Soil is Life: Inspiration from a beautiful Italian Regenerative Farm in transition

Soil sustains all life on our planet. And yet, for decades, industrial farming practices have degraded and depleted the soil we depend on. It’s time for a change - and farmers like Matteo Mazzola and Paola Archetti are leading the way.
In this film, we take a tour of their farm on the stunning hillside above Lago d’Iseo, Italy, as Matteo explains how he’s promoting a healthy ecosystem from the soil up. Using low-cost, sustainable innovations alongside traditional farming techniques, Matteo and Paola are replenishing the land for generations to come - and proving that modern farming really needn’t cost the earth.
To find out more, and learn how you can be part of the Regenerative Agriculture Revolution:
www.eitfood.eu/projects/the-r....
This video is produced by EIT Food, the world’s largest and most dynamic food innovation community. Supported by the EU’s European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), we invest in projects, organisations and individuals that share our goals for a healthy and sustainable food system - with a focus on education, entrepreneurship, engagement and innovation.
Thanks to
Matteo Mazzola, Paola Archetti and family
Jessica Pastore
Tommaso Gizzi
Created by Storytravelers
Caspar Daniël Diederik | film and edit

[@fritzfamiliavideos]

Hello, we are recovering an area degraded by monoculture here in southern Brazil, first we no longer allow monoculture cultivation, so we let the area rest for 5 years and now we are going to start making organic crops in agroforestry style. this action is taking place for me and my wife. We thank those who cheer for us. gratitude.

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Great thank you for your comment, do you have any footage or videos about what you're doing there?

[@aina2165]

Well done, keep up the great work!

[@fritzfamiliavideos]

@@aina2165 yes, we are dedicating ourselves more every day, for the collective good. I left my profession to dedicate myself to the place and to be able to make a positive impact on the locality, which is gratifying.

[@dtf.eternal5857]

Man, Italy is to beautiful, the scenery, the land, the people, the food. I can see myself growing old and dying there.

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Yes it's mesmerising, and even better like this!

[@clement6574]

They are doing an holistic management. The part where he speaks about animal grazing and moving them as soon as possible not to steap everywhere and compact and degrade soil is what Allan Savory has been advocating for a long time. Buon lavoro!

[@jeanneamato8278]

SAVE SOIL!

[@tjeerdvangennep2597]

The solutions seem so simple, the problem so stubborn. Traditional farming is still ruining our ecosystems, adapt and flourish... Keep up the good work, you guys are such an inspiration. Keep spreading your knowledge, thank you Grazie mille!

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Dank je wel, unbelieveble these practices are still so far from mainstream. Lots of work to be done

[@azmrl]

Industrial or modern farming is ruining the planet, not traditional farming.

[@vivalaleta]

The video is art.

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you great to hear!

[@blueocean2510]

Thank you, good wishes, enjoy our beautiful ocean planet.

[@kishkindhaa]

Shoutout to Sadhguru on the #SaveSoil campaign! Big respect! 🙏‍🙏‍

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you for watchung and supporting the cause!

[@barrybr1]

That is such a stunning farm both in physical beauty and in method. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this video.

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Yes it is a gem, very inspiring

[@savesoil3133]

Thank you for this! Very relevant🙏 #SaveSoil #ConsciousPlanet🙏💚 #Mentsükatalajt #Tudatosbolygó 🌷🌻🌼🌺🌸💌

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you so much!

[@wildlifegardenssydney7492]

Such an awesome message. Full of hope and wisdom. Fabulous cinematography 🙌👀

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you so much, that keeps us going!

[@annanelson6830]

Inspiring!

[@savesoil3133]

Amazing video!

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you, great to hear.. keep on the good work!

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you som much for watching :)

[@JanWagner77]

Many more have to see these kind of films about the regen movement. I liked it a lot!

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Great thank you for the appreciation Jan!

[@Carpe_the_F_Diem]

Such an awesome video guys! This is the way i like to live my life

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

wonderful, for me too it was confronting comparing this life with my own spending so much time behind a screen

[@vivalaleta]

Regenerative agriculture is the gospel - spread manure and the good news.

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

absolutely! Thanks for watching and commenting

[@fortissimoX]

Thank you very much for making this video and spreading this important message! You are doing great job, I wish you all the best!

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you so much that keeps us going!

[@davem4423]

Fantastic film, education is the iife blood of the future , film such as these are a great way of telling us what has to be done without the need to chastise us all . Im subscribing to your channel to be more informed about how to change my habits & mindset & pass this on to others too. Lets try to go beyond what makes money quickly & see the bigger picture. thank you & a big hello from great britain

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you for your appreciation, glad to see you back!

[@davideborgna4918]

Bravissimi 👍👍👍👋

[@johnnygodfuel]

Beautiful video my friends, thank you for creating and sharing!

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you for watching and appreciating!

[@brendtbarbur2318]

bravo! uplifting

[@kenhunt5153]

Thank you.

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you for watching!

[@tmaryon]

Really nicely made film! And great content

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thanks Tim that's much appreciated!

[@leannekudahl2432]

Bravi...Complementi !

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Grazie mille!

[@differentgenx]

I live in England. Outsiders think England is so green, but its all show. The land is totally degraded. Farmers create mono-cultures such as rapeseed. Lots of herbicides and pesticides used everywhere. Lots of birds are in decline or virtually non-existent even common birds such as Sparrows there numbers are down 70%. Our politicians are only interested in protectiong big business and oil companies.

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

I feel you, most of the European continent is heavily degraded. Bio diversity is on a rapid decline. But it doesn't need to be like this

[@flycorvus]

Politicians are livestock of the food/pharma/insurance/finance industry. All over the world.

[@shivakoliar4846]

How To Live In Harmony With Nature And Reduce Pollution 1. Many Production Which We Do Not Need Actually For Human Beings Has To Be Stopped We manufacture so many products and it is creating pollution. So if we minimise our products, pollution would be less. We produce so many things which we do not need, like cold drinks, leather products, potato wafers, chips, fruit juices, chocolates, biscuits, pickles, ice creams, etc. Cold drinks, fruit juices, pickles, ice creams, etc. Should be cooked at home only. If we stopped producing this things which are not required for humans, so much pollution could be reduced. If we colour the clothes pollution occurs. So if we don't colour our clothes, the pollution resulting from colouring the clothes can be stopped. Let everything remain in natural colour. 2. We Should Cook Foods In Its Natural Form We can cook rice and wheat in our homes and eat it. Rice and Wheat is produced in farms. Then it is packed and transported to big warehouses, then wholesalers buy from them and supply to retail shops. But if a manufacturing company makes bread from rice and wheat, then to make bread a manufacturing company has to be set up, machines and working staffs are needed. When a company is built many other things are also needed. Then at last a plastic pack is required to pack the breads. So if we start cooking eatable things in its natural form then we do not need many companies like bread manufacturing company, tomato ketchup, noodles, fruit jam, pizza, burger, etc., the things required for the company and the plastic pack, paper box pack and glass bottles. If done like this, so many companies will not be required and hence less pollution for the world. Also we could save our money like this. If you buy a packet of bread, it would cost you more money than if you cook wheat and rice in home. Previously before industrial revolution, we didn't have technology, but our foods were rich with nutrients. Now we have technology, but technology is polluting our foods and our foods are not rich with nutrients, and because of that also we have health problems. If this is done, then many jobs would be lost. For that many peoples should do farming and they should be given loans if they do not have enough money to start farming on their own. Food, Medicines, Surgeries and Education's should be made free to the world till the world settles down with farming. After that food, medicines, surgeries and education's should be stopped free to the world. Many people should study botany subject so that they have knowledge of plants and they should do farming. Is their any another solution, that humans won't lose jobs and also pollution would decrease. Humans have to take this step certainly instead of going on polluting the earth, making wildlife extinct and also mass extinctions of humans in future. 3. Electricity Pollution We create electricity from many types of sources like coal, water, etc., but it creates pollution. If electricity created from windmill and solar energy then no pollution occurs in the creation process. But still to manufacture windmill and solar machines pollution would occur. As I previously said that if we shut down many manufacturing companies which are producing things which are not needed for humans, then the world would not require so much electricity. If less electricity required, then less pollution generated. 4. Could We Stop Drinking Cow's and Buffalo's Milk Whatever vitamins and nutrients we get from milk, if we can get it from other eatable things, then we can stop drinking cow's and buffalo's milk. As milk has to be packed in glass bottles and plastic packs and then transported to places. All of this can be stopped. For infants whose mother's have died or mother's who cannot breast feed their infants, only for them cow's and buffalo's milk should be given. We use milk in tea and coffee. Instead of milk we must use lime with tea and coffee or just plain tea and coffee. A lime should be cut into a few pieces and cooked with tea and coffee or something else can be used instead of lime. 5. How Much Should Be The World's Population Every place should have a single house. No buildings, everything ground floor. If we do this and the whole lands of our planet earth would be occupied one day with homes, farms, forests, schools, hospitals, etc., then we would come to know how much our planet earth can have maximum population. Once the population is determined, then we have to maintain that population. For example if our earth can have a population of 10 billion peoples, then when the population reaches 10 billion, then everyone should have only one child till the population reaches 9 billion peoples. As if we have only one child then the population decreases. When population is 9 billion peoples, then everyone should have 2 children's till the population reaches 10 billion peoples. After that again we should have only one child. In this way population can be maintained.

[@franzwaltenspuhl8892]

I love the principles & use them somewhat. However I live in fire prone Northern California & leaving dried grasses & leaf material only adds to the fuel. I’m forced to rake the topmost driest debris & put in green waste. I compost as much as possible but it’s not enough. I wish for a solution for my community. Many burn regularly😞

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

I understand, in a way that is the result of an already broken ecological system. The thing is eventually the more organic matter there is the less dry it will become, because it will hold water like a sponge. In this video they stopped desertification in a very dry area in Spain by restoring a lush habitat. Also the more lush an environment becomes the wetter/ more moist the local climate becomes. An other interesting practice is creating fire gaps like the aborigini kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJ2keJZpqdSHpsk

[@azmrl]

Controlled burns to reduce forest fire are different than burning agriculture offcuts from orchard prunings. There is a lot of research going on - research "log vaults" (employable small scale) and hugleculture for orchard cuttings, instead of burning. Be an example for your neighbors and offer to take on their waste (I do this for neighbors cutting their grass and with their autumn leaves).

[@blueocean2510]

In Niger, they planted apple trees, the roots went deep and brought water to the surface. A person from Israel was in charge, he used sea water in Israel to grow crops. It is interesting that a similar size of area in the sea, as the land more food can be produced. All plants on the look and evolved from the Ocean. On the shore sea kale grows, the original cabbage. The seeds drop and new sea kale grows, it is fertilized by the rich nutrients in the sea, and other sea vegetables. A real hydroponics system. Enjoy our beautiful ocean planet, it could be possible for everyone to spend time on the Ocean to sail and visit other countries. Thank you.

[@MotoM0nk]

Amazing people, we need more like them. #sadhguru spoke a lot about #savesoil and rode from London to Coimbatore, India, touching over 3bln people through meetings and social media

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

yes I learned about the project, very inspiring!

[@AllGrowing]

Wonderful work! It would be nice to visit them.

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Thank you so much, yes! pay them a visit :)

[@azmrl]

Even nicer would be to start your own regen farm!

[@AllGrowing]

@@azmrl I have, and still learning how.

[@olomad6722]

I was so close to you 1 week ago....

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

You have to go some time :)

[@olomad6722]

@@STORYTRAVELERS I like beech trees and larch ;) The alps are my destination for sure. I am experimenting with microbiomes and endophytes. Now we know for sure that everything around us grows good or bad bacteria for us.

[@olomad6722]

​@@STORYTRAVELERS Around me, I am trying to recover the oak trees from seeds, and everything that produces a lot of biomass.

[@greyangel735]

The war of lost and crazieness let it begin now so take your justice and make your deal😮😮😮😮😮😮🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😅😅😅😅😊😊😊😊🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

ineteresting comment, would you explain a bit more?

[@zeitgeist5134]

Vegans don't understand that farms must be complete ecosystems, ecosystems that include livestock. The manure is a critically important contribution to the health of the soil.

[@debbiehenri345]

I don't know about that. I manage just fine without any animals whatsoever - and I have managed to recover an overgrazed plot of 2 acres, which was severely damaged by centuries of sheep and cattle farming. When I first moved here 20 years ago, a third of the land was bare rock interspersed with grass tufts and weeds like thistles and a few buttercups. It was terrible to look at and impossible to plant in. I lost a lot of even very small shrubs because heavy rain would just wash everything off. Without animals, I not only managed to put a layer of grass over all the exposed rock, but put a 2-3 inch thick layer of soil under that grass. Not an animal helped - other than the natural droppings and corpses left by the occasional wild animal and birds. It's a case of using more than one type of soil builder to add a range of fertilisers - urea, leaves, pulverised bark, encouraging fungi, the broken down matter left by brash heaps/brash hedges/compost heaps, kitchen waste, paper waste, moss harvested from stone walls - and research as many different types of plant matter that can grow in your area, won't become stupidly invasive, have long and penetrating roots, and will bring up a variety of different elements. I don't just use Comfrey - as seen in this video. I use other deep rooted perennial weeds as well - Dandelion, Dock, Common Hemlock to name but 3. Bracken will absorb as many as 50 elements from the ground. It is an amazing store of ingredients. I nurture this in one corner of my plot and in the woods, and it makes a brilliant soil conditioner. Highly underrated plant, probably because people are scared silly it will get out of hand (it won't if you keep harvesting it, and I have learned to love this plant). The other 2 plants mentioned in this video I don't use at all. I have added a new type of Bamboo recently, as it boasts of being hardy and one of the best carbon collectors going. So that's going to be on trial this year. People don't talk often enough about Spring bulbs either. Snowdrops, I have found, are one of the best for enriching soil in my garden, turns it near black it's so rich and it holds water really well. So these humble little bulbs, which don't get in the way in a permaculture garden, make excellent little soil builders, quietly doing their job around trees and bushes and permanent vegetables. You might be wondering about the fact I mentioned harvesting moss from rocks. Because it rains a lot in my locality, it encourages moss and lichens to grow over everything (the house and car if it had half the chance). But I noticed a long time ago that when moss and lichen grew on the rocks, on pulling it away, there would be grains of the rock that came away with it, the plants and minute fungi actively breaking it down. Since that time, a lot of gardeners have spoken of the merits of adding finely ground rock to add fertility to soil. Considering that it takes Nature 1000 years to build one inch of soil, even with wild animals wandering around in plenty - as they do in places where humans don't bother them - I think I have done well enough doing 2-3 times better in only 20 years, without herds of greedy, destructive sheep and cattle to 'help.'

[@zeitgeist5134]

@@debbiehenri345 Over-grazing by the livestock industry has most certainly done terrible harm (not to mention the cruel obscenity of feed lots). I bought my 40 acres in 2000. In the past it was over-grazed cattle pasture. I have watched it slowly recover simply as a natural process. I also keep two horses (limiting their impact on the land to five acres). After cleaning the stalls/paddocks, I dump the manure to create a layer at least six inches deep, and this layer provides an ideal habitat for earthworms; the worms not only feed on the manure, they also thrive under the insulation from the cold of winter provided by the layer. I have found that the happy worms have turned clay to healthy soil, as deep as 12-18 inches deep, all thanks to the manure. And this is a region that gets only 13 inches of precipitation per year (the layer of manure also keeping the soil moist in dry months). More to the point, it appears that you and I disagree about the role played by animals in a healthy ecosystem. The planet's ecosystems did not evolve without animals. Animals have a vital role to play to maintain a balanced ecosystem. Indeed, soil organisms evolved in an ecosystem that included animals. That's a simple fact. If you eliminate the animals, you are creating an imbalance. Note well that the traditional practice of crop rotation was not imbalanced; it rotated from beans to grain to grazing.

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

yes animals have been always been part of the natural ecosystem pertaning to soil health. It's important that they can behave and move naturally

[@zeitgeist5134]

​@@STORYTRAVELERS If livestock live happy lives, they are blessed. I disagree with vegans who have a horror of the slaughtering of livestock. Death is not a problem. SUFFERING is a problem. When I see sheep or cattle grazing in wisely managed pastures, I rejoice in their happy condition. If they are then slaughtered humanely, I see no moral problem with raising livestock for meat (though factory farms, feed lots and deforestation most definitely should be banned). I enjoyed watching the farmers in this video and approved of their choice to create a complete ecosystem that incorporated livestock. Manure is brown gold.

[@WoodenTiger2023]

but these animals do not produce gases? are we sure they sequester? sheep and goats take grass from roots when grazing. Please clarify... ?

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

The animals tramples the grass and graze.. that process makes the soil absorb carbon.

[@jackbarton1867]

How do I get involved 🤩

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Do you want to be in contect with the farm or with The EIt food project?

[@Jbart90]

@STORYTRAVELERS I want to do what these guys are doing☺️

[@azmrl]

Just do it. A lot of farming is just trying things according to the needs of the land. Buy land. Lease land. Buy land with friends. Look into government and non-government support. Research miyawaki, log vaults, Agroforestry and other concepts to plant trees, build soil, capture rain water and carbon. Just step up to the plate and do it. The change won't come from the government, but from people willing to take risks, fail, experiment, make improvements, etc.

[@RussellBentleyoz]

still forced vegetation. Better to have pasture and raise animals. Eat the animals. Well done though, look how healthy thats soil is. I bet you could store some water there.

[@STORYTRAVELERS]

Yes but not separate them.. That's the error we commited.. sperating livestck from crops

[@gearoidolenain7261]

Why not take the leap to non animal agriculture. Imagine the benefits for biodiversity? While we luxuriate in our subsidised consumption of animal produce in the west, our Amazon/lungs are being decimated

[@samueldougoud3289]

As show in the video, animals are not necessarily detrimental to biodiversity. On the contrary, provided that they are managed in the right way, they can even help make things better.

[@vinnydrumx]

Terroni too? 😂😂😂😂

[@edaindaimhin6009]

You lost me at climate change

[@azmrl]

Exactly zero people care about your delusional thinking, at this point.

[@lisahoche4017]

Edain, I urge you to not "throw out the baby with the bath water". There is so much truth to be told, and information here to inspire us to be better stewards of creation. Grace and peace to you.

[@vinnydrumx]

@sacredcow