Soil Solution (Carol Hirashima and Jill Cloutier)

Reviewed by Rosanna Lapinski. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Soil Solution, a locally made documentary, explains that fertile soil is as vital to our living planet as clean air and clean water. Improved methods of ranching, farming, and land management can be used to provide more nutritious food, less pollution, and better health. Methods to enhance carbon sequestration in soil offer the best biologically-based solution to global climate change.

The film suggests that sequestering carbon in rangeland soils can alleviate the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This is the “Soil Solution” to climate change. Producers Jill Cloutier and Carol Hirashima speak to farmers, scientists, and researchers about their projects to protect and improve soil fertility for better health of the planet.

Ian Davidson, of Biologic Systems, explains that soil is a living organism, teeming with life, such as bacteria, making soil similar to the human body. According to Davidson, 70% of the cells in a human body are bacteria, a startling fact. Slow Money founder and author Woody Tasch discusses the crisis of soil fertility. Soil is being lost to erosion and depletion. Herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers are destroying the living organisms in soil.  According to Dr. Elaine Ingham, these chemicals are damaging not only the soil but also water quality. As a consequence, we must buy water that has an acceptable taste. These depleted soils produce food that is less nutritious resulting in malnourished farm animals. These nutrient depleted fruits and vegetables do not keep humans healthy. How can this process be reversed? John Wick of Nicasio native Grass Ranch, Marin Carbon Project, demonstrates his composting project that is replacing nutrients in the soil. Guner Tautrim of Orella Ranch illustrates with fava beans how atmospheric nitrogen is fixated in the bean nodules, so that the nitrogen is used by the plants. Penny Livingston-Stark of Regenerative Design Institute promotes the benefits of mulching to sequester carbon and helping plants convert CO2 into humus. As composter Alane Weber says, the soil is the universe beneath our feet, a world teeming with interacting organisms, the source and creation of fertility in the soil. Abe Collins describes the water cycle and the environmental services or ecosystem services provided by nature’s soil organisms.

The film successfully relates an understanding that the way we treat the soil affects human health and that each person is responsible for climate change. Through individual efforts, such as composting or growing a garden, a contribution is made to the greater good. The move toward organic farming will not only provide more nutritious food, but also reduce greenhouse gases.

Filmmakers Hirashima and Cloutier capture the enthusiasm and dedication of the soil scientists, ranchers, and farmers who are working to conserve and protect soil as a vital natural resource, as our health and the life of the planet depend on it.