By Pat Stinson
This story from our Oct. 12, 2022 issue is updated with new information. Images courtesy of Kiss the Ground.
MANISTEE – Chris Riley said he hopes people “who are questioning climate change or who may not be as aware or educated about climate change,” will attend the 7 p.m, Oct. 25, free showing at the Vogue Theatre of “Kiss the Ground”, followed by a question-and-answer period with three panelists.
The 84-minute, award-winning documentary, narrated by Woody Harrelson, focuses on approaches to reforming our current agricultural practices by encouraging farmers to use “regenerative agriculture” that includes planting cover crops and using no-till farming methods.
The film includes interviews with farmers, scientists, environmentalists, activists and some recognizable faces.
Riley, a retiree of the Huron-Manistee National Forest, was trained as a fisheries biologist and is a member of Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) of Manistee. CCL and Spirit of the Woods Conservation Club, based in Brethren, are co-hosts of the event.
The title of the movie derives from Rumi, a poet and theologian, who said, “Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
The goal of the Kiss the Ground organization that produced the movie is to keep valuable carbon in the ground and prevent its release into the atmosphere, where it contributes to the planet’s greenhouse effect.
Describing what led to Kiss the Ground’s focus on regenerative farming, the organization’s website states: “The way we currently grow the majority of our food, fiber, and fuel is actually damaging our planet’s ecosystem at an alarming rate through loss of topsoil, loss of biodiversity, desertification, habitat destruction, and air and water pollution.”
KTG further explains that Indigenous cultures have been farming in a restorative way for centuries, and modern farmers can use those practices and science-based methods to improve soil health.
About the film’s co-hosts
Riley said CCL was founded more than 15 years ago, has chapters around the world and in most states, and includes about 8,900 members in Michigan.
“The primary goal (of CCL) is to pass federal legislation of a fee on carbon (at the source of production) that would produce a dividend to the American consumer,” Riley said, explaining that sources of production would be “at the wellhead ⸺ coal, propane, methane and oil.”
He explained that fees the sources pay would be reflected in consumer prices, but those increases could be offset by a dividend paid to consumers, perhaps mandated by legislation.
“Typically, the idea is money going straight back to the people,” he continued, “whether that’s (for) an electric car or whatever … We feel it’s something that would have an immediate impact on carbon in our atmosphere.”
He said British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province, has had a (carbon fee) for more than 10 years and recently re-authorized it and even raised the fee on carbon.
The movie will be introduced by Gene Lagerquist, of Spirit of the Woods Conservation Club. According to its Facebook page, the group was founded by sportsmen in 1939 to “work in conjunction with the conservation department to better fishing, hunting and outdoor sports in general.” Today, the member-driven organization is open to all and offers, among other activities and events, student scholarships, Earth Day celebrations, Kids Field Day Camps each summer, nature trails for hikers and guided snowshoe hikes on its 40-acre preserve.
About the panelists
A panel of three speakers will offer a question-and-answer session following the movie. They include Elana Warsen, of Michigan Worm Works, a Manistee-based vermicomposting business; Bernie Ware, a Bear Lake organic farmer; and Daniel Marbury, of the Crosshatch Farming Cohort, a northern Michigan-based peer-to-peer initiative offering workshops to “small groups of land stewards.”
We caught up with Marbury to ask him a little more about his organization, which is based in Bellaire, in Antrim County.
FR: Please tell our readers a little about yourself and the focus of your organization, including why it was founded.
DM: My name is Daniel Marbury and I am the Program Coordinator for Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology. Crosshatch began because of co-founders Brad and Amanda Kik’s shared belief that the arts and ecology are intertwined and essential to enriching community.
FR: How does the documentary align with your organization’s mission?
DM: Crosshatch Center for Art & Ecology builds strong communities through the intersections of art, farming, ecology and economy. We are firmly committed to solving systems through creative and connected ways. This film illuminates the countless ways that ecology ⸺ soil ecology in particular ⸺ is connected to all aspects of our economy and culture. We agree that it is essential for a thriving and abundant world to work where we individually and collectively have the power to change our economy and culture for the sake of repairing relationships in the human and more than human world.
FR: Why is the film’s message important to you, personally?
DM: The connections that this film makes between people, agriculture and the environment is the work that I have been committed to for more than 10 years. As far as I can remember, I appreciated wilderness and natural spaces ⸺ credit goes to my geologist parents with a passion for national park family vacations (yes, there was a rock collection). I had an awakening to the influence of agriculture on the environment and climate through courses and experiences as a college student, and since then I’ve been working to help repair that relationship.
FR: If you could give our readers one takeaway message from the film, what would it be and why?
DM: We need to repair our relationships with farmers and farm workers who support each of our livelihoods by producing agricultural products, whether known or unknown to us, seen or unseen. Survival from climate catastrophe needs as many hands rowing the life raft as we can muster. We need to reach across culture, identity, and political affiliation to engage as many people as possible in the work of repairing the world, especially people connected to the land through agricultural and forestry management. Let’s flip the script from farmers being labeled environmental perpetrators to lift them up as climate heroes and give them the community support necessary to make that transition.
Information about each of the groups will be available at tables near the theater’s entrance.
For more about the movie, go to kisstheground.com. Find the organizations online at: citizensclimatelobby.org, Michiganwormworks.com and crosshatch.org. Find Spirit of the Woods on Facebook @SpiritoftheWoodsConservationClub. The Vogue Theatre is located at 383 River St.
