Film 'Onder het Maaiveld' revisited - English version

To mark the International Day of Biodiversity, the film Onder het Maaiveld / Planet Soil will be back in the Wageningen cinema. With NIOO soil ecologists for a Q&A afterwards, and now with English subtitles!

Besides the familiar world above ground, populated by plants, insects and birds and especially by people, there is a second lesser known world: an underground community of roots, larvae, worms, arthropods, fungi, amoebae and bacteria. Astonishingly, there are more living creatures in one teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people living on Earth. And all these organisms, working together in their billions, literally provide the basis of support for all the life around us.

In the face of the interlinked crises of climate breakdown and the loss of biodiversity, we are now at a turning point in our relationship with this living unseen world. Agriculture and industry are going to have to change, and consumers will need to find ways to live more sensibly. But how are we to achieve this? How do we learn to use our soil more wisely?

The film Planet Soil shows a way forward on both an individual and a collective level by focusing on the fascinating world below our feet, and highlighting the role these immense underground communities can play in tackling some of the most intractable problems of our time.

On the Day of Biodiversity, NIOO soil ecologist and earthworm specialist Justine Lejoly will take questions (in English) on the life below our feet.