"Most people in this country are aware of the influence of money and industry on politics. We really see that clearly on display with this industry in particular. Most people would be shocked to learn that animal rights and environmental activists are the No. 1 domestic terrorism threat according to the FBI. ... They, more than any other social movements today, are directly threatening corporate profits."
The film opens with Bruce Hamilton, the conservation director of the Sierra Club, laying out the dire future ahead of us. "The world's climate scientists tell us that the highest safe level of emission is around 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," he says...
"We are already at 400. They tell us that the safest we could hope to do without having perilous implications as far as drought, famine, human conflict and major species extinction would be about a 2 degree Celsius increase in temperature. We are rapidly approaching that and with all the built-in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere we are going to easily exceed that. On our watch we are facing the next major extinction of species on the earth that we have not seen since the time of the dinosaurs disappearing. When whole countries go under water because of sea level rise, when whole countries find that there is so much drought they can't feed their populations and as a result they need to desperately migrate to another country or invade another country, we are going to have climate wars in the future."
"And what about livestock and animal agriculture?" asks Kip Andersen, who co-directed "Cowspiracy" with Keegan Kuhn. "Uhh," Hamilton responds, "well -- what about it?"
The refusal by major environmental organizations, including Greenpeace, 350.org and the Sierra Club, to confront the animal agricultural business is a window into how impotent the activist community has become in the face of corporate power.
I reached Kuhn in Berkeley and Andersen in San Francisco by phone.
"So many more people have a connection to animal agriculture, both in society and government, than have a direct connection to the oil industry," Kuhn said...
"The oil industry employs, relatively speaking, a very small percentage of people and is controlled by a very small percentage of people. The agricultural industry, both animal agriculture and commodity grains fed to those animals, involves a much bigger demographic. Politically it is a lot more challenging. Corporations such as Cargill, one the largest commodity food corporations in the world, is able to create U.S. policy. The government says it needs to have affordable food, which means giving massive subsidies to these corporations. The belief is that we have to eat animal products to survive. It is not something that is even questioned. The fossil fuel industry is more easily challenged with the argument that there are alternatives. People do not feel there is an alternative to eating animals."
"Why would we want to create laws that make it harder for us to know how our food is produced?" Kuhn asked...
"No consumer wants that. They want greater transparency. This shows how in-bed this industry is with the government. They can shape and dictate legislation that does not benefit us or the planet."
"Hiding the animals, hiding the farms, hiding the entire issue is a marketing tool that is used by the industry," Kuhn said...
"Their attitude is, if you can't see it, it's not there. There are upwards of 10 billion farm animals slaughtered every year in the United States. But where are these 10 billion animals? We live in a country with 320 million humans. We see humans everywhere. But where are these billions of animals? They are hidden away in sheds. It allows the industry to carry out these atrocities, whether it's how they treat the animals or how they treat the environment."
"You also have the marketing of grass-fed animals on smaller farms," Andersen said,
"...and while it initially appears better, it is actually worse. The factory farming is horrific for the animals, but it is better for the environment than pasture-fed beef because of methane emissions, feces excretion and all the horses and wolves that are killed so cattle can graze on public land, which we pay for with our public dollars. We didn't focus in the film on the factory farms. Everyone knows about that. We wanted to look at these so-called sustainable farms, as if this so-called humane farming is the answer. In most situations, these farms are worse for the environment, although it is better for the animals."
"If we had a different timeline, or if we had 1.5 billion people on the planet, then there might be halfway measures we could take," Kuhn said. "The situation we are dealing with ecologically, however, means there is no way left but an immediate shift to a plant-based lifestyle."
"How can we best use our resources?" Oppenlander asks in "Comfortably Unaware." "What foods will have the very least effect on our planet? Which foods best promote our own human health and wellness, and which are the most compassionate? Do we really need to slaughter another living thing in order for us to eat? Or, sadly, is it because we want to?"
We have only a few years left, at best, to make radical changes to save ourselves from ecological meltdown. A person who is vegan will save 1,100 gallons of water, 20 pounds CO2 equivalent, 30 square feet of forested land, 45 pounds of grain, and one sentient animal's life13 every day. We do not, given what lies ahead of us, have any other option.
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Footnotes:
1. "Water Footprint Assessment." University of Twente, the Netherlands.
2. "What's the Problem?" United States Environmental Protection Agency. "Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options." Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2006.
3. Ibid.
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