Cowspiracy after-thoughts

For my environmental documentary, I chose to watch Cowspiracy on Netflix. I've been hearing about this documentary through the grape vine for years, so I'm glad I finally took the time to watch it. As the name suggests, the film follows one man in his search for the truth on how animal agriculture effects climate change. The viewer follows his search, and learns along side of him. Cowspiracy reveals the unfortunate truth that many of the world's leading climate change activist groups still do not recognize and speak out about the negative impacts of animal agriculture. And the film goes on to show how it's more than just negative impacts--it's the leading cause of deforestation and CO2 emissions.

I feel like I learned so much from this documentary, I really do recommend it. I'll just touch on a few points that stood out to me. The narrator had extreme difficulty getting interviews with green organizations (was even turned down by Green Peace) and even when he was able to get in for an interview, often times the representatives were confused or uncomfortable with his questions about animal agriculture. Cowspiracy came out about three years ago now. Out of curiousity I looked up Green Peace's current page about sustainable food production. If you read it you'll notice that the "Fixing Our System" blurb fails to mention that animal products are the main problem.

There was a short part of the film where he wonders if maybe a "backyard farming" lifestyle could be the solution to our unsustainable farming. He visits a backyard farmer, interviews him, and witnesses the slaughter of one of his animals. The narrator is then shown saying "I couldn't do that myself. If I couldn't do it, I don't want somebody else doing it for me." That really resonated with me. I'm a new vegetarian, I just started the diet change about two months ago. And I've often wondered if I could justify eating a small amount of meat again if it came from as local of farms as possible. But after watching that, I really agree with his mindset. Not to mention, he goes on to do the math of the sustainability of even a backyard farm, and it's not nearly as sustainable as a produce garden.

Animal agriculture is the main industry in New Zealand, where the majority  of the land has been cleared for the raising of livestock

I'm feeling a little passionate so I could go on and on but really you all should just take the time to watch the documentary. For years I had a resistance to any sort of talk about going meatless or vegan. Change is hard to accept. And it's much easier to stay in the dark so that you don't feel guilty for the lifestyle you've been accustomed to your whole life. But to quote one of the final interviews in Cowspiracy, "If you eat animal products, don't bother to call yourself an environmentalist." It sounds harsh, but if you look at the math it's hard to dispute. If you can't bring yourself to watch the documentary, at least take 10 minutes out of your day to look through the website.