“Kiss the Ground,” the 2020 documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson, argues that regenerative agriculture can reverse climate change by pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it in soil. The central claim is bold: that the way we farm and manage land is both a leading cause of ecological destruction and, if changed, a powerful solution. The science behind that claim is real but more complicated than the film’s hopeful tone sometimes lets on. Regenerative practices do build soil carbon, support microbial life, and improve water cycling, but the scale, speed, and permanence of those benefits depend on details the documentary skips past.
What Regenerative Agriculture Does to Soil Carbon
The film’s core argument rests on soil’s ability to store carbon. Plants pull carbon dioxide from the air through photosynthesis and push some of it into the ground through their roots. If farming practices increase the amount of organic matter in soil, the reasoning goes, farmland becomes a carbon sink rather than a carbon source. A large meta-analysis of studies from India, drawing on over a thousand comparisons, found that regenerative practices produced an average increase in soil organic carbon of about 17% over baseline levels. Time was a key factor: the longer the practices were in place, the stronger the effect, with studies running longer periods showing substantially larger gains.1Scientific Reports. Differential impacts of regenerative agriculture practices on soil organic carbon: a meta-analysis of studies from India
A synthesis of Southeast Asian cropland research found similar patterns, identifying compost, biochar, manure, cover cropping, crop rotation, and reduced tillage as the practices that most reliably boosted soil carbon. The mechanisms are straightforward: organic amendments add carbon directly, cover crop roots anchor soil and contribute residues, and reducing tillage slows the breakdown of organic matter by keeping soil aggregates intact.2Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. A synthesis of the effect of regenerative agriculture on soil carbon sequestration in Southeast Asian croplands
So the documentary is right that these practices build soil carbon. Where it oversimplifies is in suggesting that soil carbon accumulation is limitless and fast. Soils have a finite capacity for storing carbon, particularly in the mineral-associated fraction that represents the most stable, long-lasting form of storage. A continental-scale analysis of European agricultural soils found that this effective carbon capacity varies by up to 200% depending on local climate and soil type, and that soils already near their saturation point actually lose carbon at higher rates.3Nature Communications. Revisiting the soil carbon saturation concept to inform a risk index in European agricultural soils The concept of soil carbon saturation is still being refined, but its existence means soil is not a bottomless sponge for atmospheric carbon.4PubMed Central. Soil Carbon Saturation: What Do We Really Know?
The Underground Web the Film Gets Right
“Kiss the Ground” devotes significant screen time to mycorrhizal fungi, the threadlike organisms that form symbiotic networks with plant roots. The film portrays these fungi as essential infrastructure for carbon storage, and the research supports that framing. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi produce glomalin, a sticky protein that helps bind soil particles into aggregates and acts as a significant pool of soil organic carbon. Studies have found that the hyphal networks of these fungi increase glomalin production and promote carbon sequestration, with the effect becoming even more pronounced under water stress conditions.5PubMed. Extraradical Mycorrhizal Hyphae Promote Soil Carbon Sequestration through Difficultly Extractable Glomalin-Related Soil Protein in Response to Soil Water Stress
Long-term chemical fertilizer use disrupts these microbial communities. Research on walnut orchards found that non-fertilized soils had significantly higher organic matter, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus compared to chemically fertilized plots. The unfertilized soils were also enriched with beneficial bacteria and fungi associated with nutrient cycling and plant growth, while excess ammonium from fertilizers caused soil acidification and reduced fungal diversity.6PubMed Central. Soil Chemical and Microbiological Properties Are Changed by Long-Term Chemical Fertilizers That Limit Ecosystem Functioning The film’s argument that synthetic inputs undermine the biological systems farmers depend on finds genuine support in the literature.
Water, Erosion, and the Sponge Effect
One of the documentary’s most vivid demonstrations involves pouring water over two soil samples: one from conventionally farmed land, the other from regeneratively managed land. The regenerative soil absorbs water like a sponge while the conventional soil sheds it in a muddy runoff. The science behind that demo is well established. Soil organic matter improves water-holding capacity and infiltration, though the relationship is not identical across all soil types.
Experiments testing different levels of organic carbon across sand, loam, and clay soils found that increasing organic carbon raised the field capacity and wilting point in all three textures. In clay soils, organic carbon above 3% increased hydraulic conductivity, while in loam soils the infiltration dynamics were different. The practical takeaway held across soil types: more organic matter meant more water retained in the root zone for longer.7IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. Effect of Different Soil Organic Carbon Content in Different Soils on Water Holding Capacity and Soil Health The stratification of organic carbon near the surface, which regenerative practices encourage, has been proposed as a diagnostic tool for identifying management strategies that improve infiltration and plant-available water.8Soil and Tillage Research. Water infiltration and soil structure related to organic matter and its stratification with depth
Urban and suburban gardens face the same dynamics. Research on city gardens found that water-holding capacity was the only factor that significantly predicted both the rate at which soils gained moisture after rain and the rate at which they lost it between storms. Soils with greater water-holding capacity provided a more stable moisture profile and fewer extreme swings, which is exactly what plants need during heat waves and dry spells.9PubMed Central. Soil management is key to maintaining soil moisture in urban gardens facing changing climatic conditions
Erosion protection works through similar channels. A comprehensive review of how plant roots reduce water erosion found that the decrease in erosion with increasing root mass is exponential, and that for rill and gully erosion, roots are at least as important as above-ground vegetation cover.10Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment. Impact of plant roots on the resistance of soils to erosion by water: a review Keeping living roots in the ground year-round, a core regenerative principle, directly addresses this.
The Grazing Argument
“Kiss the Ground” features rancher Allen Williams and others who practice adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) grazing, a system where livestock are moved frequently through small paddocks, mimicking the dense, mobile herds of wild grazers. The film presents this as a way to restore grasslands and sequester massive amounts of carbon. The evidence is genuinely encouraging, though the word “massive” does a lot of heavy lifting.
A study of grazing lands in the southeastern United States found that AMP-managed sites had about 13% more soil carbon and 9% more soil nitrogen than conventionally grazed sites, measured to a depth of one meter. The extra carbon was concentrated in the mineral-associated organic matter fraction, which is the form most likely to persist long-term.11PubMed. Adaptive multi-paddock grazing enhances soil carbon and nitrogen stocks and stabilization through mineral association in southeastern U.S. grazing lands Canadian research found similar results: AMP pastures sequestered roughly 0.96 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year, nearly double the rate of conventionally grazed pastures.12PubMed. Adaptive multi-paddock grazing increases soil carbon stocks and decreases the carbon footprint of beef production in Ontario, Canada
The most provocative finding concerns net greenhouse gas emissions. One study of Midwestern beef production estimated that when soil carbon sequestration was factored in, AMP-grazed finishing systems flipped from a net emissions source to a net carbon sink, going from positive emissions to negative emissions per kilogram of carcass weight. A feedlot comparison system showed no such offset.13Agricultural Systems. Impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems Other grass-finished systems would need to sequester between 1 and 2 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year to reach net-zero, depending on the grazing strategy.14Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society. Potential mitigation of midwest grass-finished beef production emissions with soil carbon sequestration in the United States of America
There is a catch the film does not emphasize: soil carbon gains from grazing, like those from cropland practices, eventually plateau. A pasture cannot keep sequestering carbon at the same rate indefinitely. The early years of transition produce the biggest gains, and then the rate tapers as the soil approaches its local capacity. Whether AMP grazing can produce enough cumulative carbon storage to permanently offset ruminant methane emissions over a herd’s lifetime remains genuinely debated.
Cover Crops and the Nitrogen Balancing Act
The documentary advocates for cover cropping, the practice of planting non-cash crops between growing seasons to protect and feed the soil. What it does not get into is how tricky it can be to choose the right cover crop, particularly when nitrogen management is involved.
A three-year field trial in Pennsylvania found that cereal rye monocultures cut nitrogen leaching by 90% compared to bare fallow plots but actually reduced nitrogen uptake in the following corn crop by 40 kilograms per hectare. Austrian winter pea monocultures, by contrast, increased corn nitrogen uptake by the same amount but were less effective at preventing leaching. The sweet spot turned out to be mixtures: a three-species blend of pea, red clover, and rye reduced leaching by 80% while maintaining corn nitrogen uptake equivalent to the fallow plots.15PLoS ONE. Managing nitrogen through cover crop species selection in the U.S. mid-Atlantic Cover crop mixtures with complementary traits can simultaneously fix nitrogen, suppress weeds, and retain nutrients, but designing those mixtures requires real agronomic knowledge.16Journal of Applied Ecology. Functional traits in cover crop mixtures: Biological nitrogen fixation and multifunctionality
No-till farming, another practice the film promotes, also comes with nuances that depend on geography. A study across practical farms in France, Romania, and Sweden found that no-till significantly increased fungal biomass in the top ten centimeters of soil in France and Sweden but not in Romania. And no-till had no consistent effect on microbial biomass carbon or nitrogen compared to plowing across all three countries.17Applied Soil Ecology. Tillage and land use management effects on soil organic matter and soil microbial biomass in a field network of practical farms in France, Romania, and Sweden – Section: 3.1. Tillage Context matters more than the film suggests.
Does Regenerative Soil Grow More Nutritious Food?
One of the documentary’s boldest claims is that degraded soils produce nutritionally depleted food, and that rebuilding soil health can reverse this. A preliminary study pairing eight regenerative farms with nearby conventional operations found meaningful differences. Regenerative farms had roughly twice the soil organic matter on average, and their crops showed higher levels of several nutrients: about 34% more vitamin K, 15% more vitamin E, 20% more total phenolics, 22% more phytosterols, and 27% more copper, among others. Results varied widely by farm pair, and some individual comparisons showed no difference or even a slight advantage for conventional crops.18PubMed Central. Soil health and nutrient density: preliminary comparison of regenerative and conventional farming
This is suggestive but far from settled. Eight farm pairs is a small sample, and confounding variables like crop variety, rainfall, and microclimate could explain part of the difference. The study’s authors called their findings “preliminary” for good reason. Larger controlled trials are needed before anyone can confidently say that regenerative soil consistently produces more nutritious food. The mechanism is plausible: healthier microbial communities may make more micronutrients available to plants. But plausibility is not proof, and the film presents the connection with more certainty than the current evidence warrants.
What Happens Below the Topsoil
Most regenerative agriculture research, and most of the documentary’s claims, focus on the top 20 or 30 centimeters of soil. That is a problem, because deep soil stores enormous amounts of carbon and may be changing in ways that topsoil measurements miss entirely.
A study tracking carbon stocks in European beech forests over nearly four decades found that while topsoil carbon increased modestly, carbon in deeper layers declined significantly. The subsoil lost carbon at roughly three times the rate the topsoil gained it, resulting in a net loss across the full soil profile. Between the mid-1980s and 2022, these soils lost an estimated 0.44 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year overall.19PubMed Central. Substantial Deep‐Soil Carbon Losses Outweigh Topsoil Gains in European Beech Forests Since the 1980s This was a forest study, not an agricultural one, but it raises an uncomfortable question: could some of the topsoil carbon gains celebrated by regenerative farming proponents be offset by deeper losses nobody is measuring?
Climate interacts with deep carbon storage in counterintuitive ways. Research on China’s Loess Plateau found that the efficiency of organic carbon sequestration in deep soils was actually enhanced in drier climates. Orchards in low-rainfall zones stored nearly twice as much additional deep carbon compared to those in wetter areas.20Geoderma. The efficiency of organic C sequestration in deep soils is enhanced by drier climates The practical implication is that carbon accounting frameworks that sample only the top 30 centimeters may be painting an incomplete picture, whether the news is good or bad.
Trees on Grazing Land
One approach that “Kiss the Ground” touches on peripherally but deserves more attention is silvopasture, the integration of trees into grazing systems. A tropical study comparing full-sun pasture with two silvopastoral configurations found that soil carbon stocks to one meter depth were 12% higher under forest plantation grazing and 29% higher in dispersed-tree silvopastoral systems compared to grass-only pastures. The tree shade also lowered soil and air temperatures and raised humidity, which reduced soil carbon dioxide emissions.21Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. Silvopastoral systems reduce soil CO2 emissions, enhance carbon stocks, and regulate the micro-environment in tropical grazing lands Trees add a layer of permanence and stability that annual cropping practices struggle to match, though they require longer planning horizons and different economic calculations.
The Economics Nobody Wants to Talk About
The documentary tends to gloss over the financial reality of transitioning to regenerative practices. Research on farm-level economics confirms that regenerative agriculture can improve long-term profitability by reducing input costs, enhancing ecosystem services, and building resilience to weather extremes. But the transition period itself involves real costs: temporary yield drops, higher labor demands, new equipment or infrastructure, and institutional barriers that existing subsidy structures often do not address.22Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. Farm-level economic trade-offs, profitability, and transition pathways of regenerative agriculture
Carbon markets have been proposed as a financial bridge, paying farmers for the carbon their soil stores. But survey research with farmers already participating in carbon offset programs found that payments largely reached producers who were already implementing beneficial practices or were strongly interested in doing so. Farmers described the payments as a bonus on top of practices they would have adopted anyway, which raises serious questions about whether these markets are actually driving new carbon storage or just subsidizing the converted.23npj Climate Action. Farmer perspectives on carbon markets incentivizing agricultural soil carbon sequestration Systematic reviews have emphasized the need for policy reforms that integrate regenerative agriculture into subsidy and incentive schemes and improve knowledge transfer to farmers about long-term benefits.24Outlook on Agriculture. Motivations behind regenerative agriculture: A systematic literature review
Measuring Carbon from Above
Verifying soil carbon changes at scale is one of the biggest practical challenges facing the regenerative agriculture movement. Traditional measurement requires collecting and analyzing physical soil samples, which is expensive and labor-intensive. Remote sensing offers a potential alternative. Researchers have found that incorporating environmental variables like climate and topography into satellite-based models significantly improves the accuracy of soil organic carbon estimation.25Scientific Reports. Environmental variables improve the accuracy of remote sensing estimation of soil organic carbon content
A European-scale study demonstrated that combining satellite imagery with machine learning and targeted ground sampling could predict soil organic carbon on mineral croplands with an average error below 10%. The researchers concluded that the approach could make small carbon differences measurable and help track the impact of management changes on soil carbon cycling.26Science of Remote Sensing. Satellite-based soil organic carbon mapping on European soils using available datasets and support sampling If these technologies mature and become affordable, they could solve one of the regenerative agriculture movement’s most persistent credibility problems: proving that changes in practice actually translate to carbon stored in the ground.
Indigenous Knowledge and the Longer View
The practices championed by “Kiss the Ground” are often presented as innovations, but many of them are older than industrial agriculture itself. Cover cropping, composting, rotational grazing, and minimal soil disturbance have deep roots in indigenous and traditional farming systems worldwide. Research comparing indigenous soil knowledge with formal scientific assessments has found that indigenous farmers’ visual and experiential evaluations of soil quality can align closely with laboratory measurements, and that integrating these knowledge systems has practical value for sustainable land management.27Applied Soil Ecology. Integration of indigenous and formal knowledge in the assessment of soil quality performance assessment using multiple factor analysis in Alborz central mountains
Policy frameworks are beginning to acknowledge this. U.S. Farm Bills and international agreements have helped encourage adoption of specific practices like no-till, though major challenges remain in scaling regenerative approaches to the level needed for meaningful climate impact.28Soil Science Society of America Journal. Aligning science and policy of regenerative agriculture The gap between what traditional communities have long understood about caring for soil and what modern policy actually incentivizes is, arguably, the most important theme running beneath the film’s surface. Closing that gap requires not just better science but structural changes in how farming is financed, rewarded, and valued.