Movie: Cowspiracy
Running time: 91 minutes
Release date: 2014 (Netflix updated version: 2015)
Directed and Produced by Kip Andersen & Keegan Kuhn
Production companies: A.U.M. Films, First Spark Media & Appian Way
Back in 1812, we were 1 billion people on the planet. In 2012, we were 7 billion. This increasing number invites us to reflect on our current consumption. Notably on how the Earth will be able to sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050.
This is the question Cowspiracy is trying to answer. Released in 2014, this crowdfunded documentary was made by a non-profit film producing agency, featuring several scientists and activists. If, in 2020, you still have never seen this documentary, just stop everything that you are doing! This is a must-see.
During 1h30, we follow Kip Andersen's journey throughout one of the most powerful industries in the world: the animal agriculture industry. In 2014, this documentary was the first whistleblower to raise questions on the impact of animal agriculture on Climate Change and Global Warming, and to challenge the role of NGOs in tackling this issue.
To start with the environmental part, Cowspiracy shows tremendous evidence on the direct impact of raising and eating livestock on global warming, deforestation, water depletion, resource consumption, ocean pollution, and food safety. From the methane emitted by livestock to the pollution resulting from their excrements, not without mentioning the amount of water and the quantity of land needed to grow animals and the food to feed them, it raises several points.
The figures used in Cowspiracy which were taken from recent scientific reports published by organizations, as the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), are numerous, worrying, and invite us to reflect upon our consumption. The documentary bases its views on scientific facts, and covers a wide area of problems, including their current solutions: intensive farming, organic farming, sustainable fishing… All these options are considered and evaluated based on facts. Indeed, this documentary has sometimes been criticized as “pure vegan propaganda”. However, besides the planet and the animals, one can wonder who really benefits from this documentary, and who feels offended enough to try to attack this documentary’s reputation.
Then, considering the social aspect, Cowspiracy shows how the current global consumption of food is not compatible with the world’s current, and future needs. To feed a person on an all-plant based vegan diet for a year requires just one-sixth of an acre of land (= 4046,86m2). In comparison, to feed an average US citizen's current consumption diet takes 18 times as much land (= 72 846m2, or 7 hectares). Knowing that according to the UN, about 385,000 babies are born each day, this rhythm is far from sustainable. Additionally, it underlines a now well-known problem: the animal farming industry’s needs in water and grain. Worldwide, 50% of the grains and legumes that we are growing are used to feed animals. This number is even crazier when taking into account that roughly a billion people are starving every single day and that most of these grains and legumes meant for animals that will be eaten by rich countries are grown in regions where people cannot meet their most basic needs.
To put it in a nutshell, we often wonder how we can have a real impact on our ecological footprint at the individual level.
This documentary is a great way to have a complete update on how reducing our meat, fish, and dairy consumption can have enormous social and environmental repercussions.
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