Food production systems touch nearly every aspect of life from farms and industrial processing plants to markets, grocery stores and the dinner table. Students will learn about the future sustainable food cycle'.

OF THE LAND is a detailed exploration into our current food supply as well as a variety of organic options available to people who want to support sustainable farming methods.

Peter Dunning has spent 37 years working a 187-acre farm. His charismatic exterior has been peeled back after 38 harvests, the departure of three wives and four children, revealing a man in the throes of a personal crisis.

Not an herb and not a tree, shrubs' in-between status carries ecological advantages allowing them to grow almost everywhere. Many are fire-adapted, some communicate through volatile organic compounds released by the leaves, and others exude chemicals from their roots that prevent other plants from growing nearby.

See Petrified Forest National Park, a colorful landscape littered with fossil trees that shaded Earth’s earliest dinosaurs. Here and in other parks in the U.S. and Canada, fossilized flora and fauna open a window on ancient ecosystems, extinct species, and the history of life on Earth..

At Grand Teton National Park south of Yellowstone, an active fault lifts some of North America’s oldest rocks to the summits of some of the continent’s youngest mountains. Explore these glacier-sculpted peaks, and learn the origin of the broad valley, called Jackson Hole, at the base of the Teton Range..

Learn how seagrasses, mangroves, and other aquatic plants evolved to tolerate low light levels, anaerobic and nutrient-poor sediments, and the difficulty of getting CO2 into submerged leaves and stems. They also benefit surrounding ecosystems by keeping excess nutrients from the ocean, trapping river and ocean-floor sediments, and providing habitat and protection for animals.

Flowering plants arrived relatively late in geological time. But once here, they evolved quickly and often displaced many other types of plants. In fact, in terms of species, flowering plants are the dominant plant form on Earth today with more than 300,000 types. Learn how their unique reproductive mechanisms led to this explosion of speciation in such a relatively short time.

Learn how seafloor subduction raised a lofty volcano only to obliterate it in a colossal eruption that created Crater Lake in Oregon. Hundreds of miles to the north, tectonic forces upended the imposing mountains of Olympic National Park and formed the high jagged peaks at North Cascades National Park..

This feature-length documentary pedals alongside a group of small farmers from Brazil who bicycle over 6,000 miles across the South American continent. They use the year of travel to exchange natural seeds, songs, and ideas about new ways of relating to the land. Moving stories from landless peasants, indigenous communities, and small farmers inform the travelers and viewers, expanding their understanding of the struggle to survive in the face of...