Kiss the Ground: Honoring Ryland Engelhart and Finian Makepeace
Soil is alive.
It breathes, remembers, and sustains all that grows. When cared for, it becomes the foundation of resilience. When neglected, it reflects imbalance. Ryland Engelhart and Finian Makepeace, co-founders of Kiss the Ground, have dedicated their lives to bringing this truth into the public imagination. Through storytelling, education, and advocacy, they have made soil health a central conversation in the movement for regeneration.
Kiss the Ground was founded in 2013 as a nonprofit dedicated to advancing regenerative agriculture. Ryland Engelhart, restaurateur and producer, brought his passion for food culture and storytelling. Finian Makepeace, musician and educator, brought his gift for communication and grassroots advocacy. Together, they built an organization that uses media, courses, and community training to equip people with the knowledge and inspiration to restore soil.
Their work reached a global audience through the 2020 documentary Kiss the Ground, narrated by Woody Harrelson, which introduced millions to regenerative agriculture as a solution for climate, food, and biodiversity crises. A follow-up film, Common Ground (2023), deepened the message by highlighting farmers and policy-makers leading the transition.
The work of Engelhart and Makepeace emphasizes soil as the living foundation for planetary health.
Healthy soil draws carbon from the atmosphere, stabilizing climate systems
Regenerative agriculture—cover crops, compost, biodiversity, and holistic grazing—restores vitality to land and water
Storytelling and film are powerful tools for cultural transformation
Every person can take part in regeneration through food choices, composting, and advocacy
Soil regeneration is not just technical—it is cultural, spiritual, and hopeful
Kiss the Ground has shifted how soil is perceived, moving it from obscurity into the heart of ecological conversation. Farmers now share regenerative practices with wider audiences, educators bring soil health into classrooms, and citizens connect daily choices to planetary outcomes. By framing soil as both ecological foundation and cultural metaphor, Engelhart and Makepeace invite us to see renewal as a shared responsibility.
For me, this relationship is personal as well as philosophical. I had the pleasure of cooking alongside Ryland at Sow a Heart Farm, preparing meals for volunteer days. Those gatherings were living expressions of the culture of reciprocity that Kiss the Ground promotes: hands in soil, food shared in gratitude, and community built around the work of regeneration.
Their message reminds us that soil itself is a teacher. It shows that resilience begins below the surface, that life reorganizes quietly before bursting into abundance, and that caring for Earth is inseparable from caring for each other.
We honor Ryland Engelhart and Finian Makepeace for giving voice to the promise of soil and for building a movement that connects science, spirit, and story. Their gift has been to make the invisible visible, bringing the life of soil into the cultural imagination and inspiring action across farms, classrooms, and communities. Through their vision, we are reminded that soil is not just the ground we walk on, but the living foundation of culture and future.
Resources & Further Reading
Kiss the Ground (2020 documentary)
Common Ground (2023 documentary)
