Educational Resources
Rising Roots is committed to building a community based on positive, inclusive action. Here, you will find documentaries, Ted Talks, books and other resources to learn more about Ecological Farming, Climate Change and related issues.
DOCUMENTARIES:
1. Kiss the Ground 
In this movie, "Science experts and celebrity activists unpack the ways in which the earth's soil may be the key to combating climate change and preserving the planet. Narrated by Woody Harrelson, this doc features interviews with Gisele Bundchen, Tom Brady and Patricia Arquette."
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3-V1j-
This movie is available on Netflix!!
TED TALKS/ Other Informational Videos:
1. "Climate Change: We Can Eat Our Way Out of This Mess!" | Gillian Flies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2bNVHbp3vM&t=15s
"In this inspiring talk, Gillian Flies will change your view on carbon and climate change, and open your eyes to what we are doing wrong, and how we can fix it when it comes to farming. It's kind of a big deal, and you will be captivated from the onset."
2. "From the Ground Up - Regenerative Agriculture"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQW8Tl_KLc
"Regenerative agriculture is one of the most promising wide-scale environmental solutions. This short documentary is a comprehensive journey through a variety of landscapes and regenerative farming techniques. 'From the Ground Up' is a story of genuine change and inspiration - tracing the steps of individuals who transformed their practices following the life-changing realisation - that farmers have a unique opportunity to heal the planet."
BOOKS:
1. "Dirt to Soil: One Family's Journey into Regenerative Agriculture" by Gabe Brown
Book Overview from Chelsea Green Publishing (https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/dirt-to-soil/):
"Gabe Brown didn’t set out to change the world when he first started working alongside his father-in-law on the family farm in North Dakota. But as a series of weather-related crop disasters put Brown and his wife, Shelly, in desperate financial straits, they started making bold changes to their farm. Brown—in an effort to simply survive—began experimenting with new practices he’d learned about from reading and talking with innovative researchers and ranchers. As he and his family struggled to keep the farm viable, they found themselves on an amazing journey into a new type of farming: regenerative agriculture.
Brown dropped the use of most of the herbicides, insecticides, and synthetic fertilizers that are a standard part of conventional agriculture. He switched to no-till planting, started planting diverse cover crops mixes, and changed his grazing practices. In so doing Brown transformed a degraded farm ecosystem into one full of life—starting with the soil and working his way up, one plant and one animal at a time.
In Dirt to Soil Gabe Brown tells the story of that amazing journey and offers a wealth of innovative solutions to restoring the soil by laying out and explaining his “five principles of soil health,” which are:
- Limited Disturbance
- Armor
- Diversity
- Living Roots
- Integrated Animals"
2. "The Carbon Farming Solution: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security" By Eric Toensmeier 
Book Overview from GoodReads (https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Carbon_Farming_Solution.html?id=zsh2CwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y)
"With carbon farming, agriculture ceases to be part of the climate problem and becomes a critical part of the solution
Agriculture is rightly blamed as a major culprit of our climate crisis. But in this groundbreaking new book, Eric Toensmeier argues that agriculture--specifically, the subset of practices known as "carbon farming"--can, and should be, a linchpin of a global climate solutions platform."
3. "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants" By Robin Wall Kimmerer
One of my all time favourite books! I highly recommend this one.
"As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” "(Elizabeth Gilbert).
4. "The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture" By Wendell Berry
From the publisher: "Since its publication by Sierra Club Books in 1977, The Unsettling of America has been recognized as a classic of American letters. In it, Wendell Berry argues that good farming is a cultural development and spiritual discipline. Today’s agribusiness, however, takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families. As a result, we as a nation are more estranged from the land—from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it.
Sadly, as Berry notes in his Afterword to this third edition, his arguments and observations are more relevant than ever. We continue to suffer loss of community, the devaluation of human work, and the destruction of nature under an economic system dedicated to the mechanistic pursuit of products and profits. Although “this book has not had the happy fate of being proved wrong,” Berry writes, there are good people working “to make something comely and enduring of our life on this earth.” Wendell Berry is one of those people, writing and working, as ever, with passion, eloquence, and conviction."