The Need to GROW Documentary Captures the Root of Agriculture’s Problem
The film delivers alarming evidence on the importance of healthy soil
By Food Tank
A Film by Rob Herring & Ryan Wirick
Executive Produced & Narrated by Rosario Dawson
Excerpt:
According to the filmmakers, The Need to GROW aims to illustrate the current fragility of the planet through soil—including soil’s role in all ecosystems and the rapid loss of farmable soil across the globe. The film focuses on three main characters—8-year old Girl Scout, Alicia Serratos; a regenerative urban farmer, Erik Cutter; and inventor, Michael Smith. Serratos leads a petition for non-GMO girl scout cookies; Cutter seeks to grow food in a resource-efficient manner; Smith’s Green Power House invention functions as a closed-loop energy generator that sequesters carbon, grows algae, and produces a nutrient-rich, organic soil vitalizer.
Wirick pinpoints the intricate relationship between food and soil, stating that the film is “about solving our food system, but it’s also about how we can participate in the restoration of the Earth… It’s about how water health, climate change, and nutrition are all interconnected through the health of our soil systems,” Wirick explains to Food Tank.
According to the WWF, agricultural degradation of soil threatens all other life, inducing desertification, contamination of water sources, food scarcity (resulting from a loss of farmable land), and extreme climate events. “Soil is a living web of life all doing their part: transferring nutrients and storing water and carbon. In the film, it is through the connections between people that each character finds their strength and purpose… Just like in the soil, collaborative innovation at all levels is required if we are to ever overcome these incredible challenges,” Wirick tells Food Tank.
