Sowing a new future for farmers and our planet – A simple local story about the power of our British farmland to sequester carbon, increase food supply and bring people together.

1. Reap What You Know.
Sowing a new future for farmers
and our planet.
A simple local story about the power of
our British farmland to sequester carbon,
increase food supply and bring people
together.

2. 2.
Documentary 20 minute regenerative agriculture treatment by
Earth Rise Productions in association with Land Management 2.0

3. 3.
Oats with vetch cover crop, England, UK.

4. P2 Title page
P3 Oats with vetch cover crop
P4 Contents
P5 Executive summary
P6 Arable farmer
P7 Characters
P8 Story arc Pt 1
P9 Story arc Pt 2
P10 Buckinghamshire Farmland
P11 Collaboration partners
Contents
4.
P12 Why we want to explore living mulch Pt 1
P13 Why we want to explore living mulch Pt 2
P14 Yorkshire oat crop
P15 A film spanning UK spring to autumn
2022
P16 Who we are making it for and why
P17 Production schedule
P18 Oats with pea covercrop
P19 Distribution
P20 Treatment adaptation and flexibility.
P21 References

5. Executive summary.
A researcher takes an arable farmer on a regenerative agriculture journey of mutual discovery.
They come together to use their complementary knowledge to improve the productivity and
carbon content of the farm´s soil using a clover-based living mulch grown beneath a grain crop.
Increased carbon sequestration is demonstrated by a field test at the start and end of the film.
Improvements in farmer´s bottom line are gained by reduced inputs and potentially increased
productivity. Other wins wins of increased biodiversity are also touched upon.
An intimate character study in a singular geographic location drives the narrative and personal-
interest story. The film closes with a farmers´ meeting (plenty of burgers and beers) to share
good practice at a landscape level, potentially accompanied by a farm group facilitator.
The application of the technique and strong peer-reviewed science underpinning the farm-
scale intervention is also shown to have national and global relevance in confronting the
environmental and climate crisis, within the context of a globally increasing population.
The filming takes place over the 2022 growing season. The audience is farmer, farm community
and sustainably-conscious consumer focused.
This is a feel good, then spread the word and take action film, by Earth Rise Productions.
5.

6. 6.
We will be looking for a farmer with a strong, enduring and
historical relationship with the land to drive the narrative.

7. 7.
This is an intimate story depicting the developing relationship between two contrasting people
in an arable landscape.
The film follows an earnest field lab researcher as he attempts to introduce a traditionally
minded but affable arable farmer to the win win benefits of living mulch.
We hear the expectations of the field lab researcher as he talks aloud in a stream of
consciousness about the potential scientific merit of living mulch as he drives to meet the
farmer.
We hear the expectations of the farmer as he waits to receive a potentially ¨know it all¨ scientist
at his farm that he has successfully managed without their intervention for years.
The field researcher is strong on the numbers and science but softens over time to seeing how
intervention needs to be fitted to the needs and knowledge of the local people who will be
implementing it.
The farmer has a deep, enduring and spiritual relationship with his land, accompanied by a dry
sense of humour. He doesn´t suffer fools gladly and has a healthy suspicion for farming fads that
don´t leave a lasting impact.
Characters.

8. Story arc (Pt1).
The documentary film follows the developing relationship of two people as they develop
mutual trust and understanding as they work to develop a site-specific and farm-scale
appropriate regenerative agriculture intervention, with clear signalling to the audience
about how this could be adapted and applied to other farms, landscapes and climates.
Filmed over half a dozen site visits, we see both the seasons and their relationship develop.
We shoot first on the field, then in the farm kitchen, in the local pub, at a family meal, a
country show and finally a farmers´ sharing best practice meeting; exploring how humans
can come together to sow best practice and reap the very best for their family and their
planet by employing regenerative agriculture techniques.
8.

9. Story arc (Pt2).
The film begins and concludes with a test of carbon content of the soil using a field test kit
(as filmmakers we are looking for an improvement from the start to the finish, whilst also
being emphatic that real change happens over a decade or more).
At the end of the season we also see the numbers being crunched on how reduced
expenditure on inputs combined with potentially higher crop yields has improved his
bottom line at the field test site, accompanied potentially by another farmer who is
a season or so ahead in the use of living mulch and who is in an informed position to
articulate the cost savings involved .
We then close in the last two minutes by panning out to take a wider shot of carbon
sequestration being vital to fight global climate crisis . We also show how agroecological
techniques such as living mulch and oats can help productivity in countries already
experiencing food insecurity and how it can bring additional win-wins of increased
biodiversity to create vibrant, dynamic, resilient and connected farming communities.
We then see a clip of him explaining his sucess at a rowdy good-humoured farmers’ meeting with beer
and burgers in generous supply.
9.

10. 10.
A story about a local intervention with scalable
national and global potential impact.

11. Earth Rise Production´s collaboration partners
that have helped inform the elaboration of this
document.
Land Management 2.0
Soil Association
Innovative Farmers
European Carbon farmers
Sustainable Markets Initiative
Organic Research Centre
Paul Lister, Alladale Estate
Joe Davies, Independent farm advisor
Chrissy Wells, South Brockwells Farm
Tompkins Conservation, Patagonia
CR(2)
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Geographical Magazine
DeSmog
Guardian Environment
King´s College London
Edinburgh University
EIT Foods
Tees not Trees
11.

12. Why we want to explore living mulch and
grain production (Pt1)?
There are hundreds of regen. ag. Interventions being fantastically employed around the UK.
There have been successful documentaries that have touched lightly on a range of practices
livestock rotation to agroforestry with a mass audience appeal. But if you are a working
farmer, and a sceptical late adopter of regenerative agriculture practices, what you need
now is a boots-on-the-ground, relationship-based and science-backed thoughtful case
study to make you believe that a similar intervention could work on your farm, within your
local reality and yield the same win-win benefits.
This 20minute film seeks to explore one technique in full colour depth and detail to give an
accurate and honest portrayal of its benefit and challenges, captured over an entire growing
season.
12.

13. Why we want to explore living mulch and
grain production (Pt2)?
We think an Innovative Farmer style field study using a clover-based living mulch to
support carbon sequestration whilst simultaneously promoting growth of an grain crop
(most likely oats) is a strong, scientifically grounded story to tell in the 2022 growing
season.
Living mulch is the growth of a cover crop that has a symbiotic relationship with a cash crop
growing through it, and photosynthesising above it, like oats grown in a bed of clover.
Cover crops, such as clover, grown alongside a cash crop, such as oats, have been found in
peer reviewed studies to provide multiple ecosystem services that affect i) nutrient cycling
ii) soil organic carbon storage iii) soil structure iv) water infiltration v) erosion vi) soil
biodiversity vii) and even potentially help close the yield gap (De Baets et al., 2011; Sorensen
and Thorup-Kristensen, 2011; Blanco-Canqui et al., 2015; Poeplau and Don, 2015; Hasen et
al., 2021)
13.

14. 14.
Oat crop, Yorkshire, England, UK.

15. A film spanning UK spring to autumn 2022.
This is a farm scale film told over the changing seasons of a UK location (to be defined).
Farmers are dependent on the changing weather of changing seasons and live in harmony
with these cycles. An honest film where farmers can see their lives reflected accurately
needs to take this into account, and be filmed over multiple visits.
Relationships develop in the same way: over time.
We are generously allowing space for knowledge, trust and relationships to grow in our
film.
15.

16. Who we are making it for and why?
The people who can move the needle now in regenerative agriculture are the people who
get their boots dirty.
Our audience is the farmer, the farm community and, beyond that, the sustainably-
conscious consumer.
Farmers can quickly tell if a film has been made about them, rather than for them.
This 20minute documentary tells a tight, focused, unscripted story about two people in a
landscape. Whilst the living mulch intervention will need to be adapted (different cover
crop and different cash crop potentially) for different UK landscapes, we will be extending
a non-prescriptivist invitation in this film for farmers to imagine and then begin their own
journey into regenerative agricultural practices in a way that is compatible with their local
reality.
We are taking the accessible regenerative agriculture message of this film beyond the echo
chamber or early adopters it can sometimes get trapped in, to the much bigger cohort of
farmers who collectively are poised to enact massive change.
16.

17. Production schedule.
Pre-Production
Pitching and commissioning window,
August – November 2021
Production
Filming and continual dialogue with commissioners / executive producers
January – August 2022
Post-Production
Editing
April – December 2022
17.

18. Oats with pea cover crop, England, UK. 18.

19. Distribution.
To be confirmed with commissioning partners and executive producers.
19.

20. Treatment adaptation and flexibility.
We believe strongly in the concept and story arc outlined in this treatment.
Nevertheless, there is significant scope for revision, adaptation and different
emphasis given to the various story threads.
These decisions can be made in meetings with funding partners. The inclusion of
their respective priorities will be an important formative part of the production.
20.

21. References.
Blanco-Canqui, H., Shaver, T.M., Lindquist, J.L., Shapiro, C.A., Elmore, R.W.,
Francis, C. A., Hergert, G.W., 2015. Cover crops and ecosystem services: insights
from studies in temperate soils. Agron. J. 107, 2449–2474. https://doi.org/10.2134/
agronj15.0086.
De Baets et al., 2011; Sorensen and Thorup-Kristensen, 2011; Blanco-Canqui et al.,
2015; Poeplau and Don, 2015; Hasen et al., 2021
Hansen, V., Eriksen, J., Jensen, L., Thorup-Kristensen, K. and Magid, J., 2021.
Towards integrated cover crop management: N, P and S release from aboveground
and belowground residues. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 313, p.107392.
Poeplau, C., Don, A., 2015. Carbon sequestration in agricultural soils via cultivation
of cover crops - a meta-analysis. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 200, 33–41. https://doi.
org/ 10.1016/j.agee.2014.10.024.
21.

22. An Earth Rise Productions treatment in association with Land Management 2.0.
©Earth Rise Productions 2021. All rights reserved.
Connect with us:
www.Earthriseproductions.com
www.Landmanagement20.com