And no, I’m not telling you to give up meat 🥩 

I couldn’t advocate spending time in nature at our retreats without sharing ways in which we could look after it.

Here are 5 documentaries I think you should watch if you care where your food comes from:

🌍 Kiss the Ground

This was my first understanding of soil degradation and the part it plays in the climate crisis. 

Modern agriculture is not sustainable and learning about the process of regenerative farming opened my eyes to the change we can make as individuals. 

From biodiversity loss, to carbon sequestration, to composting, there is a tonne to learn from this film. Whether you grow in your back garden, allotment or fields, healthy soil makes healthy food. 

Watch the trailer:

🎣  Seaspiracy

A few years back, this was the first documentary to sway my eating habits – just because it has a “dolphin safe” sticker, doesn’t mean it is. 

This film covers a lot of aspects of fish farming, whaling, sea trawling and more, and it was upsetting to see that while deforestation destroys 25 million acres of land per year, sea bottom trawling accounts for 3.9 BILLION acres lost per year. That isn’t just fish and “accidental” bycatch, that’s total habitat wipeout.

Again, this is not to tell you to stop eating fish but more to think about where your fish is caught or farmed. If you haven’t seen this and you eat fish, I’d strongly advise you watch.

Watch the trailer:

🐮 Cowspiracy 

Probably the most well-known on this list, this film follows one man’s pursuit to “do better.” Kip explores the impacts of animal agriculture on the environment, examining climate change, water use, deforestation, and ocean dead zones. He uncovers the truth behind cattle farming and the people who fund the industry 👀

This documentary does advocate for vegan living, but  I’d like to point out that you don’t need to be fully vegan to make a difference. Lowering your intake of meat or choosing to shop locally-farmed meat can drastically reduce the amount of co2 caused by this growing industry. 

Watch the trailer:

👩‍🌾 Six Inches of Soil

Another eye opener for me last year. This documentary follows three independent farmers showing just how important regenerative farming is if we’re to backtrack on our current soil degradation. 

I learned a lot about farming cattle in symbiosis with their habitat and sacrifices market farmers make to work with nature, not against it. 

Six inches of soil feeds 8 billion people. There’s more we can do to create a healthy growing environment for our food, both in our own gardens and on farms.

Watch the trailer:

🛖 Uncivilized

This film follows a man’s pursuit of living life alone in the Dominican jungle. During his wild stay, Hurricane Maria hits the island of Dominica and he rejoins “civilisation”. 

While so many flee the island, it becomes strikingly apparent how dependant we are on governments and conglomerates to uphold “civilisation” and those who already lived sustainably are the only ones left on the island. 

Slightly different to the others on this list, but this film really highlights our dependency on supermarket food and governments to sustain us, and our lack of knowledge for sustaining ourselves. 

Learning to grow your own or keep chickens and other animals, are just two examples of knowledge lost. We need self-sustaining communities in our ever-changing climate.

Watch the trailer:

Once again, these recommendations are purely to widen your knowledge on the food you eat, where you buy from and the importance of making sustainable choices.

These 5 documentaries changed my understanding of the food we eat. What are your recommendations?