Working the land for our climate - Healthy soil, healthy world | DW Documentary
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- Опубліковано 13 чер 2022
- Every year, over 100,000 square kilometers of good soil is lost worldwide. The ground is concreted over, treated with chemicals, and farmed carelessly. Yet it is the very basis of life.
Healthy soil does not just produce healthy food. It also provides habitats for numerous species which are key to saving the climate. Some people have recognized this potential and are making up for lost ground.
Austrian farmer, Josef Nagl, is one of them. An accident that nearly cost him his life got him thinking: what does he want to leave behind for his children? Barren fields that can only produce rich growth with industrial fertilizers and pesticides? He decided to radically transform his family farm. The plow and chemicals, both of which destroy soil life, are now taboo. Instead, he works with diverse crop rotation, constant greening of the fields and, above all, a different attitude toward natural cycles. Josef Nagl has joined the ecological region of Kaindorf, a growing movement of farmers who respect soil as a living organism and farm to constantly retain and renew its humus. This transformation also brings financial benefits - they are rewarded with a premium for building up humus and capturing CO2.
On the soil where Erika Kothe stands, agriculture is ruled out for centuries to come. Uranium was mined here in the GDR, leaving behind a moonlike landscape highly contaminated with acids and heavy metals. How can such soil be healed? "With roots, bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi," says microbiologist Erika Kothe from the University of Jena, who is conducting research here with geologist Thorsten Schäfer. They are planting fast-growing plants and inoculating the soil with bacterial cultures and fungi to bind the heavy metals, rendering them harmless. This method could be used worldwide for renaturing huge post-mining landscapes.
#documentary #dwdocumentary #soil
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Thanks DW, it’s so important to know that there is many people out there that don’t loose hope in doing the right thing for Mother Earth. 🙏🏻✨
Its not DW, they just like to hog the limelight. Its Sadguru who has been relentlessly working on the Save the Soil mission
They just talk, we learned all this thousands of years ago but now the rich and powerful get to kill the rest.
Hopefully this documentary will be viewed by farmers and vegetable growers in many countries.
Most don't make enough money to have the choice.
I am in almost constant tussle with someone who just looks at the dirt (compacted clay) and shrugs it off, saying "That's bad soil"..
I finally managed to get a worm farm going, used the compost to make an extract, asked him to add it into the garden. This year quite a bit of the plants are darker green, growing free of mildew and insect infestations. The plants are strong enough to withstand the infections, most of the pests like aphids haven't appeared..
Grow the soils, the plants will be healthier. Chemicals cost a ridiculous amount this year, we're not using any at all.
Regenerative agriculture is a growing (no pun intended) way ranchers, farmers, and food producers are now seeing as a viable way to increase crops, healthy animals that don't need antibiotics, etc.
The major agriculture chemical companies don't want people to change, to rethink the ways farming and food production is done. It's cutting into profits.
Most definitely! And not only is it much less expensive than buying synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, etc, it actually heals the land as opposed to killing the life within the soil.
I live in Tuscany where the soil is exactly what you described: compacted clay. Trying to dig even a small hole to plant seeds is like trying to dig into rock. As for worms, I've never seen a single one in the 20 years I've lived in Italy, whether the Bolognese plain, the Appennini, or the hills of Tuscany. Maybe it's always been like this here for millennia. I don't know enough about soul conditions here, but I would love to have your advice.
@@elenalatici9568 Please look into cover crops to help aerate the soil and provide organic material. When watering, add a small amount of dish soap to help the water get into the soil. The dish soap will act as a surfactant and won't hurt the soil life. Starting a worm farm would also help if you can buy worms. You can feed them leftover veggies, etc. Lots of videos on worm farms on UA-cam. Alfalfa feeds the microbes in the soil so please continue to add it your garden. Roses will require very little water once established if you mulch the soil. My climate is much like Tuscany, and I rarely water my roses during the dry months of summer. Have fun learning.
@@elenalatici9568 Buy a bag of dolomite limestone to break up and reduce the clay, then add organic matter, compost leaves etc. with animal manures! You will have beautiful soil in a few seasons.
@eleni latici start by using dead grasses, garden waste and spread it over the area you need to improve. Dig it in just a few cm and add water. You can also build up a pile of dead leaves, grasses, bits of wood and add water, then pile in anything green (growing weeds, leaves, plants without the roots, stir it, add water. Let that sit for a week, adding enough water to just keep it moist.
It should turn a dark brown. Look inside once in a while, you may actually find a worm or a few inside.
If you're near a farm with animals, see if the farmers will allow you to take a few dried, old manure piles, put those into the leaf pile.
What happens then is a soil amendment for you to use.
It is never too late. Nature will come back.
If given half a chance.
Forests keep the soil and planet healthy for humans. Stop deforestation or humanity is doomed.
Also tallgrass prairies & steppes
and forest fires.
Deforestation is bad but so is planting monoculture forests. Grasslands can also be biodiverse and sequester tons of carbon.
Like we need telling?
@@helenamcginty4920 We do need telling. As a farmer I know too many farmers who are hurting the land as they are only concerned with trying to make a profit. They only care about making a profit today. They don't care about the future.
If we take good care of the nature, they will take care more than triple the humanity and the planet!🙏
thank you, Inado👍
Say that to the west
@@MorsayNickTaMere we need to remind everyone, not only the west my dear, this paradise before is ours till now it is ours, entrust to human care by the good and great, but now the nature is being abused, poisoned, begging our help, they're crying out but only God hear them,...but we felt them already, what we do to them, it wil bounce back to us.
I like that you said "triple the humanity" and not humans
مادا ينقصنا لتحقيق الهدف المنشود؟
Best documentary ever, got goose bumps love all these people geniuses love this channel. I'm an organic Gardner this fills my heart with joy ❤️
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment!
@@DWDocumentary Don't hesitate, I'm actually happy every day to see how beautiful the scenery in Europe, Germany is so amazing👌✌❤😁
and an organic writer... ;)
@@DWDocumentary I have been wondering for some years if it is lithium and other heavy metals that are being strewn over earth by weather control measures using what they call Trail by chemicals or Chem trails.
@@junedewar5190 its called br@in error. The good thing there is help for that.
The first thing came to my mind about the farmer Joseph....Sooooooo sweet...♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ when on my bike or walking... I do also avoid driving or walking on snails and worms... They to are on a journey.. Just like we humans are
I am a nature lover and gardener and I appreciate your content😊
My grandfather, a crop farmer, started his own organic garden back in the late 70's, after he retired and kept just a kitchen garden. He called it compost gardening.
Smart man.
We used to do that to, before my eldest moved to get married and work in another country...never used any pesticides only natural compost...we got amazing tomatoes, citrus, kitchen herbs and much more. Working with nature is much better, cheaper and more sustainable.
Primavera playing in the background takes the docu to a different level.
Some of us do this without begging for subsidies.
Mandatory standards NOT WELFAREfor the rich
I want to buy property and restore it someday, but land in my area is really expensive. Once upon a time, this area was mostly oak prairie, but now it's urban, farmland, or forest, and that forest is really flammable. Once upon a time, that forest was restricted to hilltops and mountains because the Native Americans managed the lowlands where the prairies we're.
So refreshing to see real change in agriculture...traditional ag kills soil.
I just bought an acre on the inland gulf coast Florida, US. The soil is terrible, however, I'm in the process of bringing it back to life in it's beautiful sunny location surrounded by horses and grazing cows.
Great luck on regenerating your soil. We did it in our own garden, starting with as little digging as possible!
Cows and chicken are excellent tools to bring life back to the soil.
@@Hakkeholt thank you 😊
@@emigrator08 No, don't X your roses, they are tough. Give the soil some TLC with the alfalfa, chickpeas, soya beans, runcorn. Any legumes will do and look after your roses by mulching them with animal manure, pref horse, cow, not too much chicken(strong) ! Work those manures into the soil with dolomite limestone and sow a cover crop for mulch and moisture protection.
Too sandy need organics
Great to see the importance of soil being reported in the media. The recent book 'Regenesis' by George Monbiot is a must read on this topic.
Dr Max Gerson says .. Soil is our external metabolism
Another excellent DW documentary, educating and opening our eyes to the possibilities of being able to arrest climate change by changing the way we interact with nature. Thank you DW. I am hooked on your documentaries, and learning more with each one I watch.
Agree 100% top content
I remember, as a kid my grandparents and cousins on their farms (Poland) all used to use cultivators👍 That was 20-30 years ago, not sure currently🤔
Excellent, and we can only hope that this sort of idea, work, etc., widely spreads, worldwide.
Mind, body and soil
In the US we had beautiful soil because we had migratory herds. These guys did all the aeration necessary with their hooves, and the pooping didn't hurt, either.
At a buffet, I personally sneak corn into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 boiled corn ears in my jacket pockets. It is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corn thinking they were part of the buffet.
Naughty. Stop doing it or you will be caught and punished!
Brilliant 👏👏
Fantastic work, thinking how to farm better, saving soil.👍❤️
Good luck I hope you succeed
So good to see!
Save the soil
In years past we used a chain arrow, which did a simular job to the cultivator shown. One system that we employed was to leave the land fallow for one season in every three.
really? the bible says to let it lie fallow every 7 years, as well. you can divide into 7 parts and just let one lie fallow each year, if necessary.
@@theCosmicQueen A tad off topic, the bible says many things, not all unequivocally proven.
I remember those from my childhood in New England.
@@gothicpagan.666 ah, but you seem to miss the common theme of leaving the fields fallow on some schedule. Why be critical? 😕 Perhaps the only thing a pagan & Bible agree on, but you criticize the source rather than embrace the commonality
Humus farming - reduced tilliage is a step but the less cultivatiation the better - I think there is much room for improvement.
Soil health is important but the soil can only hold so much carbon - probably much less when the most carbon-rich upper surface is being disturbed and yes that includes this "humus farming" - undrained wetlands do a much better job.
Terraform the world 🗺 Start with Africa, make it liveable for eberyone and everything. Stop pollution, look after the world ljke your own garden
This is exactly correct about farming. Driving a tractor is dangerous, my papa taught me. Thank you for this video. Love this video. Hello from America. Also, I learned to plow behind a Jenny when I was a child.❤
Plant some hemp. So many benefits and it grows super easy. I truly believe it should be grown to help the earth
Save soil! Essential every thing comes from soil, our mother
Thanks DW. Great video👍
Growing commercial timber on an old uranium mine. What could go wrong?
Well if soil remediation happens as well, then the radiation is locked up in the soil chemistry and plant biota. If the timber is harvested from an identified area and checked for residual radiation then it can be used in construction.
In one word... AWESOME.
Good story, Thank you.
Hello how are you today, it looks very beautiful scenery in germany. prosperous, advanced and always glowing😁✌🙏
Thank you for the elegant explanation of bio remediation and molecular prisons for harmfully oncentrated elements.
Good One !
14,29 no erosion, ability to retain water, and a living ecosystem that can support a variety of species 😊👍
I watched this documentary with great attention. In the 20 years I've lived in Italy I have never seen an earthworm, and that has puzzled me. I don't know the answer. If anyone.out there does I'd be happy for your input. Also, I would love to hear from one of the documentary makers if it's possible to contact anyone in Styria for what I can do for the soil in my own little flower garden. Last year I used alfalfa to fertilize the condominium roses. The result was pretty amazing. The roses had been neglected for years and recovered over the winter. As for my own roses, which I love for their beauty and scent, the harsh heat and drought conditions this summer have convinced me that I must do away with them. They require too much water. There is a company in Italy that sells native wildflower seeds and my plan at present is to replace all water consuming plants with wildflowers that attract bees. But I want to learn more about feeding the soil. Of course I know that a small garden will do nothing much for the large amount of lawn that surrounds the property where I rent an apartment, but if I can make a small difference maybe I can persuade the owner to give up the great lawns, now reduced to to crunchy straw, and replace it with wildflower meadows.
Thanks to anyone who might respond.🙏🙏🙏
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
@@DWDocumentary Only thin I've seen today that gave me hope. Thanks for making the documentary,.
You have brought back the pollinators by sowing wildflowers. I'd say you've done a lot.
No, don't X your roses, they are tough. Give the soil some TLC with the alfalfa, chickpeas, soya beans, runcorn. Any legumes will do and look after your roses by mulching them with animal manure, pref horse, cow, not too much chicken(strong) ! Work those manures into the soil with dolomite limestone and sow a cover crop for mulch and moisture protection.
After you have done all that, order some mail-order earth worms and set them to work under the mulch !
Thank you for giving me more hope in the future! *hugs*
Now in Ukraine fields are being contaminated with shells and rockets :(
Some say it takes a lot of time to clean the soil from such kind of contamination. The other problem is mines. Some farmers have already died from explosions...
Wars are the fastest way to extinction because of destruction to the land.
Really interesting and informative. Thank you!
“But the meek will possess the earth, And they will find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace”
#savesoil🌱 . Save our planet 🌱🌍🌳🌳🌳🌳 save soil🌱. Save lives 🌱🌱🌱🌲🌳🌲🌍🌳🌳🌳🌏🌳🌳🌲🌎🌲🌳🌳🌲🌱🌳🌲🌳🌱🌲🌱🌲🌱🌲🌳🌳
well, if they can't open the soil,t hen plant more trees in cities and other areas without much green plants. they can use squares of soil, abut 2x2 metres , which a tree and small shrubs can grow in.
These people are doing very important work, great documentary!
Very worthwhile projects. But watch the video again and take note of all the plastic. Plastic pollutes our farm soils. As we try to improve the soil are we continuing to pollute it with plastic which is a Fossil Fuel product?
Yes, terrible and the oceans are suffocating in it. Especially the fish, which we eat too.
DW, way too much background music. Please tone it down a bit. I'm here for content. I have Spotify for music. Thank you
So nice to have a positive story in times of such negativity.
If we" had" taken care of nature but we didn't and now we're faced with the consequences of that lack of care.Now we have to take care of each other but we've ruined our relationship with Nature,so Good Luck everyone .May God help us.Nothing else can.
No god will help us. We have to help ourselves; no super being is coming to hold your hand !
It breaks my heart to hear that it is difficult to get funding for such a noble undertaking. Imagine how much Europe is Spending on senseless wars in Ukraine and other places. If only 1% of this expense goes into the venture of nourishing the soil, then every region in the world could be free dead soil. I come from Kenya and have been adding humus (cow dung) to soil since I was born, and my grandparents have been doing the same. Then very educated people introduced us to ZERO GRAZINF where we put our cows and goats in very good enclosures with concrete floors and that was the end of cow manure. Now I understand that our soil died when we stopped using cow manure and started using artificial fertilizers.
This documentary gave me knowledge equivalent to PHD level in soil nutrition. Thanks very much.
I've read that allowing grazing animals to roam at will is replenishing the soil, they are trying this with wild horse herds in Siberia.
What happens to the manure in the enclosures? It can be collected & spread on the crop fields in various ways. A fantastic complement to any commercial fertilizer.
Great video. I'd love to know more about the bamboo growing around the former uranium mines near Jena (around 11:00). Are they measuring its phytoremediation properties?
Great documentary! Regenerating the soil is the way forward. Love it.
Beautiful stories!
How did farmers not know this or did they forget this stuff? it's so obvious if u do any gardening at all. Good to see people waking up from the weird spell the world's been under.
Too many city slickers!
This is really great and informative I think people should consider more friendly ways of reducing our carbon footprint and helping farmers reach there net zero goal
70+years ago I used to listen to the farmers at the kitchen table as they discussed rverything from milk production to soil. I remember thinking g that my dad knew so much more than the rest..he didn't have the science jargon but the care of dirt to change it to soil was the same. I know the other farmers who used tractors ( dad had work horses) and they brought in tons of artificial fertilizer ( dad spread his manure and didn't leave it in piles for years and years) . He tried to convince them to play t cover crops and to rotate fields. It all fell on deaf ears and now as I drive past these farms the old fields look so baren with nothing but scrubs growing..and this is in new york state ...which should be green and lush....but sadly those fields are not.
Planting lots of trees🌱🌲🌳will create fertile soil and maintain soil ferility 🌱🌱🌳🌱🌳🌱🌲🌱🌎🌏🌍🌱🌲🌳🌳🌳🌱🌳🌲🌳🌱👍🌱🌳🌲🌳🌳🌳🌲🌳
People live in their comfortable bubbles.
Likes only! 👏🏻
It's good to see that trees are fighting back using self-defense tactics.
Excellent.
Yeah we need plenty of green in our environment.. I get sick just by looking at highly developed areas with no green and soil around...
Brilliant documentary again by DW. Your stories are delightful to watch and deeply informative at the same time. Laudable is that sometimes-eclectic choice of such topics, that should become part of public discourse, but seldom do. Great job. I've a strong opinion (no offense though) that DW documentary has much holistic content for diligent viewers than that on offer by Discovery and Nat Geographic - atleast for a few years now }:‑) All the Best.
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far out ae well done..our poor earth getting abused ...lets hope it will stopped being abused...cant see it somehow greed is to rife😥
Very nice!!
Yes
Eco cultivation
Organic Soil
Organic Soil
Biodiversity
Well said.
What happens to the materials being removed, concrete, steel, glass, lumber, plaster, paint, etc? Recycle, landfill love to see the waste management plan
Concrete is a resource; can be crushed and reused, steel recycled, same with glass, even broken, plaster can be composted - mostly gypsum, paint might be a problem though.
I love DW documentary because of such educative content
Thank you God, for giving these farmers the patience to make barren lands, fertile again. The future is still hopefully beautiful...
👍👍
Yea.
Compost Fertiliser rarely used in Nepal.Dependent in Chemical Fertiliser.
How competitive with this would be agrivoltaics in which farming animals graze and fertilize the soil with their excrements as they also maintain low-sized green?
❤❤❤
👍😊❤️
People like them make me feel hopeful
Save soil.... Sadhguru 🙏🙏🙏
can apply this at home.
Building greenhouses as villages
Mind blowing info
Yes, God did create the earth...and the earth!
This looks only works in small scale. What is the yield of the crops? Sri lanka decide to remove pesticide and fertilizer usage and look what happened to its crop yield?
Yes, and it depends on what was sown; some modern plant/crop cultivars need the pesticide to manage the weed competetion and to use the fertilizer inputs.
It can’t be done in a day (or a season). Sri Lanka tried to do away with fertilizers before the soil had been adequately built back to health.
The solution is obvious. In times like these we need to plant more shade trees to parking lots, convert our wasteful lawns and backyards to permaculture food forest gardens landscapes with perennial drought and heat tolerant plants to provide shade and food year long for our family, friends and neighbors. It’s healthy and better for us mentality/physically and the environment. You will get your vitamins C from the food you grown and vitamin D from the sun. :)
How earthworms are valuable team members.... aaaawwwww ♡
Why didn't we farm lile this before if this is actually better for the soil, too? Surely they didn't figure out these things yesterday....
The whole world should take a good look at old times when people still remembered that we should be friends with Nature... It can kill us but maybe also save us if we hurry to make mends with it...
This is the kind of climate activism I can get behind!
Clay soil..sandy or loam? Fertility and fertilizers
God has made humans so unique. The wisdom upon them is seen in the things they have done and are to do. Good to know that was told men to do this part of the nation as many others are on the mission to protect the soil. Nice watching this documentary.
Humans are only unique in the amount of damage they do. We need this planet to become sustainable again, and it's Nature and science, not any god, who who will do this. Human beings need to do more with less, because we are no better than any other species.
That spinning factory soil is very likely contaminated
Probably why they tested it
Not necessarily, if all the factory did was yarn. Dyeing might have happened there and there would be records and evidence which could be remediated. Straightforward, and adaptive re-use of the building and plant will be a great advantage.
Heal the world 🗺️ make it a better place for you & for me, and the entire human race. #Michealjackson
Thought we are supposed to aerate foyer spray mixture so does not become anaerobic. Promoting healthy microbes
Nice ecology science coverages...interested matter & much useful...
Its Monsanto you want to be pointing your fingers at! Wakey wakey people!
13 approx, so sad, an short term mining op...now for decandes if not a century all that land is ruined ....and for what? 😭💔
Thank you DW for another great Documentary.
4,24 more fertile soil...far preferable than killing and compacting...creating dead soil n with mono cultures, artificial fertilizers and pesticides also killing insects that kill pests, frogs also eating insects and birds who do the same. So earthworms as partners is great but more holistically we also get living ecosystems, incl butterflies, moths, wild bees and a multitude of pollinators 😊. These chnges are all so beneficial. So happy this is knowledge is becoming more mainstream👍😊👏Hope the recently invented "traditional" farming is soon of the past. 🙏 Together with the sick system of factory farming animals....big agro will surely try to put up a fight....especially dairy has been quivering in their boots going after silly things like "plant milk" not being milk when we've had peanut butter or shea butter for ages. Big dairy is increasingly exposed 1 it's horrid conditions (they try to fight back, being "transparent" but only show the cows grasing, never artificial insemination or slaughter of cows who aren't productive, getting pregnant yearly, having complications, or just lowering their liters ...go to slaughter as basically teenagers way before their natural life span...or Male offspring quickly going to slaughter bc they serve no purpose....bet they would like to live instead of being killed as babies. They also show cows wanting to be milked...no wonder as we created them to have Over Sized udders....it's painful for them. Or how new born chicks on egg farms are chucked live into meat grinders if the happen to be male....again they're judged to serve no purpose and again I bet they beg to differ. We need to start respecting nature and our fellow sentient inhabitants of our only planet. We don't own the land, oceans, rivers, air or have any right to exploit nor it or other sentient inhabitants for short term profit while ruining ecosystems that now are on their tipping points because of our greed and arrogance. So I am all for more permaculture, diverse and small scale farming systems and hope we can soon end the horrific and dangerous factory farms too 🙏Great documentary as always DW 👏🍀
not sure if I want trees to build my house from uranium mines...
I am sure that they will run the geiger counter over the lumber! Any residual radioactivity will dissipate in the processing and drying of the lumber. Besides mostly it will be used for non critical/consumer uses.
Clearly some good ideas but whatever is to done needs to be in consulation and the approval of farmers unlike what's happening in Holland.