Ryan+Tozier+Dirt

Dirt-write a brief description and evaluation of the film, then propose an exercise for any age group that would help them reconnect with "dirt." Finally, provide a few sentence response to the question: Why connect to dirt? (imagining a teacher as your addressee).

Dirt is a documentary that describes environmental, economic, social and political impact that of soil. Dirt has a long history with humans and many religions that we originated from the earth. The demand for natural resources is changing our relationship with dirt, and in the last decade, the world had lost nearly 1/3 of all of its topsoil. This film tries to explain that all our wealth comes from dirt. It explains how dirt is made from decomposing material and mycelium is one of the main contributors to this process. There are programs to help students to learn more about dirt, and one such program really makes a difference as seen by its instructor. He takes tough inner city kids and makes then see the light by planting trees around the city. This film is all about dirt why we need it, why we should love it, and why we it is so interesting. This film did a good job explaining way dirt is important to our life, but addition to the important ideas the film includes useless information about some person who eats dirt. It takes away from the film and makes it feel less credible as a source.

Exercise

The best way to reconnect with “dirt” is to get hands on; otherwise, you it will not have the impact that it should. The way the film described reconnecting dirt was to get people out into nature and to experience and appreciate what grows from dirt. As an exercise, I would suggest starting from scratch. Gather your food waste into a composter over the course of a couple of weeks, and experience the feeling of caring for that compost. When it is finished, utilize the newly made soil to grow a sunflower. The flower should start from a seed so that you can watch its whole life.

There are several reasons to connect dirt, as explained by the movie. The first and foremost of those is that you cannot life a fulfilled human life without a connection to dirt. The movie also explains the use of dirt in agriculture and if we forget our roots to dirt it will be further neglected and deteriorate until there is no usable dirt left, like what happened during the dust bowl. Dirt is important to grow our food and everyone should understand that by connecting to dirt (unlike the man in the movie you don’t have to eat dirt to connect to it).