THE STORY OF SOIL

SOIL is a six-part documentary podcast told by the scientists, farmers and communities who are turning dirt back into soil.

I'm Freya Mulvey. I'm an environmental lawyer and co-author of the book Ground Breaking: Soil Security & Climate Change.  Knowing what I know about the magic of soils I have so much hope for the future, and I want to share that with you.

There are more living organisms in a handful of healthy soil than there are people on earth and the billions of bacteria do for plants what the microbes in our stomachs do for us: sustain life. 

However, centuries of land mismanagement have degraded the Earth’s soil, damaging a vital planetary mechanism for retaining water and mitigating heat - accelerating damage to the environment. Soil is the foundation of life on Earth and our relationship with our land now will determine our future existence.

The good news? Healthy soil can be rebuilt in a matter of years and we have all the tools we need. But we need to act now. 

We are climate HOPEFUL and we want you all to be too

This is a timely and hopeful climate story that will empower communities, farmers and scientists. We need people to know about it, and we need your help!

SOIL will be a free, accessible and entertaining series. We've already recorded powerful interviews with soil scientists, fungal ecologists, regenerative farmers, journalists and soil advocates across the world. Your support will go directly towards producing the podcast and ensuring it has maximum impact. 

Read on for more details!

What's the objective and what impact do you hope to have?

SOIL will be a free, entertaining and educational podcast made for everyday people and available worldwide to increase knowledge the importance of soils.

Soil is the foundation of life. Soil security underpins many of our global existential challenges. It is central to food, feed, fibre and fuel production, as well as, biodiversity protection, carbon sequestration, and climate regulation. Measures to strengthen soil health build resilience to future stress brought on by climate change.

The state of our land and, particularly the biology of our soils, changes how heat is absorbed, processed and emitted, and consequently how heat effects atmospheric processes. And the capacity of soils to retain water helps both to prevent and respond to disaster risks as healthy soils have an inherent capacity to absorb, store and filter water. 

We hope this podcast will be a foundation from which we can advocate for greater impact, including policy and law reform concerning soils. 

In 2024 Freya travelled to India, China, the US and UK on a Churchill Fellowship, to bring lessons in best practice soil security from experts across the world back to Australia. Freya took this photo at Urban Farms Co outside of Delhi whilst in India.

What will the $15K be used for?

We've costed each episode at about $10K, so we need $60K to produce the entire series. Freya's fronted the money to kick things off, but we need more to keep things going. The $15K raised through this campaign will be for producing episodes 2 and 3. To produce the remainder of the series we are approaching values-aligned sponsors and applying for grants. 

Under 'budget overview' below we've detailed the various costs. Essentially: it takes a lot and is a lot of work! And that's with our talent having generously volunteered their time. 

What if we raise more than $15K?

Yes, YES! Let's all manifest a HUGE windfall!

Any additional money raised by this community between $15-60K will go directly toward production of the remaining episodes of SOIL and reduce sponsorship. 

Funds beyond $60K will used for ongoing advocacy and future episodes of SOIL. 

YOUR ROLE - PLANETEERS!

This is a community-made project for the community. We need and want your help - every single one of you - we all have a role to play in saving our communities, ecosystems and planet. Lets do it together, and begin from the ground up :)

What can I do to help?

• Support this campaign!
• Attend one of our fundraising events - we're doing things like hosting dirty trivia (can you tell we love a pun), showing important films such as Common Ground, Roots So Deep, and Fungi Web of Life around Australia
• Learn about soil and regenerative agriculture, shop regen products *we'll be talking about this in Episode 6*
• Write to your member (Local, State and Federal Government), and accountable Ministers - asking about soil restoration projects in your area

What do I get for supporting?

Well foremost you get to feel good - yep, you can be smug - you're doing something great to save the planet!

... And, depending on how much you donate you might get a postcard, poster, signed book, an invitation to our launch event, your name in the credits...

THE PODCAST

Why a docu-series podcast?

It may surprise you to learn that there isn’t really any audio content out there like this – we’ll take you back to basics and from the ground up explore why soil is so important and what we should be doing to restore and protect it. 

People knowing about the magic of soils and acting to restore and protect our soils is critical to mitigating climate change.

Jess Hamilton is our podcast producer. Jess has produced award-winning audio documentary series for CSIRO, Audible, Greenpeace, Sydney Opera House and ABC Radio National. She also holds a Masters in Marine Science with research into acoustic ecology. 

When can we listen to SOIL?

Our goal is to deliver the podcast to you from mid-2025, along with all the hope for our future it brings. But this depends on this campaign being successful! 

In the meantime, you can listen to a trailer and subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

What will be covered in SOIL?

We're going to start with the basics, and from the ground up bring you a comprehensive understanding of how connected soil is to many of our global existential challenges, and what we might do to tackle the soil degradation problem. 

We've mapped the episodes and it'll go something like this:

1. What is soil and why it is so important;
2. Industrial and regenerative agriculture;
3. Climate and regeneration;
4. Food security;
5. Public health; and
6. Impact and solutions.

Check out thesoilpodcast.com for more info.

What have you done so far?

We've been very busy, we've nearly finished Episode 1. And we've interviewed lots of great talent, connected with many more and have mapped the entire series. We've also connected with the various peak bodies and people in the industry to consult on our work and seek support for the series. And of course, we've planned fabulous soil events to fundraise for this campaign. 

John Cherry, regen farmer & Co-Founder of Groundswell Festival (UK) features in the podcast

... That's just for SOIL the podcast. Freya also continues her soil policy and law reform advocacy work in the background.

CROWDFUNDING

Why are we crowdfunding?

We need your help to have the biggest impact.  This is a timely, important story. Most of all, it’s an incredibly hopeful one.

And we want it to be free for everyone :D

We're parterning with soil scientists and regenerative organisations across the country and have already recorded interviews in Australia, the UK and USA. To complete production of the series we'll be crowdfunding so that the community who will listen to and use this podcast are part of the journey of making it. If necessary and where appropriate, we'll also be approaching values-aligned sponsors.

We want to create this project with and be supported by the community it is made for, and we're inviting you to be with us every step of the way.

How does the funding campaign work?

With Pozible we’re using an all or nothing fundraising approach - we're confident that the community cares, and continues to want to advance climate action. If we don't reach our target then you don’t get charged.

When does the funding campaign start?

Our crowdfunding campaign will be live from Valentines Day (February 14th 2025) and end at midnight on February 16th (AEST).  

THE BACKSTORY

At the turn of the 20th century, a 3,000km fence was built across the Australian continent to prevent the spread of invasive rabbits into cropland in Western Australia. Decades later, scientists and farmers begun to notice an unusual phenomenon. The weather was completely different on either side of the fence.

The ‘Bunny Fence Experiment’ was the world’s largest study of two contrasting land uses in the same vast region, showing strong evidence that clearing and cropping was the reason why rainfall over the Western Australian Wheat Belt had dropped 20%.

It is this story that begins the book that Senior Lawyer and Environmentalist Freya Mulvey co-wrote with soil scientist Phil Mulvey: Ground Breaking: Soil Security and Climate Change which was released in 2021. It tells of how, by degrading soils, modern agriculture has contributed to heat waves, dust and fire across the planet. It also shares the solutions: managing land use, sequestering carbon in soil, and reducing bare ground.

In 2023, Freya was rewarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel to the US, UK, India and China to learn about soil policy and laws around the world. On her return she partnered with award-winning producer Jess Hamilton to bring this important story to broader audiences through entertaining storytelling in SOIL - the podcast.

It costs approximately AU$10K to produce and promote each episode to the highest quality and for maximum impact. 

We are approaching values aligned sponsors and will be applying for grant funding to assist with our impact campaign. 

Our costs include (breakdown in graphic below): 

• Recording fees, including travel to remote farms, recording equipment, overseas studio and recordist fees for international talent and studio fees for recording host narration
• Script writing and audio editing x 6 episodes
• Fact checking 
• Music licensing fees including theme music, composition and licnesing library music
• Licensing archival audio material 
• Sound design and mix
• Podcast artwork and visual assets related to the podcast, website and promotional material
• Squarespace website costs

And here's a breakdown of our total income. Producer Jess and Host Freya are contributing a portion of their time for free, and all our fabulous talent have generously given their time at no cost.