Second place in the World of 7 Billion student video contest went Dylan Kroft for his film “Save Land, Save Humanity.” Dylan is a student at the Kaohsiung American School in Taiwan and chose to connect population to the global challenge: “Most of the earth’s suitable farmland is already under cultivation.”

Dylan created his video using animation and displays a series of cleverly moving infographics to get his message across in a clear and digestible manner. He also makes the video content a bit more personal by not only looking at the availability of suitable farmland globally, but specifically in Asia where 80% of potentially arable land is already under cultivation. Vertical farming and hydroponics are both provided as possible solutions and Dylan succinctly provides benefits of each. By the video’s tag-line ending – “Stop looking out. Start looking up.” – Dylan has made a strong case for the possibility of a brighter agricultural future.

Even though Dylan was required to create a video for his Environmental Science class, he says he was happy to do so because he loves filmmaking. And as for the choice to focus on sustainable agriculture, he’s recently been intrigued by the premise of vertical farming as an efficient way to produce food and was curious about its viability. He said of conducting further research to find out more, “this video competition was the perfect opportunity to do just that.”

Want to see the other top videos on this topic?
First Place, Suitable Farmland – “Our Future Food Demand” by Madison Bernier
Honorable Mention – “Beef Up Sustainable Farming” by Cynthia Zhou
Honorable Mention – “Choices” by Tim Eddy

Want to participate in a future contest?
Interested in staying informed about next year’s contest? Visit the contest website today and download our free lesson plan to guide you.