A regenerative agriculture documentary film, “Groundswell,” completes the trilogy that began with “Kiss the Ground” and launches the One Billion Acres campaign.
A farmer kneels in healthy soil teeming with earthworms. Across the world, others watch rain soak into the ground that used to shed water like concrete. These moments, quiet, personal, revolutionary, form the emotional core of “Groundswell,” the latest regenerative agriculture documentary film from filmmakers Josh Tickell and Rebecca Tickell, now streaming globally on Amazon Prime Video.
“Groundswell” completes a trilogy that began with “Kiss the Ground” in 2020 and continued with “Common Ground” in 2023, created by Big Picture Ranch. Where “Kiss the Ground” introduced regenerative agriculture to mainstream audiences and “Common Ground” explored its policy implications, “Groundswell” takes viewers across five continents, documenting a movement that has grown from a niche concept to a global agricultural transformation.
Narrated by Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson, the regenerative agriculture documentary film captures farmers, ranchers, scientists, and Indigenous leaders practicing regenerative principles across dramatically different landscapes and cultures. The film demonstrates that regenerative agriculture isn’t a single technique but a philosophy adaptable to any climate, crop, and scale when guided by six core principles.
Those principles, such as minimizing soil disturbance, keeping soil covered, maintaining living roots year-round, maximizing crop diversity, integrating livestock, and respecting context, appear throughout the film not as abstract concepts but as practical decisions made by real people transforming real land. A rancher in the American Midwest describes how cover crops eliminated erosion. An Indigenous community in South America shares traditional practices that modern science now validates as regenerative.
The regenerative agriculture documentary film connects individual farming decisions to planetary consequences through compelling visual storytelling. Aerial footage reveals the contrast between conventional monoculture fields and regenerative operations where diversity dominates. Underground cameras show root systems building soil structure. Time-lapse sequences capture degraded land recovering season by season.
The trilogy’s measurable impact on public awareness strengthens the film’s significance. When “Kiss the Ground” premiered in 2020, awareness of regenerative agriculture among Americans stood at approximately 4%. By 2026, that figure tripled to 13%, with one in four Americans now recognizing the term. Regenerative products grow at 72% year-over-year on retail shelves. Consumer research reveals the primary barrier isn’t price; only 12% cite cost, but information gaps, with 45% saying they simply don’t know enough yet.
Scientists featured in the regenerative agriculture documentary film explain how regenerative practices rebuild soil organic matter, sequester atmospheric carbon, and improve water retention and nutrient cycling. Healthy soils absorb rainfall like sponges rather than shedding it, reducing both drought vulnerability and flood damage. An estimated one-third of the world’s topsoil is already degraded, making a regenerative transition increasingly urgent.
The economic case strengthens throughout the film. Farmers describe reduced input costs as healthy soils require less synthetic fertilizer and fewer pesticides. Diversified operations spread financial risk across multiple revenue streams. Premium prices for certified regenerative products create market incentives that reward environmental stewardship rather than penalize it.
Indigenous knowledge features prominently as traditional practices gain recognition within modern agricultural science. Communities that maintained diverse polycultures, integrated animals with crops, and respected seasonal cycles preserved knowledge that industrial agriculture spent decades dismantling. The regenerative agriculture documentary film positions Indigenous wisdom not as a historical curiosity but as essential guidance for agricultural transformation.
The film also examines the challenges facing the regenerative transition. Farmers describe financial risks during conversion periods when yields may temporarily decline before soil health improves. Policy frameworks often favor industrial operations through subsidies designed for monoculture production. Market infrastructure for regenerative products remains underdeveloped compared to conventional supply chains.
“Groundswell” launches alongside the One Billion Acres campaign, an ambitious initiative aiming to achieve one billion certified regenerative acres globally by 2030. Building on the filmmakers’ previous 100 Million Acres initiative, the campaign tracks progress toward transforming industrial agriculture at planetary scale. Approximately 345 million acres are currently either certified regenerative or in managed transition worldwide.
The One Billion Acres campaign launches alongside the regenerative agriculture documentary film “Groundswell,” targeting one billion certified regenerative acres by 2030, with 345 million acres currently certified or in transition. Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.
The regenerative agriculture documentary film earned the Golden Globes Prize for Documentary at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival and premiered globally on Amazon Prime Video on World Environment Day, June 5, 2026. Previous films in the trilogy collectively reached tens of millions of viewers, and Amazon’s platform positions Groundswell for potentially larger audiences worldwide.
Big Picture Ranch, the Tickells’ production company, designed “Groundswell” for maximum accessibility. The World Environment Day premiere connected the film’s message to the international calendar’s most prominent environmental date, while the Amazon platform ensures availability across 240 countries and territories.
Despite obstacles documented in the film, the overarching message is momentum. What was fringe is becoming mainstream. What was theory is becoming practice. What started with scattered pioneers now involves thousands of farmers across five continents transforming millions of acres from extraction-based production to regeneration.
“Groundswell” closes the trilogy not with an ending but with an invitation. The One Billion Acres campaign provides viewers a concrete pathway from inspiration to participation. Whether supporting regenerative farmers through purchasing decisions, advocating for supportive policies, or transitioning their own land, audiences leave with actionable steps connecting individual choices to the planetary-scale transformation the regenerative agriculture documentary film captures across every continent it visits.
