Poisoned Earth is a documentary about soil degradation and its effects on our life. The creation of the film was supported by the Hungarian Media Patronage Programme of the Media Council.
Man has been farming for 11,000 years and has been plowing for about two and a half thousand years. By 1950, the world’s arable land had become unsuitable for cultivation due to the increasingly intensive agricultural technology. By 2010, we had ruined another 30 percent.
World agriculture needs to feed increasing numbers of people under increasingly poor conditions. The strongest argument of intensive technology is that so many people cannot be fed otherwise. Due to soil rotation, increasing use of fertilizers and chemicals, the crop layer is thinning and the area of arable land is shrinking.
How much food can still be produced in the area available? What is the relationship between the number of gilts and the amount of food that can be produced? Are there any alternatives to intensive agricultural technologies?
Poisoned Earth is an educational film, but the examples and events presented are depicted in a documentaristic way. This makes the movie as dramatic as the answers to the above questions.
The film was written, photographed and directed by Gábor Mihály Kővári and even though it is in Hungarian there are available English subtitles to it.
