrial chemicals (aka pesticides and fertilizers) that damage the soil.

In no particular order, here are some of the take-home points. while neglecting the very contributions that these whipping-boy technologies make to the cause! When it does go off the factual and sensible rails, it devolves into predictable tropes about chemical agriculture, GMOs, etc. It starts off unassuming enough, and to its credit, never gets totally unhinged, like Food, Inc. That is, style over substance with some laundry list “factoids” designed to go viral with no critical analysis. Unfortunately, this film is also another entry in a long line of documentaries with infodemic tendencies. Subterrania just needs some love from Earth’s resident bipeds.

It’s the killer app, the sustainability platform that never sunsets, i f we can get it better engrained in the public (and perhaps even more importantly, political) eye. Most of our ongoing problems stem from a failure to take soil’s resilient properties seriously. The all-encompassing solution is presented as being deceptively simple: When dirt is transformed to soil through a regenerative ethic, it’s also our salvation. For example, when food systems fail, hunger and despair make for a receptive audience - a powerful recruitment tool for radical groups with dogma to spout.

In addition to climate change and desertification, social problems also materialize. Thanks to our fumbling, it’s like an interconnected node that’s short-circuiting - and causing all of our ecological ills in the matrix. The central message is simple: The presence of dirt is a coal-mine canary, and we’re getting red flags aplenty.

Kiss the Ground, which recently premiered on Netflix and was selected for the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, effectively nurtures a reverence for that mysterious, lifegiving medium underfoot - and makes a compelling call to action. The challenges don’t seem that insurmountable. Fortunately, it’s a blight that’s easily fixed - if we can upend age-old farming practices with galvanic strides. According to the new documentary Kiss the Ground, soil mismanagement is a societal and ecological kryptonite.

Land of mine netflix