Fixing Food 2, Ep. 2: Healing the Land

Description
Reviews
Citation
Cataloging
Transcript

“Healing the Land” follows six months of animal life on Wild Harmony Farm, a 40-acre organic livestock spread run by Rachael Slattery and her husband Ben. As they describe their situation, young farmers today are inheriting tired land, land that has been overused and abused for generations – and their job is to restore it. Where conventional industrial agriculture runs on pesticides, herbicides and animals raised in warehouses, the couple practices regenerative farming, prioritizing soil health, biodiversity, and healthy livestock raised outdoors.

In the spring, dozens of tiny piglets are born in an open shelter, tumbling over each other to latch on to their mothers lying in deep beds of hay. The piglets grow fast and are soon turned out into the fields, eating freely, rooting around in the dirt, and sleeping together in muddy heaps. Rachel and Ben move them weekly between a series of carefully managed pastures and cover crops. By the end of summer, the results are clear - the pigs are full grown and healthy; the soil, grasses and cover crops look vibrant; and the end product is delicious, high-quality meat.

Healthy soil captures and retains carbon and could dramatically offset the CO2 pouring daily into the atmosphere. Rachael and Ben's story shows the potential of regenerative farming to foster a sustainable future. Through their hard work, they not only nurture the land and the animals but hope to cultivate a community of like-minded farmers committed to fostering a better way of growing food.

Citation

Select a citation style:

Main credits

Williams, Sue (screenwriter)
Williams, Sue (film director)
Williams, Sue (film producer)

Other credits

Editor, Christina Kelly; director of photography, Allie Humenek; score, Carmen Borgia.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

regenerative agriculture,pigs,pig farming,farm animals,livestock,organic,Wild Harmony Farm,regenerative farming,soil health,biodiversity,cover crops,piglets,carbon; "Fixing Food 2, Ep. 2: Healing the Land"; Bullfrog Films

[00:00:00.03]
[gentle instrumental music]

[00:00:02.01]
- [Rachael] My generation of farmers,

[00:00:03.05]
we're inheriting tired land.

[00:00:06.02]
We're inheriting land
that has been overgrazed,

[00:00:09.04]
abused for generations.

[00:00:12.00]
And it's now my generation's job

[00:00:15.02]
to restore that land,
to bring it back to health,

[00:00:18.01]
to bring it back to a vibrant ecosystem.

[00:00:22.08]
[upbeat electronic music]

[00:00:24.08]
- [Speaker 1] The way we farm today

[00:00:26.03]
will not sustain human
civilization as we know it.

[00:00:31.04]
- [Speaker 2] There's
not gonna be enough water

[00:00:33.00]
and there's not gonna be enough land.

[00:00:37.03]
- [Speaker 1] We are
never going to replace

[00:00:39.09]
traditional agriculture,
but we sure can innovate.

[00:00:44.02]
- [Speaker 3] We can learn
how to at least pivot

[00:00:45.09]
and to work with this changing world.

[00:00:48.09]
[upbeat electronic music]

[00:01:00.04]
[birds chirping]

[00:01:04.01]
[relaxed instrumental music]

[00:01:06.03]
- Yes.

[00:01:11.06]
We see our animals

[00:01:13.06]
as a big piece of this regeneration,

[00:01:16.00]
this regenerative way of growing food.

[00:01:19.03]
[pigs grunting]

[00:01:25.02]
Our pig production is really special.

[00:01:28.02]
Our pigs do start the year in
an open-air covered structure

[00:01:32.09]
with lots of hay at the bottom,

[00:01:34.04]
which actually kinda
becomes like a heated floor

[00:01:36.09]
for them in the winter.

[00:01:40.03]
- What we have is Berkshire pigs,

[00:01:42.04]
which is a heritage
breed that we settled on

[00:01:45.07]
at the request of chefs, actually,

[00:01:47.05]
because they tend to
marble a little bit better

[00:01:50.04]
than some of the conventional breeds.

[00:01:53.06]
They started giving birth
about three weeks ago,

[00:01:57.00]
and the newest ones that we have right now

[00:01:59.02]
are about five days old.

[00:02:00.09]
[gentle instrumental music]

[00:02:02.05]
[pigs grunting]

[00:02:07.03]
They're probably born at two pounds,

[00:02:09.04]
and they stay with their
moms for two months.

[00:02:12.02]
- And they just thrive in this situation.

[00:02:14.09]
They love to chew on the hay.

[00:02:17.00]
They like to root around in the dirt.

[00:02:18.04]
They have access to clean water,

[00:02:20.00]
frost-free water the whole
time they're in here.

[00:02:23.09]
[gentle instrumental music]

[00:02:32.01]
The way that my grandfather farmed

[00:02:34.07]
is very, very different
than the way we farm.

[00:02:37.08]
When my grandfather, he was a child,

[00:02:40.01]
they would tell stories of
going out into the field

[00:02:42.01]
and coming back just
covered in white dust,

[00:02:44.04]
which of course was DDT.

[00:02:46.02]
[plane engine roars]

[00:02:47.04]
All of my great uncles and
grandfather passed away

[00:02:50.01]
of different various types of cancer.

[00:02:53.03]
[somber instrumental music]

[00:03:06.06]
I still don't think there's an excuse

[00:03:08.05]
to have chickens or pigs in a warehouse,

[00:03:11.02]
shoulder to shoulder,
where they can't move.

[00:03:13.08]
I understand from a business standpoint

[00:03:16.01]
that it would be more
profitable to have these systems

[00:03:20.01]
where the animals are more controlled.

[00:03:23.01]
Their environment is controlled
and predictable and flat.

[00:03:30.02]
[gentle piano music]

[00:03:35.01]
[birds chirping]

[00:03:36.07]
We are trying to farm in
harmony with the wild.

[00:03:41.04]
Regenerative agriculture
starts with the soil,

[00:03:45.02]
so starting with soil life, soil health,

[00:03:48.02]
- Grazing grass and
then giving it a break,

[00:03:52.00]
so that it can grow back really well,

[00:03:54.00]
that's the process that
sequesters the most carbon,

[00:03:57.03]
that builds the soil the fastest.

[00:03:59.05]
[cows mooing]

[00:04:00.04]
If we can keep the grass healthy,

[00:04:02.06]
we know the animals are healthy

[00:04:03.09]
'cause they're eating healthy food.

[00:04:09.01]
[pigs grunting]

[00:04:16.03]
It's about six months

[00:04:17.04]
to get 'em from two pounds to here.

[00:04:20.09]
- We find ways to use

[00:04:22.09]
the animal's natural
tendencies to benefit the land.

[00:04:30.03]
Pigs dig up and turn up soil.

[00:04:33.01]
They're really good at that
rooting and that digging,

[00:04:35.07]
but when they do that on land

[00:04:37.00]
that doesn't have an opportunity
to recover or have grass

[00:04:40.06]
or forage regrow,
it just causes bare soil.

[00:04:44.04]
What we've found with pigs
is we need to move them.

[00:04:47.07]
We need to move them often.

[00:04:49.05]
Each week, the pigs are moved

[00:04:52.03]
to a brand new area of
forage, where they go in,

[00:04:57.00]
they have lush, tall cover crop
that we've planted for them.

[00:05:01.01]
- We throw the seed out
there and they bury it,

[00:05:03.05]
and we systematically
move the pigs, seed it,

[00:05:06.09]
work 'em around in a whole circle,

[00:05:08.05]
and by the time they get
back to the first place

[00:05:12.03]
the cover crops can be two
feet tall, four feet tall.

[00:05:17.05]
It's lush, it's fully recovered.

[00:05:19.08]
It's absorbed all the nutrients

[00:05:21.06]
that the pigs left there the time before,

[00:05:24.05]
and it's ready for another grazing.

[00:05:30.07]
- [Filmmaker] They're good-looking pigs.

[00:05:32.03]
Do they do anything besides
eat and sleep all day long?

[00:05:35.06]
- That's about it.

[00:05:37.03]
They graze, you know, on the forages

[00:05:39.05]
that we're planting for 'em.

[00:05:40.05]
They eat the grain that we supply for 'em.

[00:05:43.00]
They sleep alot and then they
leave their offering for us.

[00:05:47.02]
- [Rachael] I know that's--
"happy" is a funny word

[00:05:49.02]
sometimes to use with livestock,

[00:05:51.03]
but happy by, I mean,
like, they're not stressed.

[00:05:54.09]
They're not hungry all the time,

[00:05:57.09]
like, they're healthier, happier animals.

[00:06:03.06]
[pigs grunting]

[00:06:12.06]
- We use a local slaughterhouse
in Westport, Massachusetts.

[00:06:16.02]
We're already taking the bigger ones,

[00:06:17.05]
so every week we take a trailer load.

[00:06:21.00]
So we just started this week

[00:06:23.04]
and we'll take a group
every week for six weeks.

[00:06:28.09]
- We are constantly
trying to roll with nature

[00:06:32.06]
and then trying to fit into
the rigid business world

[00:06:35.06]
of scheduling and bills
and, you know, payments.

[00:06:39.03]
But with climate change, we don't know

[00:06:41.02]
what typical really is anymore.

[00:06:44.08]
- [Ben] Rather than taking
out an insurance policy

[00:06:46.05]
that'll pay us when there's drought,

[00:06:48.06]
we've built an insurance policy here

[00:06:50.05]
by thinning out the trees.

[00:06:52.03]
And we have about half
of the pasture space

[00:06:55.05]
that we have now is partially shaded

[00:06:58.05]
and just grows right through the droughts.

[00:07:00.08]
And in here, with the partial shade,

[00:07:03.04]
will stay green and growing
right through the summer.

[00:07:06.00]
[gentle instrumental music]

[00:07:08.08]
[traffic noise]

[00:07:13.08]
[cows mooing]

[00:07:20.04]
- We are working very hard

[00:07:22.09]
to become a profitable business.

[00:07:26.07]
In the beginning it wasn't about profit.

[00:07:29.01]
As we are getting older
and have a child now

[00:07:31.09]
and learning, like, you
do need money [laughs]

[00:07:35.01]
to exist in the world and
to have a comfortable life.

[00:07:38.07]
[gentle instrumental music]

[00:07:46.08]
I have to stay optimistic to
keep doing what I'm doing.

[00:07:49.06]
I do have hope that we as consumers

[00:07:52.06]
will recognize that we can
take control of our health.

[00:07:57.03]
We can make changes to what's
happening in our food system

[00:08:01.09]
by changing what we buy and
by changing what we eat.

[00:08:04.08]
[gentle instrumental music]

[00:08:08.09]
We wanna be profitable,
we wanna be successful,

[00:08:11.05]
but we don't wanna be the only ones.

[00:08:12.09]
We want our competitors to thrive.

[00:08:16.04]
For us, it's sharing
what's worked, what hasn't.

[00:08:19.08]
Part of our business mission
is to create a replicable model

[00:08:24.03]
so that regenerative
agriculture is here to stay.

[00:08:34.04]
[birds chirping]

[00:08:40.07]
[piglet grunting]

[00:08:47.04]
[gentle instrumental music]

[00:08:51.01]