WEBVTT - I Choose...Common Ground with Ian Somerhalder and Rebecca Tickell 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:09.600 You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Garland. Hi, everyone, 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:13.280 welcome to I Choose Me. This podcast is all about 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.239 the choices we make and where they lead us. My 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.799 guests today are the creative force involved in an incredible 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:24.280 documentary that impacts us, all about the importance of regenerative 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.720 farming that affects the food we all eat, and the 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.760 health and longevity of our beautiful planet. You have to 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.840 check out their documentaries Kiss the Ground and Common Ground, 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:38.960 out now on Amazon. Please welcome Ian Summerholder and Rebecca 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:41.880 Tickle to the podcast. I'm so excited to talk to 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.920 you about this because I'm really also very passionate about 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.800 the earth and nature and sustainability. 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.520 And pushing and pushing and pushing to. 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.280 Try and do better and be better and stay healthy 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.160 and longevity and everything. It's you know, it's all for me. 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.680 So I feel like this is a good connection. 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.959 They're all inextricably linked, right, They're all inextricably linked. 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:07.760 I think, as you're talking to think, this is like 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.080 the opposite of the circle of profit that we talk about. 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.039 Like the bear like bear makes the poison to kill 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.080 the pests, but then they also make the medicine to 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.440 cure the disease that's caused from exposure to the poison 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.240 that kills the pest. That's like this degenerative loop of 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.280 cycle of profit. But what you're doing is the opposite 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.520 of that. You're spreading the message of regeneration, and then 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:31.920 you're also spreading the message of like self health. Regeneration's like, 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:34.520 that's a cycle of profit, that's regenerative, that's a. 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:36.160 Great within the human body. 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.040 And so it's using the same model but turning in 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:41.640 on its head for wellness and regeneration. 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:44.560 And then our families grow as a result. 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:47.440 Yeah, and they grow healthy, which is which is not 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:48.400 easy to do in this date. 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:52.680 Healthy families create healthy streets that create healthy neighborhoods, create 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.520 healthy towns, communities. It's crazy. 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.840 Well, on this podcast we talk all about choices, and 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.160 there is one choice that we all make collectively, every 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:05.000 single one of us, every. 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:07.640 Single day, several times a day. 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.720 Is the food we eat. And your documentary, Common Ground, 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:18.160 is an all encompassing documentary and it talks about how 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.639 to get that healthy food and so much more. Can 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:22.680 you just tell us about Common Ground? 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:23.800 Tell us, sister. 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:29.680 Common Ground is environmental documentary that is a hopeful, uplifting, 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:34.440 inspirational film about how we can save the future of humanity. 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.000 It shows how we can fix our climate. It shows 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.760 how we can create a trillion dollar industry of regeneration 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.079 that's our future, and it shows how each one of 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.360 us can get involved and what that pathway is. It 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:50.600 really sparks a shift from that paralysis in the climate 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:52.960 anxiety that we're all feeling. And then suddenly when you 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.080 see that pathway, it spurs you into action because you 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.320 realize that we have a window of time where we 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.440 can course correct and turn this whole thing around. And 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.040 that's what Common Ground shows us. And it's the follow 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:08.320 up film to the Predecessor Kiss the Ground and Kiss 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.799 the Ground came out in twenty twenty on Netflix. It's 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:14.480 been a huge global success. It's King Charles's favorite movie. 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:16.320 We touched a billion people. 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:18.760 Ian's in the film. He actually started shooting that back 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:21.960 in twenty eleven, and then we started filming and we 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.240 started in twenty thirteen, and then we synced up after 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:26.840 the fact, only to discover that we were all working 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:28.520 on the same stuff, or on the same issue. With 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:30.840 Alan Savory and regeneration and we were learning like the 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:34.079 same sort of niche information about soil and the sort 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.080 of magic of soil to sequester all of the carbon 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:39.360 that we've emitted. I mean, there's more life and healthy 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.280 soil than there are stars in the universe. And so 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.440 when you start to think about the power of life 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:48.520 that's generated and that soil, you suddenly want to start 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.400 taking care of it because it means the sustainability of 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:53.440 life for humans and all living things, and it can 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:55.400 be done in any ecosystem and we. 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:56.520 All have a role to play. 0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:00.760 So today Earth Day, Happy Earth Day, Verny. These films 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.720 have just been launched. Case the Ground is being relaunched 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.080 to the director's cut with our indigenous people's section. Wonderful 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:12.200 and and Common Ground are now they're Amazon Originals, which 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:16.520 is phenomenal, and they're now globally available to stream in 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:21.400 every country and in most languages. And it's been a 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:23.680 fourteen year journey for us to get to this point. 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:24.520 For fourteen years. 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.120 And by the way, I know you're like, oh gosh, 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:29.640 a soil movie that sounds. 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.000 Dull as dirt dirt, but it's got. 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:37.919 And it has Jason, his buddy Jason, and has daw. 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:40.000 Jason. 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:43.400 They all make the soil so sex And. 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.000 Why did you do work about that? 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.200 Why was it so important to you to be a 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.880 part of this, to jump in and be such a leader. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:55.359 I grew up on the very delicate ecosystem in the 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:58.200 buyers of Louisiana, and we grew up super poor. We 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.480 had nothing, but we had everything because we lived off 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:05.880 of all the bounty of the lakes, the rivers, the bayous, 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.120 the sky, the land of my grandparents. My mom's side 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:13.520 were Mississippi redneck farmers and my dad's side was Cajun. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:16.919 And so that amazing balance of my dad taught me 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.800 the balance of wetlands and what it means when there's 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:21.760 an imbalance when you take more than you put back. 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.440 That imbalance throws off the entire ecosystem, and the only 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:31.159 creatures that lose are us. All of a sudden, you 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.120 can't sustain life anymore. Right, same on the farm, my 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:38.920 grandparents always taught us. My grandfather was like an agricultural inventor. 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:45.320 Fortunately never patented any of this shit. I'm so curious, 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:47.800 Oh my gosh. In the forties, he so he built 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:52.839 a mold and he started drying out bull and calmanure, 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.080 and he was the one that made the first in 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.800 the thirties. Actually the little pots made of manure that 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:01.680 you german eight seeds in and grow them. 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.360 Yeah, and they're like the biodegrade into their arca. 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:05.159 He created those. 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:05.599 Wow. 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.440 He made the mold forward and the whole thing, and 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:10.720 he made thousands of thousands of thousands of them. 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:12.120 Those are still being used today. 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:13.839 I know, I wish, I wish our family had a 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.000 patent on that from years ago. But the idea was 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.080 is that we both grew up and Josh and I 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.040 went to the same high school in Mandeville, Louisiana. 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:22.440 Wow. 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.960 And Josh is my directing, producing partner, writing partner. 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.880 Okay, yeah, So it's this powerhouse couple who built these 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:36.080 films and then these amazing inner circles that came together. 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.200 We've been waiting on this moment for fourteen years. So 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:43.039 I learned from the farming side of it, how these 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.080 farms regenerate and how all systems work off of one another. 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.800 That's what my grandfather taught me, and then my dad 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:50.560 taught and my mom and then my dad taught me 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.480 on the other side, which is the delicate balance of nature. 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:56.760 But from the landscape are the lens I guess you 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:02.000 could say of wetlands, because that system is extremely delicate 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:06.320 in its balance. Those types of things inform who we become, 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.080 and that's how we found ourselves here. I met Alan 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.720 Savory when I spoke at Stages and Scientists that I 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:17.520 want to say it was the end of twenty ten. 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:20.920 So Alan Savory is this man. You can look him up. 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:25.680 He's basically like the godfather of soil. He was and 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.920 he was this very famous political figure. He's the one 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.560 that led the Basically he's the one that led the 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:38.200 revolution and maintained power in what rose Rhodesia into Zimbabwe. 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.880 He was the transition of that. So he was like 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:46.520 exiled by Mugabe. Like this man was an unbelievable He 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:50.160 basically built the most famous the first real guerrilla warfare 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:54.920 outfit was Alan. But he's also the most amazing soil scientist. 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:58.800 And in nineteen seventy three he ran the numbers. He 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.720 was looking at agricol trual practices globally and thinking, by 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.600 about the turn of the twenty first century, our soils 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:08.560 globally are going to be so degraded that we're going 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:12.080 to be basically looking at an extinction event by basically 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:18.400 causing large scale global desertification, which is exactly what happened. 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.520 I met him at the symposium that Deep Bac Troper 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:23.360 used to put on called Sagans and Scientists, and I 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:25.680 spoke at it. It's like a four hundred person ted talk, 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.480 and it was so intimidating because I was there talking 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.720 about the relationship as how the world and our bodies 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:39.160 are basically the same biological process, taking that concept and 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.240 breaking it down for people. The guy who went up 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.080 before me was one of the guys that won the 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:48.880 Nobel Prize for inventing the MRI. These are the smartest 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.120 people in the room, and I was thinking, what in 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.120 the hell, And like this poor kid from Louisiana have 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.520 no college education, but I'm here talking about this story. 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.520 And that's where I met Allen Amazing. 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.440 Four months later, we packed up Jeff Schattz and I, 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:06.679 who was our a camera operator in Vampire Our He 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.000 was our steady caam operator who ended up becoming a 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.000 big producer and now he runs his own show and stuff. 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:13.360 But we packed up and went to Zimbabwe and we 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:19.480 went to Allan's ranch and where Mugabe allowed him and 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:23.319 remind you like this was still Mugabe was in power, 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.200 so like you could not go into Zimbabwe as a 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:30.920 white journalist with like camera equipment. You still can't, by 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:32.679 the way, you still can't because we tried with. 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.080 Ground Swell and all of our our gear got confiscated 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:36.719 by the government and we ended up not being able 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:38.839 to film out and Safey. It's a result for Grown Sweat. 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:44.760 So you see, this is really potent, scary stuff where 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:48.319 we were putting our lives at risk to get this footage. 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.000 I mean, the movie is fascinating, crazy. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.280 I learned Thank you so much great in the. 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.040 First thirty minutes. I was like, wow, I'm really learning 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.480 a lot from this movie. And I couldn't take my 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.320 eyes off of it. Was really well done. The cast, 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.959 you know, just all the information. It was riveting and important. 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.120 So when you go to Prime Video today on Earth 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.400 Day or whatever it may be, start by watching Kiss 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:14.720 the Ground, because that's the first film with that ands 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:16.920 in that film, and it really does a great job 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:21.520 at explaining the carbon cycle. What is regeneration, what is 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.080 regenerative agriculture, Why is soil so important, and then it 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.839 gives some great examples of some unlikely heroes, like farmers 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:32.120 who've been conventional farmers for a long time, who have 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.520 made a really sort of crazy and bold risk to 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.000 make a transition away from a lot of you know, 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:42.160 the industrial farming that they've been doing and then have 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.000 a huge success. And so the film really follows that 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:47.280 story along with and then. 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:52.320 But it breaks it down into such simplified entertaining because 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:53.760 that was the first thing about you know, Just the 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.960 Ground took seven years to make. Yeah, you know, we're 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.600 not playing around anymore. Bezos and that team and Amazon 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:03.960 and MG, I mean this is these are some of 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:07.880 the most powerful groups entities in the world. And they 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.400 took all three films, repackaged Kiss the Ground, pulled it 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:13.679 off of Netflix. Thank you, Netflix, we love you. It's 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:18.240 an amazing, credible run and relationship. But now Common Ground. 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.800 So Kiss the Ground was like dipping our toe in regeneration. 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:24.080 Common Ground is really the nuts and bolts and the 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:28.680 promise of how it actually works, but the big aha moment. 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.080 And if this was ten, twelve, fifteen years ago, we 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:35.520 would it would be a little scary. 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.880 Stocked, we'd be stocked and I actually have been stocked. 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:47.959 We've basically uncovered on film the agrichemical companies have been 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.920 secretly micro financing virtually, I can't say all in public, 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:57.480 but a very large portion, I'll say that of the 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:01.000 university agricultural curriculum in this country for forty years. 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:02.040 Incredible. 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:03.160 So we pulled back the curtain. 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.520 We talked to whistleblowers. So the second film, Common Ground, 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.000 which comes after Kiss the Ground, we filmed it during COVID. 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:12.040 So instead of going and traveling around the world like 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:13.719 we did with Kiss the Ground and like you did, 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.480 we weren't able to do that. So we instead packed 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.120 up our sprinter vans and hit the road and traveled 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.480 across North America during that time, and people were like 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.240 wearing masks and it was the first time people were 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:27.880 like taking their masks off, and we were doing social distancing. 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.840 So the whole film Common Ground was filmed during the pandemic, 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:33.840 and that's why it focuses so specifically on North America. 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:37.080 But what was crazy was that we found all these 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.240 whistleblowers that were willing to talk because they believe in 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:44.439 regenerative agriculture and they had been suppressed, fired. 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.880 Dressed fire bullied like big time. 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.320 And they do a great job breaking down how these 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:55.199 different entities which are put in place to protect us 0:12:55.520 --> 0:13:00.280 have essentially been bought by the chemical companies. They're the 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:02.120 products that are then put on these foods that then 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:04.920 turn these farmers into debt surfs that are pulled into 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.160 bank loans that require them to use those chemicals. 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:12.040 And then the pharmaceutical companies that participate in this sort 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:15.120 of closed loop economy where you have a you have 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:19.480 a an agrochemical company that the pesticide creates a certain disease, 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.720 but then it's also owned by a company non Hodgkins Foma, 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.959 but they also possess pretty much the only treatment for them. 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.760 Yes, they sell the only treatment for the disease that 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:31.679 their other product. 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:32.559 Cause of the. 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:35.200 Movie was like, think about startling. 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:36.960 And that's not a conspiracy. 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:42.079 That's disease with the chemicals and then they're providing the 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:44.840 medications to cure the disease. 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.480 Disease. Isn't that wild? And we allow that the US 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:53.880 the congressional members of the US Congress have allowed this 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.400 to happen. The universities have allowed that, you know, they've 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.560 the chemical company to basically bought the best science money 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:05.000 can buy. But then the legislators base legislation on those findings, 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.160 and so they all participate in this unbelievable web of money, 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:10.840 like enormous amounts of money. Sorry, what were you going 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:11.120 to say? 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.240 I'm so sorry to interrupt, but I'm excited about what 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.840 you're saying, because one hundred percent what happens is people 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:19.880 go to land grant universities thinking that they're going to 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.360 get a great education in agriculture, and instead what they're like, 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:26.120 like you said, the majority of funding that comes into 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.000 these lang grand universities comes from the companies that are 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.520 selling the chemicals, and so they find all the curriculum 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.760 and they make the science and so. And then if 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:37.320 you look at where the people who go to these 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.440 land grant universities end up, if they're smart, they don't 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:42.760 end up a farmer. They end up in policy or 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:44.760 they end up some place where they can actually make money, 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.800 and then they're dictating the policies. And they had an 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.640 article that came out which showed that there was a 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:58.800 big party at the at the EPA when they waved 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.840 their ten one thousand study that showed the harms of 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.880 the effects of these chemicals being exposed to people. So 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:11.200 the government is actively suppressing the science that's coming in 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:15.320 that's showing the connection between our health and these toxic 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:17.760 chemicals and the impact that's having. And then they had 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.520 a party to celebrate it where they invited everyone from 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.760 the EPA to come and they served cake to celebrate 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:28.160 the ten thousand study that they waived that they are 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.360 responsible for making sure that we're protected from incredible. 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.400 I want to just go back. I want to talk 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:35.240 about and. 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.880 That's common ground, but it's actually a hopeful movie. I 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:39.240 promise you it's not all bad news. 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.640 It's full of and inspiring at the same time. 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.280 I want to go back and talk about what is 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.960 regenerative farming. How is it different than industrial farming, which 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.240 is what we have always done, big farm. 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:02.080 I grew up in the Midwest. 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:06.600 I grew up in the middle of corn and soybean 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:08.920 fields Iowa, Illinois, Illinois. 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:09.920 Okay, Yeah. 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:12.000 When I was a little girl, I used to walk 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.560 for twenty five cents an hour. I would walk the 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:20.120 bean fields and weed them with my sisters. And I 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:24.800 know farmers like I come from farmland, so I'm really 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.160 curious about if you could break down the difference between 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.800 the two systems and then also talk to us about 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:34.000 how the farmers are feeling about them. 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:36.560 It's super simple. I'll take that one really quickly. I'll 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:40.680 break it down because people ask us this all the 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.120 time and saying, what the hell is regenerative agriculture? Why 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.600 should I care? What does it do? Yeah to me? 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:50.200 For me, regenerative agriculture is just the use of planned 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:54.800 grazing methods right and using living growing plants like at 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:58.200 scale to sequester enormous amounts of carbon dioxide out of 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:01.480 the atmosphere and store safely back in the ground where 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:03.680 it belongs. Because then when you do that, you pull 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:07.160 that carbon from the air. It it brings that carbon 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:09.800 down in the soil. But when you do that, it 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:12.600 feeds all the vital micro organisms in that. 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.280 Soil, which there are many many there. 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.359 Yes, and so it's really more I think grams. But 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:21.280 you could just say, for argument's sake, that there are 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:25.400 more living organisms and a cup of soil than all 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:29.560 humans who have ever lived in history. What so just 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.600 tells you how a live soil is. Right, So when 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.960 you generate, when you build the health of soil, you 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.040 build the ability for that soil to sequester enormous carbon 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.400 but produce really nutrient dense food. So as your soil 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.439 gets healthier, your plants get healthier. But you can balance 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:52.280 the climate, build robust economies. We're talking about injecting fifty 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:56.360 eighty one hundred billion dollars back into Middle America. That's 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.440 the reindustrialization of Middle America. It's exactly, and I love that. 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.560 People say, well, this is a revolution, it said, no, no, no, man, 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:06.560 it's not a revolution. It's an evolution. So when you start, 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.959 when farmers start making more money, they start paying more taxes, 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.000 which they'll gladly do. And as they do that, school 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.120 districts all of a sudden get better. Water districts get better, 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:20.200 after school programs get implemented, parks get better, all these 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:22.400 things that build communities get better and better and better. 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:26.320 Why because there's more money. And as human health or 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.640 as soil health goes up, human health goes up, which 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:34.360 means human health care costs come down. They fall precipitously. 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:36.960 So now you've got even more money in the system. 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.640 Because everyone thinks, you know, insurance is paid by premiums. No, man, 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.000 A lot of it's funded by the US tax payer. 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:47.720 That's the deal they've cut. So now with food agricultural 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:51.200 on this say industrial agriculture, So you're injecting one hundred 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.040 billion dollars back in the system. Well, now your healthcare 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.520 costs are way down, so you're injecting an additional two 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.439 hundred billion from that. All of a sudden, you have 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:02.080 a third of a trillion dollars a year injected back 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:05.600 into the into the country. This is how you rebuild 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.000 America when you do it from the ground up, from 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.600 Main Street literally, not from Wall Street down. So you're 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.760 building up Main Street, not Wall Street. And that is 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.359 how you build this thing back. And so like you know, 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:20.600 I also have a vitamin company, but I also make whiskey, 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.320 like really with some of the best whisky in the world. 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.360 We use a lot of things, and you're a tough palette. 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:32.399 We use a lot of grain. And so there's two 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:36.439 hundred million acres of grain in this country production acres. Roughly. 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:40.240 Regenerative agriculture saves up to four hundred dollars an acre. 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.200 Now you multiply four hundred dollars times two hundred million, 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:49.240 it's eighty billion dollars a year, then we send two 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.920 agrochemical companies and foreign countries. So you have to sit 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:58.280 and ask yourself, why why are we having farmers like 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:02.000 your dad going to a bank to borrow money that 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:05.800 a cruise interest to spend all that money and send 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:10.200 it overseas to other countries while polluting our water, our land, 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.840 our air, and our bodies. When you put a stop 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:18.280 to that. We are talking about the regeneration of America 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:22.240 and obviously beyond too. But what happens here is then 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.280 going to That's what Groundswell is. The third film is 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:29.560 about the international not just the promise, but the practice 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:34.359 of regenerations. So these are big, big numbers. You're talking 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.720 hundreds of billions of dollars. So effectively, what we're doing 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:40.880 is we're building the single largest carbon capture food economy 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.000 in the world from the Carolina coast to the California coast. 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:49.320 And yeah, this is how regenerative farming can change everything everything. 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.680 And I want to add on to one thing, which 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:53.320 you know, you mentioned that this is the way it's 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:55.919 always been done, and that's true in terms of our 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.800 kind of ecological memory of how we've been farming. The 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:01.840 truth is that this is not the way that it's 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:06.639 always been done. This is what we call modern industrialized agriculture, 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.160 and it's been labeled the green revolution. And the idea 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:12.560 of the green revolution wasn't that we were going to 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:16.119 heal the earth and make everything green. The mottle of 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:19.160 the green revolution was to make lots of money profit 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:21.680 and heald profit and yald. And the way to do 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:24.080 that they take get it. At the end of World 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.480 War Two, they had all of these poison chemicals that 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:29.159 they had used to kill people. They'd started inventing them 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:31.080 in World War One, and then they got refined in 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:33.639 World War Two, and then that was a big money 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:35.840 making Like war is a huge industry and there's a 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:37.920 lot of money. It's kind of like the pharmaceutical industry 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:41.240 in a way. And so they took those poisons and 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:44.359 those war machines after World War Two and they were like, 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:45.760 what are we going to do with this? How are 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.359 we they manufacture them? How what are we going to do? Oh, 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:51.280 I have an idea. Let's spray that on our food 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:53.719