Today's Hours:
By Michael Gardner '25
On Thursday the 14th, the Green Initiative Club hosted a screening of the documentary Common Ground. The movie is about regenerative agriculture, which is a farming method that was first used by Indigenous populations in North America before European colonization.
Industrial agriculture is the method most farms use today, and it relies heavily on machines and chemicals to till soil and keep pests away from crops. The movie explains how these methods are built around the concept of supporting corporate America rather than the principle of protecting the Earth. Industrial agriculture is destructive to ecosystems, reducing the amount of carbon and life in the soil.
Regenerative agriculture uses as little machine interference and as few chemicals as possible. Farmers who use this method also keep cattle on their land to interact with the plant life. Research shows that this method greatly increases the amount of carbon within soil, which drastically benefits the growth of crops. It also helps to mitigate the effects of man-made climate change by sequestering carbon, thereby reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The documentary refutes the notion that industrial farming produces more food than regenerative farming. Research has shown that there is no significant difference in yield between the two methods, but regenerative farms generate more profit than industrial farms. Food insecurity is a result of economics rather than production rates.
If you would like to watch Common Ground, you can request a screening on their website. Check out some of the research on regenerative agriculture here.
Image courtesy of https://commongroundfilm.org. More free resources from the filmmakers can be found here.
0 Comments.