Maree Lowes practises what she preaches.
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After 10 years in the role of dirtgirl in the spectacularly popular and successful dirtgirlworld show that featured on ABC TV, and in 127 other countries around the globe, advocating good environmental practices for children, she's taken her passion for a better world to another level.
Lowes and Sue Bradley, a nutritionist consultant, are co-creators of Eat. Dirt, an online docuseries, that aims to change not only the way mainstream Australians think about food, but to trigger them into action, asking serious questions about where their food comes from, and even becoming backyard gardeners, or even apartment verandah gardeners.
With funding from Screen Australia, they've just completed the script for the 10-part series (20-minute episodes). The plan is to run the first series online and edge their way into a second series on network television or via a streaming service.
Lowes will co-present with indigenous celebrity chef Clayton Donovan, and Charlie Arnott, an eighth generation Australian farmer who has become a spokesman (and social media star) for practising regenerative farming methods.
"We would love for people at home to watch each episode and decide if they want to be a suburban farmer, suburban feeder or suburban eater," Lowes says. "And wherever they see themselves in the picture, to stay curious and connected. Because that is how we are all going to write a better story for the future."
The premise of the show starts from some key global concepts. Firstly, that will be no topsoil on the earth in 60 years. That premise comes from the first-ever Status of the World Soil Resources Report, published by the United Nations in 2014, Lowes says.
Then add information from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which forecasts a loss of biodiversity from climate (warming) change.
According to Lowes, who is studying doing postgraduate work at the University of Newcastle in disaster resilience, the window of time to combat those drastic changes is 10 years.
"What we do in the next 10 years will affect what our future looks like," she says. "So that's why there is no time to waste. We need to get the messaging out to people as soon as possible. And move people from the messaging into action."
We would love for people at home to watch each episode and decide if they want to be a suburban farmer, suburban feeder or suburban eater. And wherever they see themselves in the picture, to stay curious and connected. Because that is how we are all going to write a better story for the future.
- Maree Lowes
The Eat. Dirt creators will involve their target market - suburban families - in the storylines, encouraging questions and dialogue. And they will also call a handful of experts to shed some light on the subject.
Among the experts: regeneration farmer (and author) Charles Massy, holistic health advocate Dr Ron Ehlrich, nutritional biochemist Dr Libby Weaver, doctor and educator Dr Zach Bush, microbiologist and soil expert Walter Jehne, and Joost Bakker - called the "poster boy of zero waste living" by the New York Times.
Lowes' background material for Eat. Dirt asserts a need to build a lexicon of language - equip viewers with words and constructs to ask questions.
She doesn't back away from the need to reconstruct the national conversation on food and climate.
"I think there's been a divisive strategy played out by politicians for a long time," she says, "To disempower the masses from speaking the same language. There's been such a strong rhetoric of otherness. I think people have been conditioned away from thinking for themselves, and asking questions and staying curious.
"All of that plays into a lot of the dysfunction we are seeing. I really believe in getting people asking questions again, being curious, looking for more nuanced understandings of situations and of ideas, rather than taking a surface level understanding and leaving it there.
"I think that can be very dangerous. So, empowering people to think for themselves and asking questions, including asking questions of us, is awesome."
As we chat over a coffee in the courtyard of a cafe, Lowes mentions to a person who joins our conversation that she has just completed her certificate in permaculture design. She knows there is no taste like the sweetness of your own cherry tomatoes or crunchy snowpeas.
And while the program will explore legislative concepts like government support for climate smart agriculture and regenerative agriculture, it won't be spruiking legislation for backyard gardeners.
That activity is up to the individual.
"We are inviting people to think for themselves, and get curious and try things out," Lowes says. "It's one of the best things about having a garden, you make mistakes and then you go again. You can't really get it too wrong. It's a great exercise of resilience."
If the Eat. Dirt team can obtain funding, either by government or philanthropic means, they could be in production as early as April with a final production to roll out before the end of the year.
The program includes an impact campaign to measure actions and measurable change. "We want it to have a legacy in communities," Lowes says of the long-term plan.
They want people to know what's in the soil, what's good for you and why you should care.
"We want it to become something that's second nature to people," Lowes says. "How they see the world. What they teach their kids. How they get their food."