World Environment Day Discussion of “Kiss the Ground”
7 June 2021, Washington, D.C. - Following the global launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration on World Environment Day, FAO North America and UNEP North America co-hosted a 72-hour free screening and virtual discussion of the inspiring and critically acclaimed documentary Kiss the Ground.
Narrated by Woody Harrelson, Kiss the Ground is an inspiring film that reveals the most viable solution to our climate crisis. In the documentary, science experts and celebrity activists unpack the ways in which the earth's soil may be the key to combating climate change and preserving the planet through regenerative agriculture.
The newly launched UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration “is a rallying cry to ‘Reimagine, Recreate, Restore’ ecosystems across the planet,” stated Barbara Hendrie, Director of UNEP’s North America Office. “For too long, we have been exploiting and destroying our planet’s ecosystems, including farmlands, forests, grasslands and savannahs, mountains, peatlands, urban areas, freshwaters, and oceans.”
“This Decade could not have come sooner, and the documentary Kiss the Ground could not have been clearer about the opportunities for hope through regenerative agriculture, nature-based solutions, and a whole suite of actions we can take to keep carbon out of the atmosphere and in our soils,” underlined Jocelyn Brown Hall, incoming Director of FAO North America.
Finian Makepeace, Co-Founder, Policy Director and Lead Educator of Kiss the Ground, the non-profit behind the film, shared the journey behind the documentary to awaken people to the possibilities of regeneration. “So much of this [regenerative agriculture] is rooted in many Indigenous cultures, mindsets and ideologies, and it also connects to holistic management and cutting-edge science,” said Makepeace. Through the Soil Advocate Training and other programs, Kiss the Ground is raising societal awareness around key solutions available through soil regeneration and how to use these concepts to create real impacts.
In the event’s panel discussion, moderated by Thomas Pesek, Senior Liaison Officer for FAO North America, renowned filmmaker and landscape restoration advocate John Di Lou, along with FAO’s Eduardo Mansur and Ronald Vargas, highlighted the importance of ecosystems restoration and soil health.
John Di Lou, who is also the Ecosystem Ambassador for the Commonland Foundation and guest star in the film, shared how his experience of filming a baseline study of the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project in China changed the trajectory of his career from a news broadcaster to an advocate for ecosystem restoration. “When I went there, I was looking at a massively degraded ecosystem, which I knew was the cradle of Chinese civilizations,” said Lou in reference to the Loess Plateau. When he compared this to the political and economic news he was covering, he stated, “I found that the ecology was more important because it is not simply about one historical period, it’s about all of human civilization and the direction it is going.”
In 2017, Liu founded Ecosystem Restoration Camps, a worldwide movement that aims to restore damaged ecosystems on a large scale. He concluded, “We’re at a turning point in human civilization and the central intention has got to be understanding that the value of ecological functions is higher than materialism.”
“We don’t need to cut one more tree to produce the food that we need now or in the future,” said Eduardo Mansur, Director of FAO’s Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment. He highlighted the global virtual gala launching the Decade and the World Environment Day observance, featuring a number of country commitments towards restoring degraded lands.
Mansur noted that, while we have always known that ecosystem restoration is important, we are not doing nearly enough, and we need to scale up and accelerate our actions. This is also what the Action 3 of the UN Food Systems Summit ‘nature positive production’ calls for. “We have not explored sufficiently the importance of carbon fixation in soils and the whole benefits that come with sustainable soil management,” said Mansur. “We need to maintain carbon that exists in the ground, which is three times higher than what is in the atmosphere, and increase the capacity of soils to serve as a sponge and retain it. We have to recognize that bad agricultural practices are a major cause of carbon emissions,” he added.
Ronald Vargas, Secretary of the Global Soil Partnership at FAO, echoed that the importance of soil health has long been known and referenced the World Soil Charter that was signed in 1979 and called for action against soil degradation. The fact that the focus has been on crop production and soil productivity, rather than ecosystems services that soil provides, especially for carbon stocks, may have not helped the case for soil health, noted Vargas. In 2011, FAO established the Global Soil Partnership to raise awareness and advocate for soil health. “Soil health can bring many benefits for us and the future. 10 years later we are glad because soil health is on the agenda, but we need to catalyze actions on the ground through investment.” In addition, FAO’s Soil Doctor Global Program helps smallholder farmers implement sustainable soil management.
The hour-long interactive session emphasized the importance of protecting soil health, regenerating degraded lands and the critical role that regenerative agriculture can play in this process. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration complimented by the UN Food Systems Summit presents a critical opportunity to scale up and take action to promote sustainable agriculture and soil management, ecosystem restoration, and regenerative agriculture for climate change action and a more sustainable planet.
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