Dirty Movie
Dirt is everywhere. Or so it seems. After all, what is between your feet and China but dirt?
That’s true, to a point. The truth of the matter is there isn’t much dirt left which is healthy enough to sustain organic life. This is the driving message behind the documentary Dirt!
“Flood, draught, climate change, and even war are all directly related to the way we are treating dirt.”
This film works on the allegory that dirt works as the “skin” of the earth. It is an active, life-sustaining layer in which the rest of the biosphere is built upon. In some places, this layer of skin is several feet deep. In others, only a few inches. In every single handful of healthy dirt are billions of living, active microbes which work to sustain life.
And it is vanishing.
Between factory farming methods, clear cutting forests, and rapidly changing weather patterns we are witnessing the drastic change in the amount and composition of the fine, working soil (or, dirt) which we have to work with. As a result, some places in the world which would be able to sustain themselves are starving. Things which are grown in what seems to be good dirt are loaded with toxins. Every time we lay down chemical pesticides or herbicides, we are creating toxic soil.
All of this is sooo easy to overlook because it is, after all, just dirt!
If anything, this movie is worth a look to watch Wine Library TV’s Gary Vaynerchuk eat dirt. Yes, he eats it.
I live in a very urban setting. Concrete and asphalt lines everything, and turf grass covers the rest. In our own backyard, when we moved in, the dirt was absolutely pitiful. Today, it can really only sustain the kind of weeds which love a nitrogen-free environment. Through a lot of research, I’ve learned that dirt isn’t the nutrient, but the breeding grounds for microbes which create the nutrients plants need.
This means the composition of the soil can be changed. What looks dead and hopeless can be turned around with a little bit of care and cultivation. Planting anything in any kind of dirt helps. As much as dirt works to help the plant, the plant also works to airate and provide nutrient back to the dirt. Adding compost does wonders, and it’s all natural! And not adding weird stuff to your dirt can go a long was as well. The more pesticides and herbicides to control your gardens and lawn (ha! Control. . .funny) means more garbage that is going into your dirt, your plants, and ultimately the groundwater in which everything runs off to.
This flick is totally worth the 75 minutes it takes to watch it. Even if you aren’t a gardener, don’t know how to plant anything, or spend your day avidly cleaning every speck of dirt from your existence – it is very insightful and could stand to change your view about something so small.
Currently, the movie is for sale from their official website. However, it is also available to watch instantly on Netflix online (that’s where I was able to snag it) and there could be a Dirt! screening in your area sometime soon.
Or, if you really wanted to get other people excited by dirt, you could always host your own screening.
Have you hugged your dirt today?
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