# Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret -2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsigH2Skfdg
Translation: zh-CN

[00:09] [Music]

[00:35] you know the world's climate scientists

[00:37] tell us

[00:38] that the highest

[00:41] safe level of emissions would be around

[00:43] 350 parts per million

[00:45] of carbon dioxide greenhouse gases in

[00:47] the atmosphere we're already at 400.

[00:50] they tell us that the sort of safest

[00:53] we could hope to do without having

[00:56] perilous

[00:57] implications as far as drought famine

[01:00] human conflict

[01:01] major species extinction would be about

[01:03] a two degree celsius increase in

[01:05] temperature

[01:07] we're rapidly approaching that and with

[01:09] all the built-in

[01:11] carbon dioxide that's already in the

[01:12] atmosphere were easily going to exceed

[01:14] that

[01:15] so on our watch we are facing the next

[01:19] major

[01:20] extinction of species on the earth that

[01:23] we haven't seen since the time of

[01:25] the dinosaurs disappearing you know when

[01:27] whole countries go underwater because of

[01:29] sea level rise when whole countries find

[01:32] that

[01:32] there's so much drought that they can't

[01:34] feed their population and as a result

[01:35] they need to

[01:37] desperately migrate to another country

[01:39] or invade another country

[01:41] i mean we're gonna have climate wars in

[01:43] the future

[01:44] and what about what about livestock and

[01:47] animal

[01:48] agriculture uh

[01:52] well what about it i mean

[01:59] [Music]

[02:23] my name's kip this is me i had a cliche

[02:26] u.s american childhood

[02:28] my mom was a teacher my dad was in the

[02:30] military and i have one sister

[02:32] i played all the sports growing up but i

[02:34] always loved the outdoors and camping

[02:36] life was simple not a care in the world

[02:40] and then this guy showed up like so many

[02:42] of us

[02:43] i saw his film an inconvenient truth

[02:44] about the impacts of global warming and

[02:46] it scared the emojis out of me

[02:48] in al gore's film he describes how earth

[02:50] is in peril

[02:51] climate change stands to affect all life

[02:54] in this planet

[02:54] from monster storms raging wildfires

[02:57] record droughts

[02:58] ice caps melting acidification of the

[03:00] oceans to entire countries going

[03:02] underwater

[03:03] that could all be caused by humans

[03:05] demands on the earth

[03:06] with scientists warning unless we take

[03:08] drastic measures to correct our

[03:10] environmental footprint

[03:11] our time on this planet may be limited

[03:14] to only 50 more

[03:15] years i wanted to do everything i could

[03:18] to help

[03:19] i made up my mind right then and there

[03:21] to change how i lived and to do whatever

[03:23] i possibly could to find a way for all

[03:26] of us to live together

[03:27] in balance with the planet sustainably

[03:29] forever

[03:30] i started to do all the things al told

[03:32] us to do i became an oce

[03:35] obsessive compulsive environmentalist i

[03:38] separated the trash and recycling

[03:40] i composted changed all the light bulbs

[03:42] took short showers

[03:43] turned the water off when i brushed my

[03:44] teeth turned off lights when leaving a

[03:46] room and rode my bike instead of driving

[03:48] everywhere but as the years went by it

[03:50] seemed as if things were getting

[03:52] worse i had to wonder with all the

[03:54] continuing ecological crisis facing the

[03:56] planet

[03:57] even if every single one of us adopted

[03:59] these conservation habits

[04:01] was this really going to be enough to

[04:02] save the world

[04:05] just seemed that there was something

[04:06] more to this story

[04:08] i thought i was doing everything i could

[04:09] to help the planet

[04:11] but then with one friend's post

[04:14] everything

[04:14] changed the post sent me to report

[04:18] online published by the united nations

[04:20] stating that

[04:21] cows produce more greenhouse gases than

[04:23] the entire transportation sector

[04:26] this means that raising cattle produces

[04:28] more greenhouse gases than all

[04:30] cars trucks trains boats planes combined

[04:33] 13 compared to 18 for livestock

[04:36] this is because cows produce a

[04:38] substantial amount of methane from their

[04:40] digestive process

[04:41] methane gas from livestock is 25 to 100

[04:45] times more destructive than carbon

[04:46] dioxide from vehicles

[04:48] here i've been riding my bike everywhere

[04:50] to help reduce emissions

[04:51] but it turns out there's more to climate

[04:53] change than just fossil fuels

[04:55] i started doing more research the un

[04:57] along with other agencies reported that

[04:59] not only did livestock play a major role

[05:02] in global warming it is also the leading

[05:04] cause of resource consumption and

[05:05] environmental degradation destroying the

[05:07] planet today

[05:09] how is it possible i wasn't aware of

[05:11] this i thought this information would be

[05:13] plastered everywhere in the

[05:14] environmental community

[05:15] i went to the nation's largest

[05:17] environmental organizations websites

[05:19] 350.org greenpeace sierra club climate

[05:21] reality rainforest action network amazon

[05:23] watch and was shocked to see they had

[05:25] virtually

[05:26] nothing on animal agriculture what was

[05:28] going on

[05:30] why would they not have this information

[05:31] on there it seemed the main focus for

[05:34] many of these groups was natural gas and

[05:35] oil production with fracking being the

[05:37] latest hot issue due to water usage and

[05:40] contamination

[05:41] hydraulic fracturing for natural gas

[05:43] uses an incredible amount of water a

[05:44] staggering 100 billion gallons of water

[05:47] is used every year in the united states

[05:49] but when i compare this with animal

[05:51] agriculture raising livestock just in

[05:53] the us consumes

[05:54] 34 trillion gallons of water and it

[05:57] turns out the methane emissions from

[05:59] both industries are nearly equal

[06:01] living in california a state plagued by

[06:04] drought and water shortages

[06:06] water use is a major concern for many of

[06:08] us the average californian

[06:10] uses about 1500 gallons per person per

[06:12] day

[06:14] about half of that is related to the

[06:16] consumption of

[06:17] meat and dairy products so meat and

[06:19] dairy products are incredibly water

[06:21] intensive

[06:22] in part because the animals are using

[06:25] very water intensive grains

[06:27] that's what they they eat and so all of

[06:30] the water embedded in

[06:31] in the grain and that the animal eats

[06:34] essentially is

[06:35] is considered part of the virtual water

[06:37] footprint of that

[06:38] product i found out that one-quarter

[06:41] pound hamburger requires over 660

[06:44] gallons of water to produce

[06:46] here i've been taking these short

[06:47] showers trying to save water and to find

[06:49] out just eating one hamburger is the

[06:51] equivalent of

[06:51] showering two entire months so much

[06:55] attention is given to lowering our home

[06:56] water use yet domestic water use is only

[06:58] five percent of what is consumed in the

[07:00] us

[07:00] versus 55 for animal agriculture that's

[07:03] because it takes upwards of

[07:05] 2500 gallons of water to produce one

[07:07] pound of beef

[07:08] i went on the government's department of

[07:10] water resources save our water campaign

[07:12] where it outlines behavior changes to

[07:14] help conserve our water like using low

[07:16] flow shower heads efficient toilets

[07:18] water saving appliances and fixed leaky

[07:20] faucets and sprinkler heads but nothing

[07:22] about animal agriculture

[07:23] when i added up all the government's

[07:25] recommendations i was saving 47 gallons

[07:27] a day

[07:28] but still that's not even close to the

[07:30] 660 gallons of water for just one burger

[07:33] i wanted to see if i could somehow talk

[07:35] with the government about this

[07:36] just calling to see if uh we could

[07:38] schedule an interview

[07:41] yeah that would be good what what does

[07:44] your schedule look like

[07:45] this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon um

[07:49] tomorrow afternoon could be good

[07:50] [Music]

[07:53] um for the airborne environment there

[07:55] are a lot of things that can be done

[07:56] indoor you know using

[08:00] low flow shower heads low flow

[08:03] faucets efficient

[08:07] toilets efficient

[08:10] apply what water using appliances all

[08:13] those are really good areas that can

[08:15] help quite a lot but the biggest water

[08:18] savings

[08:19] is from outdoor we have to be mindful

[08:22] the way we use water

[08:23] we have to use it as efficiently as

[08:25] possible we have to protect its quality

[08:28] and we have to be good stewards

[08:30] of the environment that depend on water

[08:32] and

[08:33] checking the sprinklers a lot of time we

[08:35] get a lot of leaks and

[08:36] broken sprinklers and things like that

[08:39] that

[08:40] wastes water those are the areas that

[08:43] there's a lot of room for conservation

[08:47] it kept on coming up a lot was of

[08:50] animal agriculture

[08:54] can you comment on that at all about how

[08:57] much

[08:57] that plays a role in water consumption

[09:01] and

[09:06] pollution

[09:08] that's uh i mean that's not my area

[09:12] there's one study that i found

[09:16] that one pound of beef 2500 gallons of

[09:20] water

[09:20] yeah yeah um eggs is 477 gallons

[09:25] of water and she's almost 900 gallons

[09:28] i mean i guess it's one simple why isn't

[09:30] it on save our

[09:31] water just it's kind of like if you went

[09:33] to someone's house and my neighbor

[09:35] has a faucet you know dripping drip

[09:38] dripping and then

[09:38] you see this giant hose turned full

[09:41] blast

[09:42] until 660 gallons of water are shooting

[09:45] out

[09:46] into the street flooding the entire

[09:48] street

[09:50] i think i would say hey you know turn

[09:53] that off please

[09:54] it seems like it's a huge thing that we

[09:56] could be doing

[09:57] by far more than anything else

[10:00] just like if that if that is really the

[10:02] case i think that the water footprint of

[10:06] animal husbandry is greater than other

[10:09] activities

[10:10] there's no ifs and or buts about it

[10:14] that would be really powerful just

[10:15] rather than waiting until we're in a

[10:16] drought

[10:17] you know what do you think about just

[10:18] starting now and whoever's in charge of

[10:20] the safer water hey

[10:22] let's start having encouraging people

[10:24] eat less meat now because

[10:25] these studies are coming out

[10:28] i don't think that'll happen why

[10:36] because of the way government is set up

[10:38] here

[10:40] it's interesting though why though

[10:47] one is water management and the other

[10:49] one is behavior change

[10:51] behavior of taking showers and not not

[10:54] watering your lawn and doing all that

[10:56] that's behavior

[11:00] yeah wow

[11:04] clearly the government did not want to

[11:06] talk about this issue

[11:07] their inability to answer along with the

[11:09] environmental organization's silence on

[11:10] the topic of

[11:11] animal agriculture made it seem

[11:13] something more was going on

[11:15] i started doing more investigating on

[11:17] the impacts of livestock and found out

[11:18] the situation was actually worse than i

[11:21] thought in 2009 two advisors from the

[11:24] world bank released an analysis on

[11:25] human-induced greenhouse gases finding

[11:27] that animal agriculture

[11:29] was responsible not for 18 as un stated

[11:32] but was actually 51 percent of all

[11:36] 51 yet all we hear about is burning

[11:39] fossil fuels

[11:40] this devastating figure is due to

[11:42] clear-cutting rainforests for grazing

[11:44] respiration and all the waste animals

[11:46] produce

[11:46] this makes animal agriculture the number

[11:48] one contributor to human-caused climate

[11:51] change

[11:52] but not only that i found out raising

[11:54] animals for food consumes a third

[11:56] of all the planet's fresh water occupies

[11:59] up to 45 percent of the earth's land

[12:02] is responsible for up to 91 percent of

[12:04] amazon destruction

[12:06] is a leading cause of species extinction

[12:08] ocean dead zones

[12:11] and habitat destruction

[12:15] yet the world's largest environmental

[12:17] groups that are supposed to be saving

[12:18] our world

[12:19] didn't mention this anywhere i had to

[12:21] speak with environmental organizations

[12:23] to find out why they weren't addressing

[12:25] this

[12:25] issue i sent off dozens of emails made

[12:27] call after call spent hours on hold

[12:30] days became weeks and weeks became

[12:31] months and for some reason

[12:33] no one wanted to talk to me about this

[12:35] so bizarre i supported these

[12:37] organizations

[12:38] for so long and now was met with silence

[12:41] i was however able to connect with a

[12:43] handful of environmental authors and

[12:45] advocates that were willing to address

[12:47] this issue

[12:47] i took my old trusty van super blue out

[12:50] of retirement and hit the road

[12:54] so my calculations are that without

[12:56] using any gas

[12:58] or oil or fuel ever again

[13:01] from this day forward that we would

[13:03] still exceed

[13:04] our maximum carbon equivalent greenhouse

[13:07] gas emissions

[13:08] uh the 565 gigatons by the year 2030

[13:11] without the electricity sector even or

[13:14] energy sector even factoring in the

[13:15] equation

[13:16] all simply by eating raising and eating

[13:18] livestock if you reduce the amount of

[13:20] methane emissions the level in the

[13:22] atmosphere go down goes down fairly

[13:24] quickly

[13:25] and within decades as opposed to co2 if

[13:28] you reduce the emissions to the

[13:29] atmosphere you don't really see a signal

[13:31] in the atmosphere for

[13:32] 100 years or so the single largest

[13:34] contributor

[13:35] to every known environmental

[13:39] ill known to humankind deforestation

[13:42] land use water scarcity the

[13:44] destabilization of communities

[13:46] world hunger the list doesn't stop it's

[13:49] an environmental disaster

[13:50] that's being ignored by the very people

[13:53] who should be

[13:54] championing pre-living animals made up

[13:56] ten thousand years ago made up

[13:58] 99 of the biomass and human beings we

[14:00] only made up

[14:01] one percent of the biomass today only 10

[14:05] 000 years later which is really just a

[14:07] fraction of time we human beings

[14:10] and the animals that we own as property

[14:13] make up 98 of the biomass

[14:16] and wild reliving animals make up only

[14:18] two percent

[14:19] we've basically completely stolen the

[14:22] world the earth

[14:23] from reliving animals to use for

[14:26] ourselves and our

[14:27] cows and pigs and chickens and factory

[14:29] farms yes and the oceans have been even

[14:31] more devastated concerned researchers of

[14:34] the loss of species agree that the

[14:37] primary cause

[14:38] of loss of species on our earth that

[14:40] we're witnessing

[14:41] is due to over grazing and habitat loss

[14:44] from livestock production on land

[14:46] and by overfishing which i call fishing

[14:49] in our oceans

[14:50] and we're in the middle of the largest

[14:51] mass extinction of species in 65 million

[14:53] years

[14:54] the rainforest is being cut down at the

[14:56] rate of an acre per second

[14:58] and the driving force behind all of this

[14:59] is animal agriculture

[15:01] cutting down the forest to graze animals

[15:04] and to grow soybeans genetically

[15:06] engineered soybeans to feed to

[15:08] cows and pigs and chickens and factory

[15:10] farm fish 91

[15:13] of the loss of rainforest in the amazon

[15:16] area

[15:16] thus far to date 91 that's been

[15:19] destroyed is due to raising

[15:21] livestock the leading cause of

[15:23] environmental destruction

[15:24] is animal agriculture i just couldn't

[15:27] understand why the world's largest

[15:29] environmental organizations were not

[15:31] addressing this

[15:32] when their entire mission is to help

[15:34] protect the environment

[15:35] but that's the thing too as they say you

[15:36] know use less coal ride your bike

[15:39] without you know less need yeah i think

[15:42] they think it's

[15:43] i think they focus grouped it and it's a

[15:44] political loser

[15:46] in terms of yeah because they're they're

[15:48] membership organizations you know a lot

[15:50] of them they're looking to

[15:51] maximize the number of people making

[15:53] contributions and if they get identified

[15:55] as being

[15:56] anti-meet or challenging people on their

[15:58] everyday habits that something that's so

[16:00] dear to people that

[16:02] it will hurt with their fundraising they

[16:05] do not want to address the primary

[16:08] driving

[16:09] cause of environmental devastation which

[16:10] is animal agriculture

[16:12] because they're businesses and they want

[16:16] to make sure that they have

[16:17] a reliable source of funding i had a

[16:20] mentor invited to a meeting with al gore

[16:22] and

[16:22] um some years ago now and

[16:25] made these methane arguments and he was

[16:27] really pushed back and that's just his

[16:29] argument

[16:29] it's hard enough to get people to think

[16:31] about co2 don't confuse them

[16:34] i think that the problem with a lot of

[16:36] organizations that are focused and

[16:38] have a laser focus uh don't

[16:41] go off message because they don't want

[16:44] to

[16:44] piss off another whole group of people

[16:46] that will make their lives difficult

[16:48] if you listen to the majority of the of

[16:50] the major

[16:52] environmental organizations they're not

[16:53] telling you to do much besides live your

[16:55] life the way you've been living it

[16:57] but change a light bulb from time to

[16:59] time drive less

[17:00] use less plastic recycle more it's

[17:03] better for their fundraising and better

[17:05] for their profile

[17:06] to create a victim and perpetrator sort

[17:09] of plot line

[17:10] you know it's like when we talk about um

[17:12] the fact that when we have a

[17:14] dysfunctional family and the father is

[17:16] an alcoholic

[17:18] that's the one thing no one talks about

[17:20] everybody goes around that and yet it's

[17:21] the one thing that's

[17:22] causing the devastation in this in the

[17:25] relationships in the family

[17:26] because no one wants to talk about it

[17:29] how could these

[17:30] organizations not know i mean the the

[17:32] issue is right in front of him it's

[17:33] unmistakable at this point

[17:34] and just like these organizations

[17:36] they're they're they're falling over

[17:38] themselves to show the general public

[17:40] that climate change is human cause and

[17:43] in doing so they completely fail

[17:45] to uh to see what's right in front of

[17:47] that that animal agriculture raising and

[17:49] killing animals for food

[17:51] is really what's killing the planet

[17:52] [Music]

[17:54] that was it no more emails no more phone

[17:57] calls i had enough i realized if i

[17:59] wanted answers i would have to go to

[18:00] these organizations headquarters in

[18:02] person

[18:05] hi how's it going we're uh we're doing a

[18:08] doc

[18:09] full-length feature documentary and it's

[18:11] on

[18:12] sustainability you know animal

[18:13] agriculture plays a role

[18:15] and we're simply going to talk to david

[18:18] barr

[18:22] we've been trying for like it's almost

[18:24] two months we haven't even had one

[18:26] one uh receptive email or anything so to

[18:29] see if we can

[18:30] set something up they sent out their pr

[18:34] person instead she refused to be filmed

[18:36] and told us to turn off the camera but

[18:38] promised someone from their rainforest

[18:40] ocean

[18:40] and climate change departments would all

[18:42] speak with us finally

[18:46] next stop was to give sierra club a

[18:48] visit

[18:49] [Music]

[18:53] turns out they were a bit more receptive

[18:55] to me showing up at their doorstep

[18:57] hey how's it going

[19:00] with the climate change what's the

[19:02] leading cause of that

[19:04] well it's basically burning too many

[19:06] fossil fuels

[19:08] uh you know so coal natural gas

[19:11] oil tar sands oil shale all these new

[19:15] exotic fuels that are kind of hybrids

[19:17] between them

[19:18] uh but that's basically what is loading

[19:21] up the atmosphere so we have this

[19:22] greenhouse effect where the heat is

[19:24] getting trapped and the temperatures are

[19:26] soaring

[19:27] at a rate that has never existed in the

[19:30] history of the earth

[19:31] and what about what about livestock and

[19:34] animal

[19:36] agriculture uh

[19:39] well what about it i mean uh we

[19:42] do it just research we a couple the un

[19:45] report says it's more livestock accounts

[19:49] for more than all

[19:50] transportation put together a recent

[19:53] 2009

[19:54] world watch report livestock causes 51

[19:57] of all greenhouse emission gas emissions

[20:00] yeah well

[20:01] um it is a big issue and we

[20:04] need to address that as well but you

[20:07] know there's just

[20:08] so many different potential sources of

[20:12] methane and carbon emissions if the

[20:14] number one

[20:15] leading cause is animal agriculture and

[20:17] meat consumption

[20:19] then does not need to be the number one

[20:21] focus if not the number two

[20:26] well that's your assessment our

[20:28] assessment is different

[20:32] that was bizarre so greenpeace got back

[20:36] to me today

[20:37] and said it was great to meet with you

[20:40] yesterday i've spoken with various

[20:42] people here at greenpeace about your

[20:44] request

[20:46] but i'm afraid we're not going to be

[20:47] able to help this time

[20:53] thanks again and we wish you the best of

[20:54] luck greenpeace's response reminded me

[20:56] the statistic that 116

[20:59] 000 pounds of farm animal excrement is

[21:01] produced every

[21:02] second in the united states alone that

[21:04] is enough waste per year to cover

[21:06] every square foot of san francisco new

[21:08] york city

[21:09] tokyo paris new delhi

[21:13] berlin hong kong london rio de janeiro

[21:16] delaware bali costa rica and denmark

[21:19] combined

[21:22] livestock operations on land has caused

[21:25] more than fought or created more than

[21:27] 500 nitrogen flooded dead zones

[21:30] around the world in our oceans comprised

[21:32] more than 95 000 square miles

[21:34] of areas completely devoid of life so

[21:37] any meaningful discussion about the

[21:38] state of our oceans

[21:40] has to always begin by

[21:43] frank discussions about land-based

[21:47] animal agriculture

[21:48] which is not what our conservation

[21:50] groups

[21:51] oceana being the largest one in the

[21:52] world right now uh the most influential

[21:55] as well as others that's not what is at

[21:57] the apex of their discussions

[21:59] i went on my favorite ocean production

[22:00] organization's website

[22:02] surfrider foundation to see what they

[22:04] were doing about this mostly what i

[22:05] found were campaigns about plastic bags

[22:07] and trash

[22:08] but nothing about animal agriculture

[22:11] what is the number one

[22:13] coastal water quality issue polluter

[22:16] like

[22:16] yeah i mean a lot of it there's a

[22:19] it's actually i call we call it like the

[22:21] toxic cocktail

[22:23] because it really is this sort of

[22:24] diffuse source so it's

[22:26] um you know heavy metal from tires and

[22:29] breaks and cars heavy metals

[22:31] it is these herbicides and pesticides so

[22:33] it's really just it's kind of picking up

[22:35] the

[22:36] the everything we leave on the ground

[22:38] and collecting it together and

[22:40] pushing it out into the ocean so it's

[22:41] hard to actually target like one

[22:43] thing we're doing our research on this

[22:46] particular one and

[22:47] run off uh and just kind of increasingly

[22:50] as we're like

[22:51] interviewing more people it keeps coming

[22:52] up uh animal agriculture

[22:55] as being and we read animal agriculture

[22:57] as being the number one

[22:58] water polluter considerably

[23:01] by more than any other yeah that's

[23:03] interesting i think you know i guess it

[23:04] depends on the regions that you focus on

[23:06] like the urban areas which

[23:08] is sort of like where we are here in

[23:09] southern california we don't see that

[23:11] because there's not a lot of sort of

[23:13] agricultural farms but if you look in

[23:15] the mid

[23:16] atlantic sort of maryland virginia north

[23:19] carolina that region i know there's a

[23:21] lot of poultry

[23:22] farms and a lot of hog farms and it's a

[23:25] huge

[23:26] waste issue i was surprised that not

[23:28] only did they not focus on farm runoff

[23:30] but they also didn't mention any

[23:31] campaigns about how our oceans are a

[23:33] near collapse

[23:34] the un reported that three quarters of

[23:37] the world's fisheries are over exploited

[23:39] fully exploited are significantly

[23:41] depleted due to overfishing

[23:43] the oceans are under siege like never

[23:45] before and

[23:46] marine environments are in trouble and

[23:48] if we don't wake up and do

[23:50] something about it we're going to see

[23:52] fishless oceans

[23:53] by the year 2048 that's the prediction

[23:55] from scientists

[23:56] the fact that when people look at

[23:58] fishing sometimes they're only looking

[24:00] at the fact of the animals who are

[24:01] actually

[24:03] consumed by humans and we're not

[24:04] necessarily looking at

[24:06] all the animals who are caught in the

[24:07] drift nets all the other animals who

[24:10] were killed

[24:11] in the industry and when you look at

[24:13] even the shrimping industry

[24:15] has done a lot to devastate the planet

[24:17] as well in terms of breaking down

[24:18] natural barriers that we have to protect

[24:20] the

[24:21] islands we're at over 28

[24:24] billion animals were pulled out of the

[24:26] ocean last year

[24:27] they're not ever given a chance to

[24:29] recover they can't recover they don't

[24:30] multiply that quickly they don't

[24:32] you know they don't come back we're not

[24:34] giving them an opportunity the

[24:35] oceans are in complete collapse the

[24:38] large fish species are

[24:39] nearing extinction the way fishing is

[24:42] done today to feed the demand for 90

[24:44] million tons of fish is primarily

[24:46] through

[24:46] massive fish nets for every single pound

[24:49] of fish caught there is up to

[24:50] five pounds of untargeted species

[24:53] trapped

[24:53] such as dolphins whales sea turtles and

[24:56] sharks known as bike hill

[24:59] if we were to imagine this same sort of

[25:01] practice happening on the african

[25:02] savannah

[25:03] targeting gazelle but in the process

[25:05] scooping up every single lion giraffe

[25:07] ostrich and elephant nobody would stand

[25:10] for it

[25:11] yet this is what is happening in our

[25:13] oceans every single day

[25:18] between 40 and 50 million sharks each

[25:20] year are killed in fishing lines and

[25:21] fishing nets is by kill

[25:23] then their fins might be cut off or not

[25:25] cut off but they're caught

[25:27] initially as by kill and it's from

[25:30] fishing it's from fishing in sustainable

[25:34] in a sustainable manner in many cases

[25:36] for

[25:37] fish that are labeled sustainable by for

[25:39] instance oceania and these sustainable

[25:41] certified organizations

[25:43] so my thought is is that why would we

[25:45] want to stop

[25:46] at banning shark fin soup if you're

[25:49] concerned about sharks

[25:50] which all these organizations are and

[25:52] most of the public at large is now

[25:54] if we really are concerned about sharks

[25:55] we would ban fishing i went on the

[25:57] world's largest ocean conservation

[25:59] groups website oceana to see what they

[26:01] were doing about this

[26:02] on their site along with the ted talk by

[26:04] ceo andy sharpless i was astounded to

[26:07] read

[26:07] they actually recommend that one of the

[26:09] best ways to help fish

[26:11] is to eat fish with a world's fish

[26:13] population in near collapse

[26:15] this seems like saying the best way to

[26:16] help endangered pandas

[26:18] is to eat pandas i couldn't understand

[26:20] how oceanic would say we could remove

[26:22] close to 100 million

[26:24] tons of fish per year and that could

[26:26] somehow be sustainable

[26:27] and good for our oceans many of the

[26:29] species that are nearing extinction

[26:32] have done so are being ravaged and

[26:35] becoming nearly extinct

[26:37] in a declining fashion and haven't

[26:38] recovered on the watch

[26:41] of oceana and on the watch of

[26:44] marine stewardship council and very much

[26:47] on the watch

[26:47] of monterey bay aquarium seafood watch

[26:50] which i mentioned one of my lectures

[26:51] that's you know they're aptly named

[26:52] because that's that's what they're doing

[26:53] they're sort of watching this

[26:55] happen instead of you know aggressively

[26:57] halting it

[27:00] i mean according to the united nations

[27:03] food and agriculture organization

[27:04] you know roughly three quarters of all

[27:06] the fisheries out there are either fully

[27:08] exploited or over exploited

[27:10] so there's really not a whole lot of of

[27:12] fish stocks out there

[27:14] that you might consider at healthy

[27:17] levels for the for the ecosystem

[27:19] watching andy's ted talk um

[27:23] about feeding the world in 1988 fish

[27:26] cats as you mentioned peaked at 85

[27:27] million tons

[27:28] how is it possible that we can

[27:30] sustainably catch a hundred

[27:32] million tons by 2050 regardless if it's

[27:35] regardless

[27:36] if it's in a farm or if it's in the

[27:38] ocean

[27:39] if for every pound of fish you're taking

[27:41] out you're essentially taking out five

[27:43] pounds of wild fish no matter whether

[27:46] it's a pond

[27:47] or it's or or it's in in the ocean how

[27:50] can that be sustainable

[27:58] the ultimate the ultimate question right

[28:00] is is that

[28:01] there is a tremendous amount of natural

[28:04] production

[28:05] that that is you know basically coming

[28:07] out of the oceans

[28:09] all the time so we have major a massive

[28:12] amount of upwelling

[28:13] from our ocean conveyor belt that's

[28:15] bringing up you know ancient

[28:17] thousand-year-old nutrients and and our

[28:20] ecosystems are turning that into fish

[28:22] yes they're eating each other and you're

[28:24] losing you know some of that production

[28:26] every step up in the food chain but you

[28:28] get more every year

[28:30] you can fish and take some out and next

[28:32] year there will be more

[28:34] and if we do that right without

[28:36] ultimately hitting the fundamental

[28:38] driver it's sort of like living off the

[28:41] the interest right

[28:42] as long as you don't as long as you

[28:44] don't bring your principal down right if

[28:46] you're investing in something as long as

[28:47] you're not hitting into that principle

[28:49] and your principal remains high you

[28:51] could potentially live off the interest

[28:52] forever and that's the basic idea with

[28:55] fish with our population right now

[28:58] what we're doing is 70 if it's 75

[29:00] percent depleted the fishery is now

[29:02] depleted

[29:03] and you know it's a good analogy with

[29:06] money

[29:06] we're not living off our interest we're

[29:08] in extreme debt

[29:10] and if we're our population who's trying

[29:12] to live as a family

[29:14] on the same amount of money and it's

[29:17] increasing

[29:17] 35 to 9 billion people right

[29:21] isn't it just hey we got to stop

[29:23] spending money

[29:24] yeah to stop eating fish well if you

[29:27] could bring the principle back

[29:28] fishing of any type is is depleting not

[29:31] only the species

[29:32] but you get into this cereal depletion

[29:35] where

[29:36] one fish species will be minimized and

[29:38] they'll

[29:39] the fishing industry uh for that fishery

[29:41] will move on to the next species

[29:43] and it's it's called cereal depletion

[29:45] it's aptly named

[29:47] in the process so the fish are being

[29:49] lost not only not only the species is

[29:50] being lost

[29:51] but the next in line is being lost and

[29:54] then the mechanism

[29:55] is still extremely destructive so

[29:58] they're losing the fish species but it

[30:00] needs to be kept in mind they're also

[30:02] destroying habitat i think they came up

[30:04] with this term sustainable fishing

[30:06] to make ourselves feel good about eating

[30:09] fish

[30:10] and continuing to take fish out of the

[30:12] oceans

[30:13] when in fact really it's sea shepherd's

[30:15] position that there is no such thing as

[30:17] sustainable fishing

[30:18] seafood is not a protein source or

[30:22] a sustainable protein source for the for

[30:25] the

[30:25] feeding of the planet for the people on

[30:28] the planet it's not

[30:30] people don't want to hear it because

[30:31] that makes them feel like they have to

[30:33] take

[30:33] action they have to stop doing something

[30:35] and a lot of people don't want to and

[30:37] people don't want to they they don't

[30:39] want to put it out there because

[30:40] it's uncomfortable they don't want to

[30:41] propose to tell people what to do but

[30:43] we're at a point where we all have to be

[30:45] cognizant and we have to realize we have

[30:47] to take an action our founder captain

[30:49] watson likes to say

[30:50] if the oceans die we die that's not a

[30:52] tagline that's the truth

[30:55] perhaps the only other ecosystem that is

[30:57] being destroyed at such a rapid rate

[30:59] are the world's rainforests our global

[31:02] rainforests are essentially the planet's

[31:04] lungs

[31:04] they breathe in co2 and exhale oxygen

[31:08] an acre of rainforest is cleared every

[31:10] second

[31:11] and the leading cause is to graze

[31:14] animals and grow their feed crops

[31:16] that is essentially an entire football

[31:18] field cleared every single second

[31:21] and it is estimated that every day close

[31:24] to a hundred

[31:25] plant animal and insect species are lost

[31:27] due to rainforest destruction

[31:37] [Music]

[31:44] what is the leading cause absolute

[31:46] leading cause of reinforced destruction

[31:49] human intervention into rainforests is

[31:51] the leading cause

[31:52] and so it's either for logging or it's

[31:55] for agribusiness and that's when you're

[31:57] looking at the top global drivers it

[31:59] will vary a bit

[32:00] by the rainforest that you're talking

[32:01] about but the way that we're choosing to

[32:04] use these natural resources

[32:06] on a large industrial scale

[32:09] is the leading driver when i went on

[32:11] rainforest action network's website i

[32:13] couldn't believe

[32:14] i didn't see anything about cattle but i

[32:16] did see they had a large campaign

[32:18] against palm oil

[32:19] palm oil plantations are causing

[32:20] tremendous deforestation in indonesian

[32:23] rainforest

[32:24] it is estimated that palm oil is

[32:25] responsible for 26 million acres being

[32:28] cleared

[32:29] though compared to livestock in their

[32:31] feed crops

[32:32] they were responsible for 136 million

[32:35] acres of rainforest lost to date

[32:38] but on their website i was shocked to

[32:40] find cattle was not

[32:41] included as one of their four main key

[32:43] issues instead they focused on

[32:45] palm pulp and paper coal and tar sands

[32:48] how could they not have the leading

[32:50] cause of rain forest destruction

[32:52] i had to wonder why focus on fossil

[32:54] fuels and not

[32:55] cattle is it more fossil fuels

[32:58] or is it more animal agriculture i don't

[33:00] know why we would ever do a one or the

[33:02] other

[33:03] what more is it i i don't necessarily

[33:07] know what it is

[33:08] could the executive director of one of

[33:10] the world's largest rainforest

[33:12] protection groups

[33:13] honestly not know what was going on or

[33:15] even worse were they hiding it on

[33:17] purpose

[33:18] and if so why i immediately went to

[33:20] amazon watch to see if they would say

[33:22] what the leading cause of rainforest

[33:23] destruction

[33:24] truly is the most biologically and

[33:27] culturally diverse

[33:28] place on the planet is under

[33:31] massive attack right now the amazon

[33:33] rainforest itself

[33:34] could be could be gone in the matter of

[33:37] the next 10 years

[33:38] what what is the leading cause of

[33:40] rainforest destruction

[33:43] the leading cause of rainforest

[33:46] destruction

[33:51] i would say well just to put it into the

[33:53] context of what amazon watch works on

[33:56] um you know there's there's many many

[33:59] drivers of deforestation as we call them

[34:02] many different reasons and ways that

[34:04] um rainforests are destroyed the main

[34:08] the ones that cause the most damage and

[34:10] are more the most widespread

[34:12] are mega projects such as oil and gas

[34:15] pipelines

[34:16] such as mining projects such as

[34:20] mega dam projects we're not talking

[34:21] about i felt like i was going in

[34:23] circles with all these groups as if i

[34:25] was stuck in some strange cowspiracy

[34:27] twilight zone where no one could talk

[34:28] about

[34:29] cows i couldn't believe these

[34:30] organizations just wouldn't say what the

[34:32] leading cause of rainforest destruction

[34:34] truly is i had to ask one more time

[34:39] it's hard to say what is a leading cause

[34:42] of deforestation of the amazon because

[34:44] they're all destructive oil and gas

[34:46] mining

[34:47] dams agriculture but in terms of land

[34:50] use

[34:51] in terms of the amount of land that

[34:56] is destroyed by um

[35:01] when we talk about in comparison all

[35:04] those different

[35:05] causes of deforestation what is what is

[35:07] causing the most

[35:08] trees to fall for example um

[35:13] i think it would definitely be

[35:14] agriculture

[35:16] unfortunately one of the biggest causes

[35:20] of deforestation

[35:23] definitely in the brazilian amazon is

[35:25] agribusiness cattle

[35:27] cattle grazing and soy production in

[35:29] particular

[35:30] this is really what's going on why do

[35:34] you think that's

[35:35] like knowing that greenpeace or no one's

[35:37] really saying that

[35:39] the whole story the whole story about

[35:42] one of the

[35:42] the main cause of deforestation

[35:46] [Music]

[35:47] and i think you've brought some really

[35:48] good points about why isn't why isn't

[35:50] anybody doing anything about this

[35:52] um and i think in brazil in particular i

[35:55] think when we look at

[35:56] you know what happened after the force

[35:58] code was passed um and people

[36:00] people who were standing up against the

[36:02] the lobbyists and the interests the

[36:04] special interests

[36:06] the cattle industry the agribusiness

[36:07] industry what was happening to them a

[36:09] lot of people were speaking out got

[36:10] killed

[36:12] if you look at you know say carlos you

[36:14] look at claudio

[36:15] there's a there's people who people who

[36:18] are putting themselves out there and

[36:19] saying you know cattle ranching

[36:21] you know is destroying the amazon

[36:24] you know a lot of those people were

[36:26] really putting themselves out there and

[36:28] look at dorothy staying

[36:29] you know the nun who lived out in para

[36:31] who was

[36:32] killed a lot of people will speak up

[36:36] a lot of people just keep their mouths

[36:38] checked because they don't want to they

[36:39] don't want to be the next one with the

[36:40] bullet to their head

[36:44] sister dorothy stang was a u.s born nun

[36:47] living in the heart of the brazilian

[36:48] rainforest

[36:50] her life's work was to protect the

[36:51] amazon she spoke out openly against the

[36:54] destruction of rainforest from cattle

[36:56] ranching for years

[36:57] walking home one night she was brutally

[37:00] gunned down

[37:01] at point-blank range by a hired gun from

[37:03] the cattle industry

[37:08] [Music]

[37:23] after greenpeace's initial denial for an

[37:25] interview i wrote again

[37:26] begging they reconsider greenpeace got

[37:29] back again

[37:31] and said again i'm afraid we've explored

[37:34] the options here in terms of helping you

[37:36] and are not going to be able to be

[37:38] involved this time

[37:41] you mentioned you were also speaking to

[37:42] oceana i'm sure they'll be

[37:45] able to give you some great quotes about

[37:46] ocean related issues

[37:48] thanks again for thinking of us

[37:53] unbelievable with greenpeace unwilling

[37:54] to be interviewed i had to find a

[37:56] different avenue for ants there's

[37:58] something

[37:58] really fishy going on over there

[38:01] fortunately

[38:02] i found a former greenpeace board of

[38:04] director who now speaks openly about the

[38:06] industry

[38:07] environmental organizations like other

[38:09] organizations are not

[38:10] telling you the truth about what the

[38:13] world needs

[38:14] from us as a species it's so frustrating

[38:18] when the information is right before

[38:19] their eyes it's

[38:21] documented in peer-reviewed papers and

[38:23] journals

[38:25] it's there for everybody to see but the

[38:27] environmental organizations

[38:29] are refusing to act nowhere do you find

[38:32] in their policies and nowhere do you

[38:34] find in the greenpeace

[38:36] mission that diet is important

[38:39] that animal agriculture is the problem

[38:43] they are refusing like other

[38:44] environmental organizations to

[38:46] look at the issue the environmental

[38:49] community

[38:50] is failing us and they're failing

[38:52] ecosystems

[38:54] and it's so frustrating to see them do

[38:58] this

[39:02] nrdc the earth's best defense

[39:05] all right so here they actually do have

[39:08] a few things

[39:09] on animal agriculture

[39:16] the leading cause of environmental

[39:18] degradation is

[39:21] too much pollution and too much too many

[39:24] too many engines churning too fast

[39:28] in too many places around the globe

[39:31] lately in 2009 world watch report that

[39:34] livestock causes

[39:35] 51 of greenhouse gas emissions and

[39:38] transportation is around 13 and then the

[39:40] low end

[39:41] you end was around 18 to 30 which is

[39:44] more than all transportation

[39:46] all put together national

[39:49] internationally

[39:50] or nationally yeah

[39:53] i i think energy production

[39:57] and transportation are still major

[40:00] sources so i think

[40:01] um i don't i guess i'm not going to

[40:03] comment on that because i'm not familiar

[40:05] with those numbers

[40:06] so it's don't don't quote me on this but

[40:10] that's cow farts that's what

[40:11] i think what that is

[40:14] [Music]

[40:16] i think that's cow farts

[40:23] well that's part of the story methane

[40:25] production from cows and other livestock

[40:27] flatulence

[40:27] is a major contributor but mostly it is

[40:30] due to deforestation in the waste they

[40:32] produce

[40:32] which is 130 times more waste than the

[40:35] entire human population

[40:37] virtually all without the benefit of any

[40:39] waste treatment

[40:42] nrdc absolutely as i said has a

[40:45] big food program in fact we just every

[40:48] year we do the growing green awards

[40:50] and we recognize food innovators and

[40:53] this

[40:53] last year one of the awardees was a

[40:58] sustainable pork producer actually that

[41:01] doesn't use any

[41:02] uh antibiotics and um and also the the

[41:06] antibiotic use that

[41:07] um industrial food production in the

[41:10] united states

[41:12] is uses right now is you know we're

[41:14] giving the majority of

[41:16] uh antibiotics in the united states are

[41:20] administered to healthy livestock

[41:22] [Music]

[41:25] i wanted to visit one of these

[41:26] sustainable farms

[41:29] i found the markigard grass-fed beef

[41:30] farm on the lush misty california coast

[41:34] [Music]

[41:42] i met eric and donegal marker guard and

[41:44] their four children

[41:48] leah and larry are usually up at six and

[41:50] out

[41:51] milking the cows slopping the hogs

[42:03] all together we graze about

[42:06] 4 500 acres and

[42:10] this is our home ranch and this is

[42:13] 952 acres of that

[42:18] on average it's about one cow or

[42:21] cow and a calf per every 10 acres

[42:27] we would produce annually roughly eighty

[42:30] thousand

[42:31] pounds of finished plate ready

[42:34] meat

[42:38] [Music]

[42:42] we keep about 10 pigs in a roughly

[42:47] a 50-acre area and we move them around

[42:50] in 10-acre pastures

[42:53] some people think that pigs are dirty

[42:56] but and gross of i really like them they

[42:59] have they know

[43:00] people and they'll be friends and

[43:04] really nice and they could be

[43:08] like your best friend or could be like

[43:20] why shouldn't you bond with them

[43:26] these pigs are um about

[43:29] seven months old now so um these bigger

[43:33] ones are getting ready to be killed

[43:34] those

[43:35] two smaller ones there you know they

[43:37] could grow up a few

[43:38] few more months i i love

[43:42] i love animals and i that's that's why

[43:45] i'm in the meat business

[43:47] it's what more of society needs to see

[43:51] is that that packaged piece of meat

[43:54] is a living animal living and breathing

[43:59] creature that uh yeah it's hard

[44:03] it's hard but like what donegan said

[44:06] earlier we do it because we love them

[44:10] with the land use there's anywhere

[44:12] between

[44:13] with industrial as low as 2 to 2.5 acres

[44:17] per

[44:19] cow all the way up to some depending

[44:21] it's not as

[44:22] lush as this up to 35 acres yeah we have

[44:25] a ranch in south dakota that's

[44:27] 50 acres yeah it's about 50 acres yeah

[44:31] and why is that uh same thing it was

[44:34] just

[44:35] farmed and robbed of all the nitrogen

[44:37] you know it's also seasonal right

[44:39] it's all so seasonal is it possible

[44:43] and is it practical for the whole world

[44:45] to

[44:46] say grow have grass-fed cattle and like

[44:49] say brazil

[44:50] where you know 80 suppose 80 of

[44:53] the rainforest was destroyed for

[44:56] for a cattle um what are your thoughts

[44:58] on that

[45:00] they shouldn't be eating beef

[45:04] if their environment wasn't designed to

[45:07] raise

[45:08] beef then they shouldn't be eating it

[45:10] yeah how do you offset the carbon

[45:12] footprint of livestock

[45:16] uh

[45:19] we don't feel like livestock have a

[45:22] carbon footprint

[45:24] i left there feeling confused and as far

[45:27] as grass-fed beef not having a carbon

[45:29] footprint it actually sounded like it

[45:30] could make sense until i added up the

[45:32] numbers on land use and population

[45:34] if we were to use the marker guard model

[45:36] of raising animals which requires 4 500

[45:38] acres producing 80 000 pounds of meat

[45:40] the average american eats 209 pounds of

[45:42] meat per year if that was all grass-fed

[45:44] beef only 382 people could be fed on

[45:47] their land

[45:47] that equates to 11.7 acres per person

[45:50] times 314 million americans

[45:53] which equals 3.7 billion acres of

[45:55] grazing land

[45:56] unfortunately there are only 1.9 billion

[45:59] acres in the us's lower 48 states

[46:02] currently nearly half of all united

[46:03] states land is already dedicated to

[46:05] animal agriculture

[46:06] if we were to switch over to grass-fed

[46:08] beef it would require clearing

[46:09] every square inch of the united states

[46:11] up into canada all of central america

[46:14] and well into south america and this is

[46:16] just to feed the united states demand on

[46:18] meat

[46:19] but that figure doesn't even take into

[46:21] consideration that much of that land

[46:22] isn't suited to grey's livestock we

[46:24] would have to convert

[46:25] all mountain ranges to grassland clear

[46:28] ancient forests and national parks to

[46:30] grazing

[46:31] and demolish every city just to make

[46:34] room to graze cows

[46:35] just like brazil the united states isn't

[46:38] suited to meet the demands for meat

[46:40] it takes 23 months for a grass-fed

[46:42] animal to grow to the point

[46:44] to the size and age that it's

[46:45] slaughtered whereas a grain fed

[46:47] takes 15 months so that's an additional

[46:50] eight months

[46:51] of water use land use feed

[46:54] waste and in terms of a carbon footprint

[46:57] it's a huge difference

[46:58] turns out due to land use grass-fed beef

[47:01] is more unsustainable than even factory

[47:04] farming

[47:05] i had to come to terms with the fact

[47:07] there was no way to sustainably raise

[47:09] enough

[47:10] animals to feed the world's current

[47:11] demand on meat and had my doubts on

[47:13] dairy as well

[47:14] but i did want to talk with a premier

[47:16] organic dairy company

[47:17] to see if they believe their product was

[47:19] sustainable for the world's population

[47:21] it requires a lot of inputs to produce

[47:24] milk

[47:25] the feed the water the land it does

[47:29] and it may not be practical to expect

[47:32] that there can be enough dairy

[47:34] production produced

[47:35] in a sustainable way to to feed the

[47:38] entire world

[47:39] i just don't think that that's

[47:41] necessarily a given

[47:43] i think it's maybe too too much to

[47:45] expect

[47:46] that the world can be fed with dairy

[47:50] in a sustainable way i don't know the

[47:52] answer but common sense would say

[47:56] that's that's a long shot i was shocked

[47:58] to hear such an honest answer

[48:00] if this is what the dairy's ceo would

[48:02] say i wonder what the farmer would claim

[48:05] based on their marketing it seemed their

[48:07] farms were an oasis for cows

[48:14] it was not what i expected

[48:28] typically a cow will eat 140 to 150

[48:32] pounds of feed a day

[48:34] 40 to 50 pounds of feed every day and

[48:37] then she's also going to drink

[48:38] between 30 and 40 gallons of water

[48:42] probably go through about probably 20

[48:45] tons per week

[48:47] 20 tons of grain per week primarily for

[48:51] our milking cows so about 250 cows

[48:56] yeah so the biggest part of

[48:57] sustainability to me

[48:59] the number one thing on the list should

[49:00] be profitability

[49:03] so how the process completely works

[49:06] start to finish

[49:07] is the cow needs to have a baby in order

[49:08] to give milk and so she'll have her baby

[49:11] that baby is going to stay

[49:12] with the mother for at least two days

[49:15] the babies will go

[49:16] off to our calf raising facility so they

[49:18] have an individual hutch that they'll be

[49:19] raised in

[49:20] since we're a dairy it's only the girl

[49:22] cows that give us milk

[49:24] so the boys on typical dairies they're

[49:26] sold off to beef raising facilities

[49:28] but we do keep approximately half and we

[49:31] raise them for two years and sell them

[49:32] as organic grass-fed beef

[49:34] so all dairy cows eventually go to the

[49:36] beef industry

[49:40] at some point in time she's really going

[49:41] to drop off and so you have to make a

[49:42] business decision at that point

[49:44] are you going to keep investing in her

[49:46] you know to give milk or are you going

[49:48] to sell her off

[49:48] again to another dairy or to into the

[49:51] beef industry

[50:02] there's very few places on this planet

[50:04] that have this type of environment

[50:06] but the demand on dairy-based protein in

[50:08] the world is only going to increase

[50:10] and there's not enough land on the

[50:11] planet to do this type of daring

[50:14] um around the world it's just the uh

[50:17] environment is not going to be that way

[50:18] the land's not there

[50:20] so i guess on a global scale a

[50:21] conclusion would be dairy is not

[50:24] sustainable unless we start digging up

[50:28] houses and putting pastures back

[50:32] and the only way to start digging up

[50:33] houses and development is to have less

[50:35] people

[50:36] but we all we only know that you know

[50:38] population is going to continue to grow

[50:42] so that means more commercial daring i'm

[50:44] sure either that or some

[50:46] low demand yeah or some other products

[50:49] going to take its place i mean we

[50:50] see there's certain all sorts of you

[50:52] know soy milks and almond milk and

[50:54] a lot of other products that are coming

[50:56] out and different blends

[50:58] you know where you take juices and and

[51:00] proteins and i think you'll see a lot

[51:01] more of that

[51:02] he was right how could cow's milk be

[51:05] sustainable

[51:05] for when one gallon of milk it takes

[51:07] upwards of a thousand gallons of water

[51:09] to produce

[51:11] doing research on grass-fed livestock i

[51:13] kept coming across the work of alan

[51:15] savory

[51:16] almost a third of the planet's land is

[51:18] becoming desert

[51:19] with a vast majority due to livestock

[51:21] grazing

[51:22] savory claims that the best way to

[51:24] reverse this desertification

[51:26] is to actually graze more animals this

[51:29] reminded me of oceana saying the best

[51:30] way to help fish

[51:31] is to eat fish this is the same man

[51:34] during the 1950s working as a research

[51:36] officer for the game department of what

[51:38] is now zimbabwe

[51:39] came up with a theory in spite of

[51:41] scientific evidence that actually

[51:43] elephants were the cause of

[51:45] desertification there his solution was

[51:47] convincing the government to kill

[51:49] 40 000 elephants

[51:55] yet after 14 years of relentless

[51:58] slaughter

[51:59] the conditions only got worse

[52:03] his theory was wrong

[52:06] the culling finally ended but not until

[52:08] tens of thousands of elephants and their

[52:10] families were killed

[52:13] this is not someone i would ever take

[52:14] ecological advice from

[52:27] it turns out the cattle industry is

[52:29] having the same effect on wildlife in

[52:31] the united states

[52:33] the government has been rounding up

[52:34] horses in mass and we now have

[52:37] more wild horses and boroughs and

[52:38] government holding facilities fifty

[52:40] thousand

[52:40] wild horses from boroughs and government

[52:42] holding facilities than we have free on

[52:44] the range

[52:44] basically you have ranchers who get to

[52:46] graze on our public lands

[52:48] for a fraction of the going rate so

[52:50] they're getting like this huge tax

[52:52] subsidy it's about 1 15 of the going

[52:54] rate

[52:54] and what the bureau of land management

[52:56] has to do is say how much forage and

[52:58] water is on the land

[52:59] and then they divvy it up they give so

[53:01] much to the cows so much to

[53:02] you know wildlife and so much to the

[53:04] wild horses and burrows

[53:06] and what we see is the lion's share of

[53:08] the forage and waters going to

[53:10] the livestock industry and then they

[53:12] scapegoat the horses and burrows and say

[53:14] oh there are too many horses and burros

[53:16] let's remove them

[53:18] i always tell people that wild horses

[53:20] and burros are just one of the victims

[53:22] of the management of our public lands

[53:24] for livestock because

[53:25] we also see the predator killing going

[53:27] on we know

[53:28] wolves are now being targeted by

[53:30] ranchers to get rid of wolves

[53:32] usda has aircraft and all they do is

[53:35] aerial gunning of predators

[53:36] so all rancher does is call up and say

[53:38] i've got coyote here

[53:39] they'll come over and they'll shoot the

[53:41] coyote or they'll shoot the mountain

[53:42] lion or they'll shoot the bobcat

[53:44] and this is all for ranching in

[53:47] washington state

[53:48] after cattle were found to be attacked

[53:52] on public lands where they were grazing

[53:54] under permit

[53:56] washington state decided to

[53:59] kill the entire wedge pack of walls

[54:03] and those wolves were not introduced

[54:05] they had in-migrated from canada

[54:07] but they're no longer there it starts at

[54:10] the

[54:11] local level with the bureau of land

[54:12] management but then it goes all the way

[54:14] to congress

[54:15] and we see congress you know sitting

[54:17] there willing to allow this type of

[54:19] mismanagement of our public lands to

[54:21] continue

[54:22] it is the insistence of and the lobbying

[54:25] power

[54:25] of the animal agriculture industry

[54:29] that continues to see wolves killed

[54:33] continues to see an insistence that

[54:35] predators be maintained at a low

[54:37] level that does not benefit ecosystems

[54:41] i've seen so many pieces of land i've

[54:43] looked at so many environmental

[54:44] assessments

[54:45] from the bureau of land management where

[54:47] they say the rangelands are not meeting

[54:49] standards

[54:50] and they say straight up livestock

[54:52] raising is a cause for not meeting range

[54:54] standards

[54:55] and yet they will continue to allow

[54:57] livestock grazing

[54:58] they're at the very core of

[55:02] making sure that cougars are treated by

[55:05] hounds

[55:06] and the wolf packs are run down and that

[55:09] hunting seasons

[55:10] are opened up year round and that

[55:13] traps are set so that they can suffer if

[55:16] anyone cares about wild horses and

[55:18] wildlife

[55:19] and public lands and the environment you

[55:21] can't ignore

[55:22] the livestock the impact the negative

[55:24] impact that livestock grazing is having

[55:26] on our public lands in the west i've

[55:28] added up the

[55:29] costs of animal food production that the

[55:33] producers don't actually bear themselves

[55:35] these are the hidden costs or the

[55:37] externalized costs that they impose on

[55:39] society

[55:40] and those are in categories like health

[55:42] care environmental damage

[55:44] subsidies damage to fisheries and even

[55:47] cruelty

[55:48] if you take those externalized costs

[55:50] which are about 414 billion dollars

[55:53] if if the meat and dairy industries were

[55:56] required to internalize those costs if

[55:58] they had to bear those costs themselves

[56:00] the costs of the retail prices of meat

[56:03] and dairy

[56:04] would skyrocket so a five dollar carton

[56:07] of eggs would go to thirteen dollars a

[56:09] four dollar big mac

[56:11] would go to eleven dollars the the

[56:13] problem with these externalized costs

[56:15] being

[56:16] imposed on society is that whether you

[56:18] eat meat or not whether you're an

[56:20] omnivore

[56:20] or an herbivore you are paying part of

[56:23] the costs

[56:24] of somebody else's consumption so that

[56:27] when somebody goes into a mcdonald's and

[56:28] buys a big mac for four dollars

[56:30] there's another seven dollars of costs

[56:32] that's imposed on society

[56:34] i'm paying that you're paying that

[56:36] whether you eat meat or not

[56:37] when you really look at who's benefiting

[56:39] and who's lobbied

[56:40] for this system of agriculture it's the

[56:43] largest

[56:44] food producers in the country and the

[56:47] largest meat producers

[56:48] and once they become so large and

[56:51] wealthy then they can dictate

[56:53] the federal policies around producing

[56:56] food

[56:57] because they have so much political

[57:00] power

[57:01] was this why al gore even during his

[57:03] vice presidency never addressed the

[57:05] issue of animal agriculture and failed

[57:07] to talk about it in his film an

[57:08] inconvenient truth

[57:09] or his organization the climate reality

[57:11] project was this truth just too

[57:13] inconvenient for even him

[57:15] i felt led down by the man who inspired

[57:18] me on this entire path

[57:20] i knew i needed to talk to an animal

[57:22] agriculture lobby group

[57:23] to see what they had to say if they

[57:25] could silence the government are they

[57:27] influencing and possibly have

[57:28] connections to these environmental

[57:30] groups as well

[57:32] animal agriculture alliance one of the

[57:33] biggest livestock lobby groups in

[57:34] america has agreed to an interview

[57:36] greenpeace won't give us an interview

[57:39] but animal agriculture alliance has

[57:40] agreed to an interview

[57:42] now that now that is saying something

[57:46] people hear the word gmos and that's a

[57:49] really scary term and again

[57:51] i think agriculture has kind of

[57:52] struggled to explain what that means

[57:54] but in reality what we've done is to

[57:58] use technology to make advancements in

[58:01] how we raise crops and how we raise

[58:03] animals we're not going to feed the

[58:04] world going back to

[58:06] how it was a hundred years ago where all

[58:08] the animals were you know pasture fed

[58:10] we didn't just move animals inside and

[58:13] just

[58:13] implement these large vertically

[58:15] integrated systems because of

[58:17] sustainability

[58:18] it certainly reduces the environmental

[58:20] impact while

[58:21] improving animal well-being and food

[58:23] safety

[58:24] so the just saying that animals like it

[58:27] just as much being inside

[58:28] the chickens and the cows like being

[58:30] just as much inside as

[58:32] pasture grass fed in a lot of cases it's

[58:35] been a significant improvement in their

[58:37] well-being just in terms of the amount

[58:39] of care they can get

[58:40] individualized care does the meat and

[58:42] dairy industry ever support or donate to

[58:44] environmental nonprofits

[58:47] i don't know that i would want to

[58:48] comment on that yeah

[58:50] i i don't i don't know

[58:55] that we would know what

[58:57] i don't know that we would know what

[58:57] they donate to or dumped

[58:58] me too does mean dairy industry

[59:02] ever support or donate to say greenpeace

[59:06] again i don't know that i would feel

[59:08] comfortable

[59:12] hey sorry we didn't get back to you

[59:14] earlier i have some bad news

[59:16] unfortunately we are no longer able to

[59:18] fund your film project

[59:20] we had a meeting and due to the growing

[59:22] controversial subject matter we have

[59:24] some concerns that

[59:25] we have to pull out why was this subject

[59:27] so controversial

[59:29] the first person i could think to speak

[59:31] with was howard lyman who had been sued

[59:33] by cattlemen for simply speaking the

[59:35] truth about animal agriculture

[59:36] on the oprah winfrey show

[59:41] i was born on the largest dairy farm in

[59:43] the state of montana in 1938

[59:48] grew up my entire life on a

[59:52] livestock farm went to montana state

[59:55] university got a degree in agriculture

[59:58] came back and started a

[01:00:02] mega agriculture endeavor where i had uh

[01:00:07] ten thousand acres of crop uh seven

[01:00:10] thousand head of cattle and uh

[01:00:13] about 30 employees so i spent 45 years

[01:00:17] of my life in

[01:00:19] animal agriculture and so

[01:00:22] i've been there done that when i was on

[01:00:26] the oprah show we had the food

[01:00:27] disparagement law

[01:00:29] now the food disparagement law in my

[01:00:31] opinion was

[01:00:32] unconstitutional but what it basically

[01:00:35] said

[01:00:36] that it was against the law to say

[01:00:38] something you knew to be

[01:00:40] false about a perishable commodity

[01:00:43] i didn't say anything on the oprah show

[01:00:45] i thought to be false

[01:00:47] i went there and told the truth now it

[01:00:50] took five

[01:00:51] years and hundreds of thousands of

[01:00:54] dollars to

[01:00:56] end up expecting myself from

[01:00:59] the suits from the cattle industry

[01:01:03] but if i was to go on the oprah show

[01:01:07] today

[01:01:09] say exactly the same thing today that i

[01:01:11] said

[01:01:12] back then i would be guilty

[01:01:16] and for me when they were talking about

[01:01:19] the food disparagement law

[01:01:21] it was the fact of whether i told the

[01:01:24] truth or not

[01:01:26] you can go today and tell the truth

[01:01:30] and you will be guilty because if you

[01:01:34] cause a disruption in the profits

[01:01:38] of the animal industry you're guilty

[01:01:42] under the patriot act

[01:01:45] do you think there should be any concern

[01:01:48] of us making this documentary of course

[01:01:52] if you don't realize right now that

[01:01:54] you're putting your neck on the chopping

[01:01:56] block

[01:01:58] you know you you better take that camera

[01:02:01] and throw it away

[01:02:04] the animal agriculture industry is one

[01:02:07] of the most powerful industries on the

[01:02:08] planet

[01:02:09] i think most people in this country are

[01:02:11] aware of the influence of

[01:02:12] money and industry on politics and we

[01:02:15] really see that clearly on display

[01:02:17] with this industry in particular most

[01:02:19] people would be shocked to learn that

[01:02:20] animal rights and environmental

[01:02:21] activists are the number one domestic

[01:02:23] terrorism threat

[01:02:24] according to the fbi and why is that

[01:02:27] it's a difficult question to answer why

[01:02:29] these groups are at the

[01:02:30] top of the fbi's priorities i think a

[01:02:32] big part of it

[01:02:34] is that they more than really any other

[01:02:36] social movements today

[01:02:37] are directly threatening corporate

[01:02:39] profits you know when we try to find out

[01:02:41] how factory farms and how animal

[01:02:44] agriculture

[01:02:45] is putting the environment they try to

[01:02:46] claim exemptions to that information

[01:02:48] either under national security terms or

[01:02:50] public safety

[01:02:52] trademark issues business it's a

[01:02:54] business secret we've seen all these

[01:02:56] attempts

[01:02:57] to keep people in the dark about what

[01:02:58] they're actually doing in one of the

[01:03:00] largest industries on the planet

[01:03:02] with the biggest environmental impact

[01:03:04] trying to keep us in the dark about how

[01:03:05] it's operating through the freedom of

[01:03:07] information act we obtained documents

[01:03:08] from the counterterrorism unit

[01:03:10] that showed they were monitoring my

[01:03:12] lectures media interviews like this one

[01:03:15] my website my book we risk filming this

[01:03:18] and

[01:03:18] showing it you're going up against

[01:03:20] people that have massive legal resources

[01:03:23] i mean it's just overwhelming the amount

[01:03:25] of money at their disposal

[01:03:27] and you have nothing and i think that

[01:03:29] fear is a big part of the tactic

[01:03:31] as well will was right i was scared

[01:03:35] when i learned about the activists being

[01:03:36] killed in brazil i was disturbed but i

[01:03:38] felt removed

[01:03:39] but to learn about american activists

[01:03:41] and journalists being targeted by the

[01:03:43] industry and fbi

[01:03:44] my funding being dropped i was genuinely

[01:03:47] worried to hit close to home

[01:03:49] was this why no one was willing to talk

[01:03:51] about the issue

[01:03:53] i decided to take precautionary measures

[01:03:54] with all the footage i shot

[01:04:05] i was beyond frightened to imagine what

[01:04:07] could possibly happen if i pursued this

[01:04:09] subject any further

[01:04:10] it seemed the only decision to make was

[01:04:12] to put down the cameras and walk away

[01:04:18] but then i realized this issue was way

[01:04:21] bigger than any personal concern i could

[01:04:23] ever have for myself

[01:04:24] this was about all life on earth hanging

[01:04:26] in the balance of our actions

[01:04:28] now you either live for something or die

[01:04:30] for nothing

[01:04:31] and i actually had no choice all along i

[01:04:34] decided then to surrender not to fear

[01:04:36] from a secret

[01:04:37] but rather to a cause towards truth i

[01:04:39] couldn't be like these environmental

[01:04:41] organizations and sit silently while the

[01:04:43] planet was being eaten alive right in

[01:04:44] front of our eyes

[01:04:46] i had to stand up and continue on

[01:04:56] some people would say the problem isn't

[01:04:58] really animal agriculture but actually

[01:05:00] human overpopulation

[01:05:04] in 1812 there are 1 billion people on

[01:05:06] the planet in 1912 there are 1.5 billion

[01:05:10] then just 100 years later our population

[01:05:13] exploded

[01:05:14] to 7 billion humans this number is

[01:05:16] rightly given a great deal of attention

[01:05:18] but an even more important figure when

[01:05:20] determining world population

[01:05:22] is the world's 70 billion farm animals

[01:05:25] humans raise

[01:05:28] the human population drinks 5.2 billion

[01:05:31] gallons of water every day

[01:05:32] and eats 21 billion pounds of food but

[01:05:35] just the world's 1.5 billion cows alone

[01:05:38] drink 45 billion gallons of water every

[01:05:41] day and eat 135 billion pounds of food

[01:05:45] this isn't so much a human population

[01:05:46] issue it's a human eating

[01:05:48] animal's population issue environmental

[01:05:51] organizations not addressing this

[01:05:53] is like health organizations trying to

[01:05:54] stop lung cancer without addressing

[01:05:56] cigarette smoking but instead of

[01:05:58] second-hand smoking it's secondhand

[01:06:00] eating

[01:06:01] which affects the entire planet we're

[01:06:03] growing enough

[01:06:04] food right now in the world to feed

[01:06:07] between 12 and 15 billion people we only

[01:06:09] have seven billion people

[01:06:10] we have roughly a billion people

[01:06:13] starving every single day

[01:06:15] worldwide fifty percent of the grain and

[01:06:18] legumes that were growing

[01:06:19] were feeding to animals so they're

[01:06:21] eating huge amounts of grain

[01:06:22] and legumes and in the united states

[01:06:24] it's more like closer to 70

[01:06:26] 80 depending on which grain it is 90

[01:06:28] about 90 percent of the soybean

[01:06:30] 82 of the world starving children live

[01:06:33] in

[01:06:34] countries where food is fed to animals

[01:06:37] in the livestock

[01:06:38] systems that are then killed and eaten

[01:06:40] by more well-off individuals in

[01:06:41] developed countries such as the us

[01:06:43] uk and in europe the fact of it is that

[01:06:45] we could feed

[01:06:46] every human being on the planet today

[01:06:49] an adequate diet if we did no more than

[01:06:53] take the

[01:06:54] feed that we are feeding to animals

[01:06:57] and actually turn it into food for

[01:06:59] humans

[01:07:00] and so somebody trying to justify

[01:07:03] gmos that's like trying to give a

[01:07:06] drowning man a drink of water

[01:07:09] you can produce on average 15 times

[01:07:12] more protein from plant-based sources

[01:07:15] than from meat on any given area of land

[01:07:18] whether it's a

[01:07:20] using the same type of land whether it's

[01:07:21] a very fertile area in one area of the

[01:07:23] world

[01:07:24] or it's an area that's depleted we would

[01:07:26] reduce the amount of meat we're eating

[01:07:28] in dairy and eggs we could allow all

[01:07:30] these

[01:07:31] mono cropped fields of genetically

[01:07:32] engineered corn and soybeans

[01:07:34] to revert back to forests again to be

[01:07:36] habitat for animals

[01:07:38] you know anytime somebody tells you that

[01:07:41] we can't grow

[01:07:42] food for humans on the land that we're

[01:07:45] growing feed for animals

[01:07:48] this is somebody that if milking the

[01:07:50] number one crop out of california

[01:07:52] the the fact of it is if you can grow

[01:07:56] corn to stuff down the throat of an

[01:07:58] animal you can

[01:07:59] actually grow corn and feed it to a

[01:08:01] human

[01:08:02] um you encourage people eat less meat

[01:08:05] and for the tremendous resources

[01:08:06] required and the toll on the environment

[01:08:08] and on the animals and on the animals

[01:08:11] and the workers in the system and it's a

[01:08:12] brutal system at every level

[01:08:14] as the world population continues to

[01:08:17] grow to almost 9 billion people

[01:08:19] do you foresee someday that we might

[01:08:21] just completely have to stop eating meat

[01:08:22] altogether

[01:08:24] i don't know that will completely stop i

[01:08:27] think that the amount of meat eaten will

[01:08:28] decline i i there's no way to support 9

[01:08:31] ounces per person per day which is what

[01:08:33] americans are eating now

[01:08:35] if the chinese alone decide they want to

[01:08:37] eat that much and they've decided they

[01:08:38] want to eat that much

[01:08:40] there's an you know we just can't we

[01:08:41] don't have enough world

[01:08:43] uh to produce the grain to generate that

[01:08:45] much meat

[01:08:46] um i think we you know a plant-based

[01:08:48] diet is

[01:08:49] is the most sustainable what do you

[01:08:51] recommend see

[01:08:53] nine billion people can eat for the

[01:08:54] planet to not only sustain but to thrive

[01:08:57] would you throw out a number like a an

[01:08:58] ounce one ounce oh

[01:09:00] per meat including dairy like yeah i i

[01:09:03] don't think i

[01:09:04] i don't know enough um but yeah it would

[01:09:06] be on the order of a couple ounces a

[01:09:08] week

[01:09:09] you know it's not going to be uh the way

[01:09:12] we're eating it now we're gorging on

[01:09:13] meat we're eating huge amounts

[01:09:15] and does that include cheese too yeah

[01:09:19] yeah cheese and milk only two ounces a

[01:09:22] week

[01:09:22] seem like nothing people could probably

[01:09:24] raise that in their own backyard

[01:09:26] maybe backyard farming was a sustainable

[01:09:28] solution i have 42 ducks

[01:09:30] i started off with three ducks three

[01:09:32] years ago

[01:09:34] and then those uh burdened into a

[01:09:36] population

[01:09:38] i buy 75 pound bag of seed

[01:09:41] that seed bag will last me right now

[01:09:43] about two weeks

[01:09:45] the ducks now that we're going to be

[01:09:47] calling are about two years old

[01:09:50] when you're living with them they get

[01:09:51] used to you you know they don't

[01:09:54] they're not intimidated or whatever and

[01:09:56] so they make all their vocal sounds

[01:09:57] like natural go down

[01:10:04] easy easy easy easy

[01:10:08] okay

[01:10:13] now we're gonna keep you

[01:10:17] run these two go first

[01:10:24] being smart wise

[01:10:28] um compared to a chicken

[01:10:31] they're probably the same

[01:10:40] yeah he is

[01:10:44] all righty

[01:10:50] okay

[01:10:54] right there

[01:11:11] that's going to be a little gruesome

[01:11:18] they're not that's uh nerves

[01:11:21] a nerve reaction

[01:11:26] five years old or something like that i

[01:11:28] think it was the first time my dad

[01:11:31] came out and made us watch as we

[01:11:34] did rabbits and

[01:11:38] we'd raise probably a couple dozen

[01:11:40] rabbits each year

[01:11:43] and then we would take those rabbits and

[01:11:46] skin them

[01:11:48] and clean them up and keep them for food

[01:11:50] as a young kid i was

[01:11:52] kind of i don't want to say it was hard

[01:11:55] but it was kind of

[01:11:57] from my memory

[01:12:00] because some of the some of the rabbits

[01:12:01] i had named so it was kind of like going

[01:12:04] you're

[01:12:04] going but

[01:12:08] after doing it a couple times you kind

[01:12:09] of just learned it's just something that

[01:12:11] has to be done

[01:12:19] not the fingers

[01:12:30] i just can't do it i don't think i could

[01:12:32] i don't think i could have someone else

[01:12:33] do it for me

[01:12:34] if i can't do it if i can't do it i

[01:12:36] don't want someone else doing it for me

[01:12:40] and then sustainability for seeing

[01:12:42] sustainability

[01:12:44] 75 pounds is 2 pounds

[01:12:47] per so it's a pound per week

[01:12:50] per duck uh 52

[01:12:53] weeks 110 so it's 110 pounds

[01:12:57] of food for one

[01:13:00] one and a half pound of meat so on a

[01:13:03] sustainability

[01:13:04] issue it's 101

[01:13:08] and that green gets you know you know

[01:13:10] where that green comes from

[01:13:12] but i mean when it gets to this point

[01:13:14] it's not even about sustainability is uh

[01:13:16] it was just uh you know i don't feel

[01:13:19] real good inside

[01:13:21] first time i've ever seen that so

[01:13:30] i had been so caught up in the

[01:13:31] destruction caused by animal agriculture

[01:13:33] i realized i'd never truly dwelled on

[01:13:35] the obvious reality that every one of

[01:13:37] these animals was killed

[01:13:39] it was always a disconnected abstract

[01:13:41] fact of eating meat but when it became

[01:13:43] personal

[01:13:44] face to face the story changed

[01:13:48] i had already scheduled weeks in advance

[01:13:50] to film another backyard slaughter of a

[01:13:52] chicken that stopped producing eggs

[01:13:54] i didn't know how it was going to

[01:13:56] possibly go through another slaughter

[01:13:59] so i didn't

[01:14:03] [Music]

[01:14:19] animal place is a farm animal sanctuary

[01:14:21] in northern california that focuses on

[01:14:23] rescuing animals from the animal

[01:14:25] agriculture industry

[01:14:27] a lot of people don't realize that uh

[01:14:28] meat breed chickens like this guy behind

[01:14:31] us

[01:14:31] they're generally slaughtered about 42

[01:14:33] days old

[01:14:34] whereas chickens that are bred for egg

[01:14:37] production

[01:14:38] are killed when they're when their

[01:14:40] productivity starts to decrease when

[01:14:42] they start laying less eggs

[01:14:45] and that generally happens about 18

[01:14:47] months to

[01:14:48] 20 months it doesn't matter if you buy

[01:14:51] cage

[01:14:52] eggs eggs from hens on cage free farms

[01:14:54] or free range farms or pasture-based

[01:14:56] farms hi carol

[01:14:58] it doesn't matter it turns out there's a

[01:15:00] successful movement of sustainable

[01:15:02] animal alternative food producers based

[01:15:04] right here in california

[01:15:06] funded by big names like bill gates and

[01:15:07] bis stone

[01:15:09] when you imagine all those egg laying

[01:15:10] hands eating all that soy and all that

[01:15:12] corn you have an

[01:15:13] energy conversion ratio at about 38 to

[01:15:15] one whereas alternatively

[01:15:17] you can find plants and you can grow

[01:15:20] those plants and you can convert those

[01:15:21] plants into food

[01:15:22] and the energy conversion ratio for the

[01:15:24] plants that we're using to replace the

[01:15:26] eggs

[01:15:27] is about two to one compared to 38 to

[01:15:29] one for eggs

[01:15:31] so our explicit goal is to have the

[01:15:33] maximum amount of

[01:15:34] impact by creating this new model that

[01:15:37] makes the global egg industry entirely

[01:15:40] obsolete

[01:15:40] we're making the omega products and

[01:15:42] proving that we can make better tasting

[01:15:44] food

[01:15:45] that's great for you and it takes 1 20th

[01:15:47] of the land and resources

[01:15:49] that dairy do so i could tell you that

[01:15:51] you could have the fiber structure of

[01:15:53] meat the satiating bite of meat

[01:15:55] the protein and all the nutritional

[01:15:57] benefits of meat without actually having

[01:15:59] animal protein itself

[01:16:00] and by doing that you could address

[01:16:01] climate change you could address the

[01:16:03] human health epidemics that we're seeing

[01:16:05] you could address animal welfare and you

[01:16:06] could address natural resource

[01:16:07] conservation

[01:16:08] would you make the change but what if

[01:16:09] people just ate less animal products

[01:16:12] like going meatless on mondays when you

[01:16:14] go meatless on monday if you

[01:16:15] ascribe to that campaign you're

[01:16:17] essentially contributing

[01:16:19] to climate change pollution depletion of

[01:16:22] our planet's resources and your own

[01:16:23] health

[01:16:24] than on only six days of the week ins

[01:16:27] instead of seven

[01:16:28] uh you're creating a false justification

[01:16:30] clearly

[01:16:31] a false sense of justification for what

[01:16:33] you're doing on those other six days of

[01:16:35] the week

[01:16:35] so in other words you know we really

[01:16:37] shouldn't be resting on our laurels

[01:16:39] of what you do right only one-seventh of

[01:16:42] the time

[01:16:44] you can't be an environmentalist and eat

[01:16:47] animal products

[01:16:48] period kid yourself if you want if you

[01:16:50] want to feed your addiction

[01:16:52] so be it but don't call yourself an

[01:16:55] environmentalist

[01:16:57] i knew i had to stop eating all animal

[01:16:59] products

[01:17:00] i wanted to help the planet be

[01:17:01] sustainable but i needed to sustain

[01:17:03] myself

[01:17:04] i had doubts about being healthy and not

[01:17:06] eating meat dairy and eggs

[01:17:07] all i knew was a standard american diet

[01:17:09] i grew up on

[01:17:11] is it even possible to be a healthy

[01:17:12] vegetarian or vegan

[01:17:14] is it possibly a healthy vegetarian or

[01:17:16] vegan i

[01:17:18] became vegan for let's see 32 years ago

[01:17:22] now

[01:17:22] and i run several miles every day

[01:17:26] i go biking 40 50 miles to the

[01:17:28] countryside i work

[01:17:30] long hours i feel great it's nice waking

[01:17:32] up in a light trim body every day

[01:17:34] and so many of my vegan friends and

[01:17:36] patients you know are just

[01:17:37] you know they're thriving and since

[01:17:39] their transition to a vegan diet

[01:17:41] so yes and i've seen vegan moms go

[01:17:43] through healthy vegan pregnancies and

[01:17:45] deliver healthy vegan children

[01:17:46] and raise them to tall full-size

[01:17:49] intelligent vegan adults

[01:17:51] and yes certainly all the nutrients are

[01:17:54] there in the plant kingdom to do this

[01:17:56] that is correct think anyone should be

[01:17:59] consuming dairy i really don't

[01:18:03] when you think about it the purpose of

[01:18:05] cow's milk i did most my growing up on a

[01:18:07] dairy farm in wisconsin

[01:18:09] the purpose of cow's milk is to turn a

[01:18:12] 65-pound calf

[01:18:14] into a 400-pound cow as rapidly as

[01:18:18] possible

[01:18:19] cow's milk is baby calf

[01:18:22] growth fluid that's what this stuff is

[01:18:26] everything in that white liquid the

[01:18:29] hormones the lipids the proteins the

[01:18:31] sodium the growth factors the igf

[01:18:33] all every one of those is meant to blow

[01:18:35] that cap up to a great big cow

[01:18:37] it wouldn't be there and whether you

[01:18:40] pour it on your cereal is a liquid

[01:18:42] whether you clot it into yogurt

[01:18:46] whether you've eaten into cheese whether

[01:18:49] you freeze it into ice cream

[01:18:52] it's baby calf growth fluid

[01:18:55] and women eat it and it stimulates their

[01:18:58] tissues and it gives women

[01:18:59] breast lumps it makes the uterus get big

[01:19:02] and they get fibroids and they bleed and

[01:19:04] they get hysterectomies and they need

[01:19:05] mammograms and

[01:19:07] and gives guys man boobs this is

[01:19:11] cow's milk is the lactation secretions

[01:19:14] of a large bovine mammal who just had a

[01:19:16] baby

[01:19:17] it's for baby calves you know i tell my

[01:19:20] patients go look in the mirror

[01:19:22] do you have big ears you have a tail are

[01:19:23] you a baby calf if you're not

[01:19:25] don't be eating baby calf growth fluid

[01:19:28] in

[01:19:28] any level there's nothing in it people

[01:19:30] need it was a relief to hear i didn't

[01:19:32] have to eat any animal products to be

[01:19:33] healthy and even thrive

[01:19:35] but i still thought you needed animal

[01:19:37] manure to grow organic agriculture

[01:19:39] it turns out there's an entire movement

[01:19:41] with people growing food without

[01:19:43] any animal inputs i visited earthworks

[01:19:46] urban farm in detroit where they are

[01:19:47] working with and growing food for the

[01:19:49] low-income community

[01:19:51] we tend to see ourselves and as

[01:19:53] individuals in a bubble but and forget

[01:19:55] that we inhabit this

[01:19:56] this land and this earth with other

[01:19:58] creatures

[01:20:00] so we have to learn how to share more i

[01:20:02] guess jaws here

[01:20:04] is working on his garden you'll be

[01:20:06] surprised what you can do

[01:20:07] with uh what seems to be not a lot of

[01:20:10] space

[01:20:11] about a four by eight yeah what's your

[01:20:13] goal this year how much do you think you

[01:20:15] gotta

[01:20:16] maximize

[01:20:20] that's amazing so the one full year

[01:20:23] after

[01:20:23] we this was constructed uh we doubled

[01:20:26] our yield to over

[01:20:27] 14 000 pounds of food 14 000 pounds

[01:20:31] how many about how many acres uh about

[01:20:33] two and a half

[01:20:34] so as much food as we produce and we

[01:20:37] grow

[01:20:37] or the earth helps us grow is we also

[01:20:40] have to return those nutrients back to

[01:20:41] the soil so

[01:20:42] we like to think of our work as being

[01:20:44] regenerative that we're putting us as

[01:20:46] much

[01:20:47] life-giving substance in the ground as

[01:20:49] we're taking out

[01:20:51] it's just kind of healthier and safer to

[01:20:53] use

[01:20:54] vegetarian or vegetable composting and

[01:20:57] stuff

[01:20:57] yeah that's what we found but also

[01:20:59] because it takes less time it's

[01:21:00] a lot easier to manage a lot easier yeah

[01:21:02] yeah and the soil is just as rich

[01:21:05] yeah absolutely not only is it organic

[01:21:08] more compassionate it's also more

[01:21:11] efficient and in a society with this

[01:21:13] many

[01:21:13] billions of people we we need to be as

[01:21:16] efficient as possible

[01:21:17] some people might go back and say if we

[01:21:20] embrace this

[01:21:21] this primitive approach of only wild

[01:21:24] animals everywhere

[01:21:25] and we go back to like a hunter-gatherer

[01:21:28] system

[01:21:28] that sounds great but that was 10

[01:21:31] million people on the entire continent

[01:21:33] maybe a little bit more a little bit

[01:21:34] less no one really knows

[01:21:37] today now we have what we have

[01:21:40] 320 million in the u.s 25 million in

[01:21:43] canada another 100 and

[01:21:44] so many million in mexico so north

[01:21:47] america

[01:21:48] is up to almost you know 450 million

[01:21:51] people

[01:21:53] trying to figure out a way to to bring

[01:21:55] animal agriculture

[01:21:56] in balance with 450 hungry million

[01:21:59] hungry people

[01:22:00] is impossible this is amazing i didn't

[01:22:02] believe it when i first

[01:22:04] learned it but 216 000 more people are

[01:22:07] born to the planet

[01:22:08] every day every day

[01:22:12] it's extraordinary but what's really

[01:22:14] extraordinary is you need

[01:22:16] per day 34 000 new acres of farmable

[01:22:19] land it's not happening

[01:22:22] to feed a person on an all plant-based

[01:22:23] vegan diet for a year requires just

[01:22:25] one-sixth of an acre of land to feed

[01:22:27] that same person on a vegetarian diet

[01:22:29] that includes eggs and dairy

[01:22:30] requires three times as much land to

[01:22:33] feed an average u.s citizen's high

[01:22:34] consumption diet of meat dairy and eggs

[01:22:36] requires

[01:22:37] 18 times as much land this is because

[01:22:40] you can produce 37

[01:22:41] 000 pounds of vegetables on one and a

[01:22:43] half acres but only 375 pounds of meat

[01:22:47] on that same plot of land

[01:22:48] i also learned the comparison doesn't

[01:22:50] end with land use a vegan diet produces

[01:22:52] half as much co2 as an american omnivore

[01:22:54] uses 1 11 the amount of fossil fuels

[01:22:57] 1 13 the amount of water and an 18th of

[01:22:59] the amount of land

[01:23:00] after adding this all up i realized i

[01:23:03] had the choice every single day

[01:23:04] to save over 1100 gallons of water 45

[01:23:08] pounds of grain

[01:23:09] 30 square feet of forested land the

[01:23:11] equivalent of 20 pounds of co2

[01:23:14] and one animal's life every single day

[01:23:17] if we all as a society did go vegan and

[01:23:20] we moved away from eating animal foods

[01:23:22] and toward a plant-based diet

[01:23:24] what would happen if we didn't kill all

[01:23:27] these cows

[01:23:28] and eat them then we wouldn't have to

[01:23:30] breed all these cows because they're

[01:23:32] because we're breeding cows and chickens

[01:23:33] and pigs and fishes we're breeding them

[01:23:35] and

[01:23:35] you know over and over again relentless

[01:23:37] so if we didn't breed them

[01:23:39] then we wouldn't have to feed them if we

[01:23:41] didn't have to feed them

[01:23:42] then we wouldn't have to devote all this

[01:23:44] land to growing grains and legumes and

[01:23:46] so forth to feed to them and so then the

[01:23:48] forest could come back

[01:23:50] uh wildlife could come back the oceans

[01:23:53] would come back the rivers would run

[01:23:55] clean again

[01:23:56] the air would come back a health would

[01:23:58] return

[01:23:59] renewable energy infrastructure such as

[01:24:02] building

[01:24:03] solar and wind generators all over our

[01:24:04] country to reduce climate change i mean

[01:24:06] that's

[01:24:06] that's a pretty good idea but it's

[01:24:08] projected to take at least 20 years

[01:24:11] and at least minimally 18 trillion

[01:24:13] dollars to develop

[01:24:15] you know it's important to to realize

[01:24:16] that we we don't have

[01:24:18] that long of a time frame we just talked

[01:24:20] about how it might be a

[01:24:21] three to four year time frame so we

[01:24:22] don't really have 20 years and we really

[01:24:24] don't have 18 trillion dollars

[01:24:26] to develop these so so um another

[01:24:29] solution

[01:24:30] to climate change we could we could stop

[01:24:31] eating animals and it could be done

[01:24:33] today it doesn't have to take uh 20

[01:24:36] years and it certainly doesn't have to

[01:24:37] take 18 trillion dollars because it

[01:24:38] costs nothing

[01:24:39] some people say well let's fix co2 and

[01:24:41] then we can worry about nothing well

[01:24:42] that's the wrong it's the other way

[01:24:43] around it actually makes sense do

[01:24:45] something about methane because you

[01:24:46] get a response right away quietly and

[01:24:48] unmistakably

[01:24:50] the most powerful thing that someone can

[01:24:51] do for the environment

[01:24:53] no other lifestyle choice has a farther

[01:24:56] reaching and more profoundly positive

[01:24:57] impact on the planet

[01:24:59] and all life on earth than choosing to

[01:25:01] to stop consuming animals and live a

[01:25:03] vegan lifestyle

[01:25:04] do you realize 75 of americans consider

[01:25:09] themselves to be

[01:25:10] environmentalists

[01:25:13] you don't think we couldn't solve this

[01:25:15] problem in a heartbeat

[01:25:18] i'll tell you what all we would need

[01:25:22] is for the environmentalists to live

[01:25:24] what they profess

[01:25:26] and we be on a new course

[01:25:29] in the world we will not

[01:25:33] succeed until we stop animal agriculture

[01:25:36] and by succeed i mean we will not save

[01:25:39] ecosystems the extent necessary

[01:25:42] we will not have enough food for people

[01:25:44] around the planet

[01:25:45] we will not stop global warming we will

[01:25:48] not stop pollution and the dead zones

[01:25:50] that run off

[01:25:50] all the fields of corn and soy that are

[01:25:54] grown to feed

[01:25:55] livestock and we will not stop the

[01:25:58] hunting of wolves and other predators

[01:25:59] now organic farming is one major

[01:26:01] positive step in the right direction but

[01:26:03] we need to keep

[01:26:04] walking we need to get beyond organics

[01:26:06] we need to get to sustainability

[01:26:09] when you take the animal out well you

[01:26:10] also take the greenhouse gas tissue out

[01:26:12] and you take the food safety issues out

[01:26:16] and you take some of the other

[01:26:17] externalities related to food scarcity

[01:26:20] but one thing that's amazing is i think

[01:26:22] you put our values

[01:26:24] back in you put values like compassion

[01:26:27] and integrity and kindness

[01:26:30] values that are natural to human beings

[01:26:33] you put that in you build that back into

[01:26:36] the story

[01:26:37] of our food and i think as this begins

[01:26:40] to progress i think it also helps people

[01:26:43] to pause

[01:26:44] before they eat that egg before they eat

[01:26:46] that steak before they eat that chicken

[01:26:48] nugget

[01:26:49] and ask themselves is that really

[01:26:52] what they want or do they actually want

[01:26:54] something more

[01:26:57] i had to come to the full conclusion the

[01:26:59] only way to sustainably and ethically

[01:27:00] live on this planet with seven

[01:27:02] billion other people is to live an

[01:27:04] entirely plant-based vegan diet

[01:27:06] i decided instead of eating others to

[01:27:08] eat four others

[01:27:10] at first like these environmental groups

[01:27:12] i was afraid of what it meant to change

[01:27:14] but now i embrace it all this talk about

[01:27:16] sustainability sounded like our planet

[01:27:18] was on some sort of life support and i

[01:27:20] don't want her to simply survive or to

[01:27:22] sustain

[01:27:23] but to thrive life today is not about

[01:27:25] sustainability

[01:27:26] it's about thrivability she's given so

[01:27:29] much to us for so long

[01:27:31] it was time to give back 108 of

[01:27:34] everything we have

[01:27:35] it felt good it was in alignment

[01:27:41] and we see this movement not just about

[01:27:43] providing cheap or inexpensive food that

[01:27:44] everyone can have but also a spiritual

[01:27:46] move

[01:27:47] a move towards understanding who we

[01:27:49] really are and how we can really connect

[01:27:50] to each other

[01:27:51] do what you can do as well as you can do

[01:27:55] it

[01:27:56] every day of your life

[01:27:59] and you will end up dying one of the

[01:28:01] happiest

[01:28:02] individuals that ever ever died we

[01:28:05] become

[01:28:05] part of a gathering momentum of other

[01:28:08] people that's happening this is really

[01:28:09] what's happening this is the news

[01:28:11] selflessness is a nice way to be it has

[01:28:14] all these benefits for yourself as well

[01:28:16] as the planet and other people

[01:28:17] so it's a beautiful way to live

[01:28:20] ecologically it's just

[01:28:21] it just feels better this is about

[01:28:24] massively transforming

[01:28:25] how our society eats because it's a

[01:28:28] necessity

[01:28:30] it's acting on what we know

[01:28:33] and acting kindly and gently on the

[01:28:35] whole

[01:28:36] planet and with other people to

[01:28:38] accomplish

[01:28:39] the goals of living better we can do it

[01:28:43] but we have to choose to do it

[01:28:46] [Music]

[01:28:48] you can change the world

[01:28:51] you must change the world

[01:28:56] [Music]

[01:29:08] so

[01:29:13] [Music]

[01:30:32] so

[01:30:34] [Music]

[01:30:50] you