Roots So Deep Film Night

Tweed Landcare, together with Soilcare and Tweed Shire Council hosted 2 episodes of the new 4 part docu-series Roots So Deep (you can see the devil down there) and panel discussion on the 30th April 2025 at The Citadel. This formed part of our events promoting sustainable farming and climate change solutions.

This was a documentary series about farmers in the United States practicing adaptive muli-paddock grazing methods and farmers using conventional methods of grazing. In the film, farmers and scientists came together to compare soil and water health, animal health and bird life across conventionally managed grazing land and other farms practicing ‘adaptive management practices’ of cattle grazing.

Despite the film being based in the United States, with very different landscapes and ecology to that of Australia, the principles that the film communicated were still translatable to the Australian context, that of working with nature, how regenerative agricultural practices can help reduce farmers’ input costs, increase biodiversity and ecosystem restoration, and how looking after our soils can help draw down carbon to fight climate change and support overall farm health and productivity. This film was also really a lot about how people learn – the conventional farmers in the film didn’t judge their alternative neighbours, they were actually curious

After the film, Soil Scientists and educators John Grant and Dave Forrest and local regenerative farmer Rachael Sanderson joined us for an open panel discussion with the audience to explore key takeaway messages and questions arising from the film.

One question loomed for me over this whole series, which is “what does it take to change?” Even if the science shows that ‘adaptive’ ways of grazing are better for the land and farmers income, will old habits change? Will people adopt a different approach? What does it take to change our way of thinking? and how can we better bridge the gap between science and practice. Background about the film can be accessed here