The Need to Grow (Full Documentary Film 2019).mp4

Do you ever feel anxious about climate change and the state of environmental and human health? I sure do; it’s overwhelming. Despite all of the bad news, there are messages of hope. A new independent film, The Need To Grow, tells stories offering possible solutions to the current climate crisis.

With only sixty years of farmable soil left on Earth, and the increased threats of climate change, the need to rethink how we use earth’s natural resources has never been more important. The Need to Grow takes an intimate look into the hearts of activists and innovators in the food movement who are redesigning our future; an eight-year-old girl who challenges the ethics of a beloved organization, a renegade farmer struggling to keep his land as he revolutionizes resource-efficient agriculture, and an accomplished visionary inventor facing catastrophe in the midst of developing a game changing technology.

60 Years Left
The world’s farmable soils are rapidly depleting. Approximately 30 soccer fields of earth are lost every minute. The way we’re going, we’ll have no healthy soil left in 60 years in time. Without fertile soil, there is no food.

Some of us may not still be here in 60 years. But our kids will. What kind of lives will they have?

There’s Hope
The Need To Grow tells us there is hope, and there are solutions. We can find a way out of this mess, and we all need to take the time to watch this movie to find out how.

The Need To Grow
The film, narrated by Rosario Dawson, follows several environmental champions, from a 6-year-old food activist trying to ensure her future to a never-say-die micro-farmer and a brilliant inventor.

These three protagonists understand that how to feed the Earth without destroying the soil is the issue of our time.

Green Power House
Michael Smith has invented the Green Power House, a facility that takes industrial waste and transforms it into renewable energy and organic soil amendments, such as biochar. Biochar is emerging as one of the best solutions to climate change.

The Need To Grow
The byproduct of this venture is electricity, enough to power 100 homes every day! The greenhouse structure can grow organic food year-round in any climate.

Words can’t describe how brilliant Smith’s innovation is. You have to watch the film to see it in action, and the connection you feel to his spirit is immediate. Smith can save the world; if only industries would start listening to him.

Small Space, Big Yields
Eric Cutter is a micro-farming expert and shows viewers that there are valid alternatives to conventional farming and that growing fresh food in cities is possible.

He uses vertical hydroponic towers to grow 40 plants in a couple of square feet. The method uses less water and less fertilizer than conventional agriculture. The result is delicious food that doubles as medicine to nourish our bodies.

Girl Guide Misson
At the age of 6, Girl Guide Alicia Serratos of Orange County, California, already understood that we need to connect with our food to appreciate it.

The movie follows this bright light as she pushes the Girl Guide organization to sell non-GMO cookies and introduces her friends and community to organic gardening. She is inspiring in so many ways and lends hope for the future.

Not Without Challenges
Filmmakers Rob Herring and Ryan Wirick show that these incredible people face so many uphill battles while trying to convince industries and governments that their ideas need to go mainstream.

Despite the challenges they face, they never give up and continue to spread the good word. This film gives them a platform to be heard; we all need to listen.

The message is clear: everybody eats, and so everybody can be a part of the solution. Buy organic food; support local farmers; grow fresh produce in your windowsill, balcony, or backyard.

As one person says in the movie, we either do this or we don’t. And if we don’t, we don’t deserve to be here, anyway.