The Palouse

Filming in the Palouse was a constant reminder of how rich our country's soils really are. For hundreds of miles, in every direction, lay these golden green rolling hills of wheat. As far as the eye could see. Our host in the Palouse, renowned soil buff Dr John Reganold, never failed to point out the value of these highly productive loess soils, brought in by wind from the prairie to the west and south. 

Crew and John Reganold, on a Butte in Eastern Washington, overlooking the Palouse.

Soils like this, he reminded us, are what the US has built its empire upon. Without owning the majority stock of the world's productive soils, we would not have the world prowess that we have today. Rich soils give us the ability to not only feed ourselves, but also be one of the largest exporters of two of the world's staple crops; corn and wheat. 

DP John Chater and Soundman Ray Day catching the day's warm glow.

 One of the best parts of the shoot was when John took us to a giant road-cut, to see the different layers of soil that supports the relatively thin layer for loess top soil. If you look real close beneath our feet you can see a tiny strip of dark top soil. A stark reminder that however rich in soil the US and eastern Washington may be, the most productive soils are just a thin layer- the skin of the earth.

Soil on Ice

"You must come to Norway and witness the birth of soil!" Ignacio said excitedly over the phone. And that was it, our trip to the northern tip of European civilization had begun.

To film in Norway in July was a directors' dream. 24 hours of sunlight, an endless dawn and dusk quality light. Perfect. And then there's the natural surroundings, northern Norway was (and is still being) carved by glaciers. Glacial recession not only leaves behind amazing sloped mountains and fjords, but also glacial sediment, pure rock dust, that, as Ignacio alluded to, forms one of the base parent materials for soil. 

So there we were, a four day trip to Norway, following Dr Ignacio Chapela up and down the sides of mountains. One particularly grueling day was spent hauling our film equipment up one of these monstrous glacial valleys, to film on a live glacier. 

Ignacio Chapela, mountaineer, tries to assuage the fears of some of the crew about the still long (and steep) road ahead.

A healthy combination of over-estimating our collective abilities to carry heavy equipment, and underestimating the amount of time it would take to transport and hike meant we spent a full 10 hours just reaching the glacier.  

Daniel Chater, Assistant Camera,(center)scouting the glacier

The birth of soil, as Ignacio had described it, was indeed majestic. A silver river, colored by the granite sediment it held, rushed from beneath the glacier. Every crevice in the ice led down to the water below. Year markers marked the steady regression of the glacier, and highlighted the fact that it's been receding far more quickly in recent years (an allusion to climate change, need I digress).

Deborah, John, and Ray on Ice

Ignacio standing at the birthplace of soil

   In the end, despite the fridid temperatures, and the grueling hike in, the magic of the glacier and witnessing the 'birth of soil' put our qualms on ice. Not one of us balked when Ignacio, the only one with a sense of time in a land of 24 hours of sun, showed us his watch on the way down. Both hands pointed directly up, the direction of north, the direction of the sun. In our glacial trance we'd filmed all the way until midnight.

Visualizing Perennials

In Kansas people are doing the unthinkable. In the midst of the corn-belt, in a sea of annual grains that stretches as far as the eye can see, The Land Institute has breeders working around the clock to re-structure our agricultural relationship with plants. Through traditional breeding practices, they are attempting to perennialize our basic food, oil, and fiber crops- corn, wheat, sunflower- the list goes on.

Their vision for replanting the landscape with perennial crops- whose roots will hold down the prairie top soil, is inspiring.

Lead Scientist Jerry Glover being interviewed in a field of perennial wheat

Perennial Sunflowers and Silo

Jerry Glover and Leopold Center's Fred Kirschenmann

Rodale

The Rodale Institute is the longest running organization promoting sustainable and organic farming practices in the U.S. Their organization is smart, tactical, and scientifically sound. Tim LaSalle, (now past) CEO, is one of those people that, with every breath, forces his audience to pause and think about the interconnectedness of global issues, and how simple and clear the solutions really are. 

Tim LaSalle being interviewed by Deborah

Set against the verdant background of mid summer Pennsylvania, it's hard not to be swept up in hope for our collective agricultural future. Rodale is proving, step by step, that through careful soil fertility management, such as the addition of organic matter, we can solve many of the world's large problems.

John, Ray, and Deborah in situ 

 As we walked through their field of wheat, held their soil in our hands, and witnessed the clouds of beneficials (including fire flies might I add)- it was hard not to imagine a world where agriculture is sustainable, where life is well managed, and where the soil is alive.

No Till Corn

Blaencamel Soils

For those of you who haven't visited Wales- we must tell you, it is a dream world to shoot in. The moisture in the air catches light at every angle, softening every shot. Around each hedgerow and country road there is another glistening green vista. 


Blaencamel, the farm of the Seggers, Peter and Ann, is no exception. The root of the name Blaencamel- 'blaen' means a quick, clever mind capable of grasping and assimilating new ideas aptly suits the place. The Seggers are clearly innovators. They have rehabilitated what, by Peter's accounts must be "some of the poorest soils in the British isles" into deep dark organic matter- soils that grow carrots and leeks that dwarfed any I've witnessed here in California. 

Peter and a monstrous turnip

The entire two day shoot in Wales, part of larger UK tour lingers as one of the most memorable locations. Partly due to the candid nature of two deep souls deeply committed to the stewardship of their place, partly due to the glittering dew drops on every blade of healthy grass, but mostly due to the richness of their soil. 

Gargantuan leeks in dark soil

Patrick's Praxis

Patrick Holden is a man of two lives. 

In one life, he is the Director of the Soil Association, an organization that functions as both the UK's premier organic certifying agency, as well as a 'charity'(as non-profits are called in England) that lobbies for, and educates about, the benefits of healthy soil. In this life he is a public persona- appearing regularly on the BBC and working directly with the Prince. He lives in the city. He wears a suit.

In the other life, Patrick is a farmer. He raises dairy cows for milk and he just built a new cheese making facility. He grows the largest carrots you've ever seen in your life. He lives in an ancient farm house. He has four small boys. He prefers work boots and a vest.

By walking between these two lives, Patrick Holden has created praxis, meaning that he practices, embodies, and actualizes the concepts that he speaks about in his public work. When we filmed Patrick on his farm both sides of him were present. His ease with public speaking and his comfortability with complex subjects came through beautifully. But when it came down to it, what supported the whole shoot and every thing he said, was the underlying confidence Patrick has when he puts his hands into his soil and pulls up his bunch of carrots- the confidence of praxis, the knowing that he is truly grounded in his work. 

Director Deborah and Farmer Patrick on Pasture

Soil Time Capsule

For 160 years, the Rothamsted Research facility, UK, has been sampling, testing, and preserving soil samples. They have the world's longest running agronomic tests, comparing the productivity of different types of cropping systems. They have trials that aim to gage the effects of nitrogen laden precipitation on crop growth, and most fascinating of all- they have what could best be described as a soil time capsule.

Thousands of glass bottles, dating back to the 1850s, filled  with soil. The Director of programs, Keith Goulding, described to our crew how the soils in the bottles represented snapshots of time. How each soil sample was unique. How major world events, such as radioactive fallout from Chernobyl, could be detected in the soils from 1986 and thereafter. Our visit to Rothamstead drove home the theme that the world over- our actions are bound together by the interconnected global skin of soil. 

Seed Savior

High in the hills above Rishikesh- the birthplace of the great Ganges river, there's a secluded valley. Hand hewn terraces perfected over the centuries, line the walls. Gravity fed river rock irrigation channels lay like patchwork over the valley floor. Water buffalo are used to plow. Just north out of the hustle and change of modern India, one man has taken it upon himself to preserve his areas agricultural legacy.

Vijay Jardhari experienced during the course of his lifetime the introduction of hybrid seeds into his seemingly isolated valley. These seeds, in combination with the fertilizers that they were sold with, amazed him and other farmers for the first few seasons they grew them. By the time that he and others realized that the breeds did not not do well after a few seasons, and that they did not stand up to drought or severe weather, many of the native varieties- bred specifically for the area over millennia, had been lost. The story is not uncommon, what is special about this valley however, is the mission of one man to reverse the trend.

Vijay Jardhari with his seeds

Vijay is a humble man. When he speaks of the seed bank he started, of how he trekked all over the Garhwal Himalayas around his valley to collect seeds from other farmers, of how everyone in his valley thought he was mad, he laughs. He is the type of man who sings with his four daughters as they work at the seed bank. He thinks nothing of his work to give away as many seeds as possible to other farmers.

Vijay has made it his life's mission to educate all those willing to listen about the value of saving seed. Like a Ghandi of seeds, he patiently explained to us the different varieties, about how people now visit him from all over India, of how he intends to die saving seeds. With his soft voice and broad smile, you can't help but like him. Surrounded by 600 varieties of beans of every color, perched high on a terraced hillside, you can't help but want to stay with him, and save the world bit by patient bit, one seed at a time.

The Stare

It's always difficult to gage what is the custom of public filming when filming abroad. In some countries, everyone is polite, stands back, wonders to themselves what you may be doing. In the US, people have learned that while it's fine to stop and watch a film crew, one mustn't get in the way of the shot, one must stand back. This custom has not yet developed in India, well, at least the parts of India that we visited. 

India is the most vibrant place I've ever worked. A billion people bustling up against each other, each more colorful than the next. Given the proximity to one another, people seem completely comfortable staring at what ever it is that you may be doing. This made filming in public places very complicated. 

We'd see a great scene, a busy market, a winding street, a valley of goat herders- and like filmmakers do, we'd stop the van, and hustle out with the equipment- camera, tripods and all to try to catch the shot. But, in India, without fail, as soon as our white faces appeared and our feet hit the ground- much less getting the equipment out- a crowd would form. And, despite the best work of our fixer Gautam, the crowd would eventually block whatever the great shot was that we had stopped to film. 

John Chater, DP (tall and to the right) attempts to film, crowd forms

Eventually we evolved. Instead of piling out on the sidewalk, we decided that the best way to film any public place in India was to put John, our DP, on the roof. Thusly allowing large crowds to form around us without experiencing a crowd-block. Both Indian public and film crew came away from these frequent occurrences satisfied. They got to stare at us, and we, well, indirectly, we got to stare right back at them.

The evolution of avoiding the crowd block

Soul of Soil

Jaspal Singh's farm lies just outside of Ludhiana, in the heart of the Punjab, the north-west region of India, against the border of Pakistan. The name Punjab comes from the Persian words panj meaning five, and aab, meaning water. 

For millennia this alluvial plain has been the 'breadbasket' of India growing many of the country's staple crops such as wheat and mustard. In the 1960s, scientists and researchers from the U.S. brought the 'Green Revolution' to India. As I mentioned in the Seed Savior post, the technology of this revolution brought with it impressive yields, and did indeed help stave off the periods of starvation that had before been frequent on the Indian subcontinent. 

There is a dark underbelly of the Green Revolution however, that isn't highlighted in much of the western literature that surrounds its occurrence. This underbelly includes; dead soils, a rapidly dropping water table, and high cancer and birth defect rates in local communities. Jaspal Singh, a  Sikh, with considerable lineage in the area, watched his father apply the technologies of the Green Revolution (herbicides and pesticides, massive watering, hybrid seeds etc) on their land. He watched the soil loose it's ability to retain water and nutrients, he watched both the soil, the crops, and local farmers 'become sick'. When it became his turn to tend the family's acreage, he decided he had to change their practices and return to a more natural form of farming. It was in this quest for a different path that Jaspal discovered biodynamics. 

Jaspal Singh with his mustard crop 

Today, Jaspal Singh has transitioned all of his acreage to biodynamic farming. His diversified farming system has healed his soil through cover cropping, intensive composting applications, and the use of biodynamic preparations. Though many of his neighbors once laughed, people now visit his farm from the surrounding area to learn from his progress. They want to know how his soil has recovered, why his crops are so lush, and how it is that his water table is now higher than that of surrounding farms. 

As his farm has developed into a haven for birds, insects, and other wildlife, so too is it a haven for conversation about a different type of farming. As the Punjab moves farther into ecological crisis, Jaspal is the beacon of a  different way forward. He understands that if we are to survive we must create a relationship with the thin layer of soil which allows us to exist and thusly he is mending the error of previous generations by leading a new way. Progressing toward ecological balance and equilibrium. Ultimately, aside from the beauty of his accomplishments and the health of his person and his farm, one thing rings true. Jaspal is a farmer who gets it, because Jaspal, deep down, has a soul of soil. 

Jaspal being interviewed in a cover cropped field by Deborah