"You know, the world's climate scientists tell us that the highest safe level of emissions would be around 350 parts permillion of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." "We're already at 400." "They tell us that the sort of safest we could hope to do without having perilous implications as far as drought, famine, human conflict, major species extinction would be about a 2-degree Celsius increase in temperature." "We're rapidly approaching that, and with all the built-in carbon dioxide that's already in the atmosphere, we're easily going to exceed that." "So on our watch, we are facing the next major extinction of species on the earth that we haven't seen since the time of the dinosaurs disappearing." "When whole countries go underwater because of sea-level rise when whole countries find that there's so much drought that they can't feed theirpopulation and as aresult, theyneed to desperately migrateto another country orinvade anothercountry...." "Imean, we're gonnahave climate wars in the future." "And what about...?" "What about livestock and animal agriculture?" "Well, what about it?" "Imean" "Myname's Kip." "This is me." "Ihad a cliche U.S.American childhood." "My mom was ateacher." "My dad was in the military." "AndIhave one sister." "Iplayed all sports growing up butIalways loved the outdoors and camping." "Life was simple, not a care in the world." "And then this guy showed up." "Like so manyofus I saw his film An Inconvenient Truth about the impacts ofglobal warming." "It scared the Emojis out ofme." "inal Gore's film, he describes how Earth is in peril." "Climate change stands to affect all life on this planet." "From monsterstorms, raging wildfires record droughts, ice caps melting acidification ofthe oceans, to entire countries going underwater that could all be caused by humans' demands on the Earth." "With scientistswarning unlesswe take drastic measures to correct ourenvironmental footprint, ourtime on this planet maybe limited to only 50 moreyears, Iwanted to do everythingIcouldto help." "Imade up my mind right then and there to change howIlived and to do whateverIpossiblycould to find awayforall of us to live together in balance with the planet, sustainably, forever." "Istarted to do all the things Al told us to do." "Ibecame an OCE, obsessive-compulsive environmentalist." "Iseparated the trash and recycling, Icomposted changedthe light bulbs, took short showers brushed withthe water off, turned offlightswhen leaving and rode my bike instead of driving everywhere." "But as theyearswent by, it seemed as ifthings were getting worse." "Ihad to wonder, with all the continuing ecological crisisfacing the planet even ifeverysingle one ofus adopted these conservation habits was this reallygonna be enough to savethe world?" "Itjust seemed that therewas something more to the story." "IthoughtIwas doing everythingIcould to help the planet." "But then with one'sfriend's post everything changed." "The post sent me to a report online published bythe United Nations stating that cows produce more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector." "This meansthat raising cattle produces more greenhouse gases than all cars, trucks, trains, boats, planes combined." "Thirteen percent compared to 18 percentforlivestock." "This is because cows produce a substantial amount ofmethane from theirdigestive process." "Methane gas from livestock is 25to 100 times more destructive than carbon dioxide from vehicles." "Here I'd been riding mybike everywhere to help reduce emissions." "But it turns out there's more to climate changethanjustfossil fuels." "Idid more research." "The U.N. along with otheragencies reported not only did livestock play amajorrole in global warming it is alsothe leading cause of resource consumption and environmental degradation destroying the planet today." "How is it possible I wasn't aware ofthis?" "I thought this information would be in the environmental community." "I went tothe nation's largest environmental organizations'websites... 350.org, Greenpeace, Sierra Club Climate Reality, Rainforest Action Network, Amazon Watch and was shocked to see they had virtually nothing on animal agriculture." "What was going on?" "Why would they not have this information on there?" "It seemed the main focus for many groups was natural gas and oil production with fracking being the latest hot issue, due to water usage and contamination." "...with fracking being the latest hot issue, due to water usage and contamination." "Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas uses an incredible amount of water." "A staggering 100 billion gallons of water is used every year in the United States." "But when I compared this with animal agriculture raising livestock just in the U.S. consumes 34 trillion gallons ofwater." "And it turns out the methane emissions from both industries are nearly equal." "Living in California, a state plagued by drought and water shortages wateruse is a major concern for many ofus." "The average Californian uses about 1500 gallons per person per day." "About half of that is related to the consumption of meat and dairy products." "So meat and dairy products are incredibly water-intensive in part because the animals are using very water-intensive grains." "That's what they eat, and so all of the water embedded in the grain and that the animal eats essentially is considered part ofthe virtual waterfootprint ofthat product." "I found out that one quarter-pound hamburger requires over 660 gallons ofwaterto produce." "Here I've been taking these short showers to save water and to find out just eating one hamburger is the equivalent of showering two entire months." "So much attention is given to lowering home wateruse." "Yet domestic water use is 5 percent of what is consumed in the U.S.... ...versus 55 percent for animal agriculture." "That's because it takes upwards of 2500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef." "I went on the government's Department of Water Resources Save Our Water campaign." "It outlines behavior changes to conserve water." "Like using low-flow showerheads, efficient toilets water-saving appliances, and fix leaky faucets and sprinklerheads." "But nothing about animal agriculture." "When I added up all the government's recommendations I was saving 47 gallons aday." "But still that's not even close to the 660 gallons of water for just one burger." "I wanted to see if I could talk with the government about this." "Just calling to see if we could schedule an interview." "Yeah, that would be good." "What does your schedule look like this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon?" "Tomorrow afternoon." "Tomorrow afternoon could be good." "For the urban environment, a lot of things can be done." "Indoors, you know using low-flow showerheads, low-flowfaucets efficient toilets efficient water-using appliances." "All of those are really good areas that can help quite a lot." "But the biggest watersavings is from outdoors." "We have to be mindful of the way we use water." "We have to use it efficiently, protect its quality and be good stewards of the environment that depend on water." "And checking the sprinklers." "A lot of times you get a lot of leaks and broken sprinklers and things like that that waste water." "Those are the areas that there is a lot of room for conservation." "It kept on coming up a lot, was animal agriculture." "Can you comment on that at all, about how much that plays a role in water consumption and pollution?" "That's-I mean, that's not my area." "There's one study that found that 1 pound of beef 2500 gallons ofwater." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Eggs are 477 gallons ofwater." "And cheese, almost 900 gallons." "I mean, why isn't it on Save Our Water?" "It's kind of like if you went to someone's house and my neighbour has a faucet, you know, dripping." "And then you see this giant hose turned full-blast until 660 gallons of water are shooting out into the street flooding the entire street." "I think I would say, "Hey, you know, turn that off, please."" "Seems like it's a huge thing that we could be doing by far more than anything else." "Just, like, if that is really the case." "I think that the waterfootprint of animal husbandry is greater than other activities." "There's no ifs, ands or buts about it." "That would be really powerful." "Rather than waiting till we're in a drought, what do you think about starting now?" "And sayto whoever's in charge of SaveOurWater:" ""Hey, let's start encouraging people to eat less meat now because these studies are coming out"?" "I don't think that'll happen." "Why?" "I don't think that'll happen." "Why?" "Because of the way government is set up here." "That's interesting, though." "Why, though?" "One is water management and the other is behavior change." "Behavior of taking showers and not watering your lawn and doing all that, that's behavior." "Yeah." "Clearly the government did not want to talk about this issue." "Their inability to answer along with the organization's silence on the topic of animal agriculture made it seem something more was going on." "I did more investigating on the impacts oflivestock..." "I did more investigating on the impacts oflivestock and found out the situation was actually worse than I'd thought." "In 2009, two advisors from the World Bank released an analysis on human-induced greenhouse gases finding that animal agriculture was responsible not for 18 percent as the U.N. stated, but was actually 51 percent of all greenhouse gases." "Fifty-one percent." "Yet all we hear about is burning fossil fuels." "This devastating figure is due to clear-cutting rainforests for grazing respiration, and all the waste animals produced." "This makes animal agriculture the number one contributor to human-caused climate change." "But not only that,I found out raising animals for food consumes a third o fall the planet's freshwater occupies up to 45 percent of the Earth's land is responsible for up to 91 percent of Amazon destruction is a leading cause of species extinction ocean "dead zones" and habitat destruction." "Yet the world's largest environmental groups that are supposed to be saving our world didn't mention this anywhere." "I had to speak with them to find out why they weren't addressing this issue." "I sent off dozens of e-mails, made call after call spent hours on hold." "Days became weeks, weeks became months and for some reason, no one wanted to talk to me about this." "So bizarre." "I supported these organizations for so long and now was met with silence." "I was, however, able to connect with a handful of environmental authors and advocates that were willing to address this issue." "I took my old, trusty van "Super Blue" out of retirement and hit the road." "So my calculations are that without using any gas or oil or fuel ever again from this day forward that we would still exceed our maximum carbon-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions, the 565 gigatons, by the year 2030 without the electricity sector or energy sector even factored in the equation, all simply by raising and eating livestock." "You reduce methane emissions, the level in the atmosphere goes down fairly quickly, within decades, as opposed to CO2 if you reduce the emissions to the atmosphere you don't see a signal in the atmosphere for 100 years or so." "The single largest contributor to every environmental ill known to humankind..." "Cutting down the forest to graze animals and to grow soybeans, genetically-engineered soybeans to feed to the cows and pigs and chickens and factory-farmed fish." "Ninety-one percent of the loss of rainforest in the Amazon area thus far to date 91 percent that's been destroyed is due to raising livestock." "The lead cause of environmental destruction is animal agriculture." "I just couldn't understand why the world's largest environmental organizations weren't addressing this when their entire mission is to protect the environment." "That's the thing, too, is they say:" ""Use less coal, ride your bike." What about "eat less meat"?" "I think they focus-grouped it and it's a political loser." "Yeah, because they're membership organizations, you know, a lot of them." "They're looking to maximize the number of people making contributions." "And ifthey get identified as being anti-meat or challenging people on their everyday habits something that's so dear to people, that it will hurt with their fundraising." "They do not want to address the primary driving cause of environmental devastation, which is animal agriculture because they're businesses." "And they want to make sure that they have a reliable source of funding." "I was invited to a meeting with Al Gore some years ago made these methane arguments, and he pushed back." "That's just his argument." ""It's hard enough to get people to think about CO2." "Don't confuse them."" "The problem with a lot of organizations that are focused and have a laser focus don't go off message because they don't wanna piss off another whole group of people that will make their lives difficult." "Major environmental organizations don't tell you to do much besides live your life the way you've been living it but change a light bulb from time to time drive less, use less plastic, recycle more." "It's better for their fundraising and better for their profile to create a victim-and-perpetrator sort of plotline." "It's like when we talk about the fact that we have a dysfunctional family and the father's an alcoholic, that's the one thing no one talks about." "Everybody goes around that, and yet it's the one thing that's causing the devastation in the relationships in the family because no one wants to talk about it." "How could these organizations not know?" "The issue is right in front of them." "It's unmistakable at this point." "And just like these organizations, they're falling over themselves to show the general public that climate change is human-caused." "And in doing so, they completely fail to see what's right in front ofthem that animal agriculture, raising and killing animals for food is really what's killing the planet." "That was it." "No more e-mails, no more phone calls." "I had enough." "I realized if I wanted answers, I'd have to go to these organizations' headquarters in person." "Hi, how's it going?" "Good." "We're doing a full-length feature documentary and it's on sustainability and how animal agriculture plays a role." "And we're seeing if we could talk to David Barre." "Barre?" "Okay." "Yeah." "Do you have an appointment with him?" "We've been trying for almost two months." "We haven't even had one receptive e-mail or anything." "Seeing if we could just set something up." "Sure, let me--So let me just...." "They sent out their PR person instead." "She refused to be filmed and told us to turn off the camera but promised someone from their Rainforest, Ocean and Climate Change Departments would all speak with us, finally." "Next stop was to give Sierra Club a visit." "They were a bit more receptive to me showing up at their doorstep." "Hey, how's it going?" "With the climate change, what's the leading cause ofthat?" "Well, it's basically burning too many fossil fuels." "You know, so coal, natural gas, oil." "Tarsands, oil shale." "All these new exotic fuels that are kind of hybrids between them." "But that's basically what is loading up the atmosphere so we have this greenhouse effect where the heat is getting trapped and the temperatures are soaring at a rate that has never existed in the history ofthe Earth." "And what about--?" "What about livestock and animal agriculture?" "Well, what about it?" "I mean.... ...but I'm afraid we're not going to be able to help this time." "Thanks again, and we wish you the best of luck."" "Greenpeace's response reminded me of the statistic..." "Greenpeace's response reminded me of the statistic that 116,000 pounds of farm animal excrement is produced every second in the United States alone." "That is enough waste per year to cover every squarefoot of San Francisco NewYork City, Tokyo, Paris New Delhi, Berlin, Hong Kong, London Rio DeJaneiro, Delaware, Bali, Costa Rica, and Denmark combined." "Livestock operations on land has caused, orcreated morethan 500 nitrogen-flooded dead zones around the world in our oceans." "Comprise more than 95,000 square miles ofareas completelydevoid of life." "So anymeaningful discussion about the state ofour oceans has to always begin byfrank discussions about land-based animal agriculture which is notwhat our conservation groups" "Oceana being the largest one inthe world right now, the most influential." "As well as others." "That's notwhat is at the apex oftheir discussions." "Iwent on myfavorite ocean-protection organization's website Surfrider Foundation, to see whatthey're doing aboutthis." "MostlywhatIfound were campaigns about plastic bags and trash but nothing about animal agriculture." "What isthe numberone coastal water quality-issue polluter?" "Like-?" "Yeah,Imean, a lot ofit" "It's actually- We call it, like, the "toxic cocktail."" "Because it really is this sort ofdiffuse source." "So it's, you know, heavy metal from tires and brakes and cars, heavymetals." "It isthese herbicides and pesticides." "It's reallyjust kind ofpicking up everythingwe leave on the ground and collecting it together and pushing it out into the ocean." "So it's hardto actuallytarget, like, one thing." "When we're doing ourresearch onthis particularone, and runoff just kind of increasingly as we're interviewing more and more people it keeps coming up, animal agriculture, as being" "And we read animal agriculture as being the numberonewaterpolluter considerably by morethan any other" "Yeah, that's interesting.Iguess it depends on the regions thatyoufocus on." "Like the urban areas, like where we are here in Southern California we don't see that, becausethere's not a lot of agricultural farms but ifyou look inthe mid-Atlantic Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, that region I knowthere's a lot ofpoultryfarms and a lot ofhog farms and it's a huge waste issue." "Iwas surprised that not only did theynotfocus on farm runoff butthey also didn't mention any campaigns about how our oceans are in near-collapse." "The U.N. reported thatthree-quarters ofthe world'sfisheries are overexploited, fully exploited, or significantly depleted dueto overfishing." "Oceans are undersiege like neverbefore." "Marine environments are in trouble." "Ifwe don't wake up and do something about it we'll see fishless oceans bytheyear2048." "That'sthe prediction from scientists." "When people look atfishing, sometimesthey only look atthe animals who are actually consumed byhumans, so we don't necessarilylook at all the animals who are caught inthe drift nets all the otheranimals who are killed in the industry." "And when you look at" "Even the shrimping industryhas done a lot to devastate the planet as well interms ofbreaking down natural barriers thatwe have to protect them, the islands." "We're at over28 billion animals were pulled out ofthe ocean last year." "They're never given achance to recover." "Theydon't multiplyquickly." "They don't come back." "We're not giving them an opportunity." "The oceans are in complete collapse." "The largefish species are nearing extinction." "Thewayfishing is donetoday, to feed the demand for90 million tons offish, is primarilythrough massive fish nets." "Forevery single pound offish caught, there is up to 5 pounds ofuntargeted speciestrapped." "Such as dolphins, whales, seaturtles and sharks, known as bi-kill." "Ifwe're to imagine this same practice happening on theafrican savannah, targeting gazelle but in the process scooping up every single lion giraffe, ostrich and elephant nobodywould stand for it." "Yetthis iswhat is happening in ouroceans everysingle day." "Between 40 and 50 million sharks each year are killed in fishing lines andfishing nets as bi-kill." "Then theirfins might be cut off, ornot cut off butthey're caught initially as bi-kill, and it'sfrom fishing." "It's from fishing in a sustainable manner, in many cases forfish that are labeled "sustainable" by, forinstance, Oceana and the sustainable-certified organizations." "So mythought is, whywould we want to stop at banning shark-fin soup ifyou're concerned about sharks?" "Which all these organizations are, and most ofthe public at large is now." "Ifwe really are concerned about sharks, we would banfishing." "Iwent onthe world's largest ocean-conservation group's website Oceana, to see whatthey're doing aboutthis." "On theirsite, along with a TED Talk by CEOAndy Sharpless I was astounded to read they actually recommend that one ofthe bestways to help fish is to eat fish." "With theworld's fish population in near-collapse this seems like saying the bestway to help endangered pandas isto eat pandas." "Icouldn't understand how Oceana could say we could remove closeto 100 million tons offish peryear and that could somehow be sustainable and good forouroceans." "Many ofthe species that are nearing extinction have done so been ravaged and become nearlyextinct, in a decliningfashion and haven't recovered on thewatch ofOceana and on the watch ofMarine Stewardship Council and very much onthe watch of Monterey BayAquarium Seafood Watch." "Imention in a lecture, they're aptly named, because that's whatthey're doing." "They're sort ofwatching this happen instead of aggressivelyhalting it." "According to the United Nations Food andAgriculture Organization roughlythree-quarters ofall fisheries are eitherfullyexploited oroverexploited." "So there's really not awhole lot offish stocks outthere thatyou might considerat healthylevels forthe ecosystem." "WatchingAndy's TED Talk aboutfeeding the world in 1988, fish catch, as you mention, peaked at 85 milliontons." "How is it possiblethatwe can sustainably catch 100 million tons by 2050 regardless ifit's in afarm orifit's in the ocean?" "lfforevery pound offish you're taking out you're essentiallytaking out 5 pounds ofwild fish no matterwhetherit's a pond or it's in the ocean how can that be sustainable?" "The ultimate question, right is thatthere is atremendous amount ofnatural production that is, you know, basically coming out ofthe oceans all the time." "So we have major-A massive amount of upwelling from our ocean conveyer belt that's bringing up ancient, thousand-year-old nutrients and our ecosystems areturning that into fish." "Yes, they're eating each other and you're losing some ofthat production every step up in thefood chain butyou get more everyyear." "You can fish and take some out, and nextyeartherewill be more." "And ifwe do that right, without ultimately hittingthe fundamental driver it's sort oflike living off the interest, right?" "As long as you don't bring yourprincipal down, right ifyou invest in something, as long as you don't hit into that principal your principal remains high, you could potentially live offthe interestforever." "That's the basic ideawith fish." "With ourpopulation right now, what we're doing ifit's 75-percent depleted, the fish is now depleted" "And, you know, it's a good analogywith money." "we're not living offour interest, we're in extreme debt." "And ifourpopulation, who'strying to live as afamily on the same amount ofmoney, and it's increasing 35 percent..." "...to 9 billion people..." "Right." "...isn't itjust, "Hey, we gottastop spending money"?" "Yeah." ""Stop eatingfish."" "Well, ifyou could bring the principal back." "Fishing ofanytype is depleting not onlythe species but you get intothis serial depletion where one fish specieswill be minimized and the fishing industryforthatfishery will move onto the next species." "It's called serial depletion." "It's aptlynamed." "In the process, the fish are being lost." "Not onlythe species is being lost, butthe next in line is being lost." "Andthen the mechanism is still extremely destructive." "So they're losingthe fish species, but it needs to be kept in mind they're also destroying habitat." "They came up withthisterm "sustainablefishing" to make usfeel good about eating fish and continuing to takefish out ofthe oceans when, in fact, it's Sea Shepherd's position thatthere is no such thing as sustainable fishing." "Fishing is not a sustainable protein source forthe feeding ofthe planet." "Forthe people on the planet, it'sjust not." "People don'twanna hear it." "That makes them feel like they have to take action stop doing something, and a lot ofpeople don't wantto." "Theydon't put it outthere, because it's uncomfortable to tell peoplewhat to do." "Butwe're at apoint wherewe all have to be cognizant." "And we haveto realize and take an action." "Ourfounder, CaptainWatson, likes to say:" ""lfthe oceans die, we die." That's not atagline." "That'sthe truth." "Perhaps the only other ecosystem that is being destroyed at such a rapid rate are theworld's rainforests." "Ourglobal rainforests are essentiallythe planet's lungs." "Theybreathe in CO2 and exhale oxygen." "An acre ofrainforest is cleared every second." "And the leading cause is to graze animals and growtheirfeed crops." "That is essentiallyan entirefootball field cleared every single second." "And it is estimated that every day closeto 100 plant, animal, and insect species are lost due to rainforest destruction." "What is the absolute leading cause ofrainforest destruction?" "Human intervention into rainforests is the leading cause." "And so it's eitherforlogging orit's for agribusiness." "That's when you're looking at the top global drivers it will vary a bit bythe rainforest that you'retalking about butthe waythatwe're choosing to use these natural resources on alarge industrial scale is the leading driver." "WhenIwent on R.A.N.'s website I couldn't believe Ididn't see anything about cattle." "ButIdid seethey had a large campaign against palm oil." "Palm oil plantations causetremendous deforestation in the Indonesian rainforest." "It is estimated that palm oil is responsible for26 million acres being cleared though compared to livestock and theirfeed crops theywere responsible for136 million acres of rainforest lost to date." "But on theirwebsite,Iwas shocked to find cattlewas not included as one oftheirfourmain key issues." "lnsteadtheyfocused on palm, pulp and paper, coal, and tar sands?" "How could theynot have the leading cause ofrainforest destruction?" "Ihad to wonder, whyfocus onfossil fuels and not cattle?" "ls it more fossil fuels, or is it more animal agriculture?" "Idon't knowwhywewould do a one-or-the-other." "I'mjustwondering, what more is it?" "Idon't necessarily knowwhat it is." "Could the executive director ofone ofthe world's largest rainforest protection groups honestlynot know what was going on?" "Oreven worse, were they hiding it on purpose?" "And if so, why?" "IwenttoAmazonWatch to see iftheywould say whatthe leading cause ofrainforest destructiontruly is." "The most biologicallyand culturally diverse place on the planet is undermassive attack right now." "TheAmazon rainforest itselfcould be gone in the matter ofthe next 10years." "What is the leading cause ofrainforest destruction?" "The leading cause ofrainforest destruction I would say" "Well,justto put it inthe context ofwhatAmazon Watch works on there's many, many drivers ofdeforestation, as we call them many different reasons and ways that rainforests are destroyed." "The main-The ones that cause the most damage and arethe mostwidespread are mega projects such as oil and gas pipelines, such as mining projects such as mega dam projects." "We're nottalking about...." "Ifelt likeIwas going in circles with these groups." "As ifIwere stuck in some strange "cowspiracy" twilight zone where no one couldtalk about cows." "Icouldn't believe these organizationsjustwouldn't say whatthe leading cause ofrainforest destructiontruly is." "Ihad to ask one more time." "It's hardto saywhat is the leading cause ofdeforestation oftheAmazon becausethey're all destructive, oil and gas, mining, dams, agriculture." "But in terms ofland use, in terms ofthe amount ofland that is destroyed by...." "When wetalk about in comparison, all those different causes ofdeforestation what is causing the mosttrees to fall, forexample I think itwould definitely be agriculture." "Unfortunately one ofthe biggest causes ofdeforestation definitely inthe BrazilianAmazon, is agribusiness." "Cattle grazing and soy production, in particular." "This is reallywhat's going on." "Whydo youthink that's...?" "Like, no one at Greenpeace, orno one's really saying thewhole story." "Thewhole story about the main cause ofdeforestation?" "Yeah." "You've brought up some really good points about why isn't anybody doing anything aboutthis?" "AndIthink in Brazil, in particular, when we look at, you know what happened afterthe Forest Codewas passed and people who were standing up againstthe lobbyists and the interests the special interests, the cattle industry, the agribusiness industry whatwas happening tothem?" "People who were speaking out got killed." "And ifyou look at, you know, Z Carlos, you look at Claudio" "People who were putting themselves outthere and saying cattle ranching, you know, is destroying theAmazon alot ofthose people who really putthemselves outthere" "And look at Dorothy Stang, you know, the nun who lived out in Para whowas killed." "A lot ofpeoplewill speak up.A lot ofpeoplejust keep theirmouths shut because theydon'twanna be the next onewith the bulletto their head." "Sister DorothyStang was a U.S.-born nun living in the heart ofthe Brazilian rainforest." "Herlife's work wasto protecttheAmazon." "She spoke out openlyagainst the destruction ofrainforest from cattle ranchingforyears." "Walking home one night, she was brutally gunned down at point-blank range by ahired gun from the cattle industry." "AfterGreenpeace's initial denial foran interview I wrote again, begging theyreconsider." "Greenpeace got back again, and said again:" ""I'm afraid we've explored the options here interms ofhelping you and are not going to be able to be involved this time." "You mentioned youwere also speakingto Oceana." "I'm sure they'll be able to give you some great quotes about ocean-related issues." "Thanks again forthinking ofus."" "Unbelievable." "With Greenpeace unwilling to be interviewed I had to find a different avenue for answers." "There's something reallyfishy going on overthere." "Fortunatelyl found aformer Greenpeace board ofdirector who now speaks openly aboutthe industry." "Environmental organizations, like other organizations, aren'ttellingyou the truth aboutwhatthe world needs from us as a species." "It's so frustrating when the information is right beforetheireyes." "It's documented in peer-reviewed papers andjournals." "It'sthere foreverybodyto see." "Butthe environmental organizations are refusing to act." "Nowhere do you find in theirpolicies and nowhere do youfind in the Greenpeace mission that diet is important that animal agriculture is the problem." "Theyare refusing, like otherenvironmental organizations to look at the issue." "The environmental community isfailing us and they're failing ecosystems." "And it's sofrustrating to see them dothis." ""NRDC, the Earth's best defense."" "All right, so here they actually do have afew things on animal agriculture." "The leading cause of environmental degradation istoo much pollution and too many engines churning too fast in too many places around the globe." "Late in 2009, Worldwatch reported that livestock causes 51 percent ofgreenhouse gas emissions and transportation's around 13." "And on the low end, the U.N. was around 18 to 30 which is more than all transportation all put together." "National- lnternationally?" "Ornationally?" "The entire globe.Yeah." "Ithink energy production and transportation are still major sources, soIthink...." "I'm not gonna comment onthat because I'm notfamiliarwiththose numbers." "So it's" "Don't quote me on this, butthat's cowfarts." "That's,Ithink, whatthat is." "It's...." "Ithink that's cowfarts." "Well, that's part ofthe story." "Methane production from cows and livestock's flatulence is a major contributor." "But mostly it is due to deforestation and the wastethey produce which is 130times more waste than the entire human population." "Virtually all withoutthe benefit ofanywaste treatment." "NRDC absolutely, asIsaid, has afood program." "In fact, wejust" " Everyyearwe do the Growing GreenAwards and we recognizefood innovators, and this lastyear one ofthe awardees was a sustainable pork producer, actually that doesn't use any antibiotics." "And also the antibiotic use that industrial food production in the United States uses right now is" "We're giving--The majority ofantibiotics in the United States are administered to healthy livestock." "Iwantedto visit one ofthese sustainablefarms." "Ifound the Markegard Grass-Fed beeffarm on the lush, misty Californiacoast." "Imet Erik and Doniga Markegard and theirfourchildren." "Lea and Larryare usuallyup at 6 and out milking the cows slopping the hogs." "All together, we graze about 4500 acres." "And this is ourhome ranch." "And this is 952 acres ofthat." "On average, it's about one cow, ora cow and a calf, perevery 10 acres." "Wewould produce annually roughly 80,000 pounds offinished, plate-ready meat." "We keep about 10 pigs in roughly a50-acre area and we move them around in 10-acre pastures." "Some people think that pigs are dirty and gross, butIreally likethem." "They have--Theyknow people, and they'll befriends and really nice." "And they could be likeyourbestfriend, or could be like a sister." "See?" "Theyknowyou whenyou getto knowthem." "Imean,Ishouldn't be bonding, butwe have to have nice pigs." "Whyshouldn'tyou bond with them?" "Well, because they're gonna turn into bacon." "These pigs are about 7 months old now." "That's it?" "So these bigger ones are getting readyto be killed." "Those two smaller ones there, you know, they could grow up afew more months." "Ilove animals." "That's why I'm in the meat business." "It's what more ofsocietyneeds to see is thatthat packaged piece ofmeat is a living animal." "Living and breathing creaturethat...." "Yeah, it's hard, it's hard, but like what Doniga said earlier we do it because we love them." "Withthe land use, there's anywhere between...." "With industrial, as low as 2to 2.5 acres per cow all the way up to some, depending- It's not as lush asthis." "Up to 35 acres." "Yeah, we have a ranch in South Dakotathat's 50 acres." "Fiftyacres per--?" "Yeah, it's about 50 acres." "Yeah." "And why is that?" "Samething, itwasjust farmed and robbed of all the nitrogen" "The land was abused." "lt's also seasonal, right?" "And it's also seasonal." "ls it possible and is it practical forthe whole world to say:" ""Have grass-fed cattle"?" "Imean, like, say Brazil, where, you know supposedly 80 percent ofthe rainforest was destroyed forcattle what are yourthoughts on that?" "They shouldn't be eating beef." "lftheirenvironment wasn't designed to raise beef..." "...then theyshouldn't be eating it." "Yeah." "How doyou offset the carbonfootprint of livestock?" "We don'tfeel like livestock have acarbon footprint." "Ileftthere feeling confused." "As far as grass-fed beef not having a carbon footprint it sounded like it could make sense untilIadded up the numbers on land use and population." "Ifwe'reto use the Markegard model of raising animals which requires 4500 acres producing 80,000 pounds ofmeat the averageAmerican eats 209 pounds ofmeat peryear." "Ifthat was all grass-fed beef, only 382 people could be fed on theirland." "That equatesto 11.7 acres perperson times 314 millionAmericans which equals 3.7 billion acres ofgrazing land." "Unfortunatelythere are only1.9 billion acres in the U.S.' lower48 states." "Currently nearlyhalfofall U.S. land is already dedicated to animal agriculture." "Ifwe're to switchto grass-fed beef itwould require clearing every square inch ofthe U.S. up into Canada, all ofCentralAmerica, andwell into SouthAmerica." "And this isjust to feed the United States' demand on meat." "Butthat figure doesn't even take into consideration that much ofthat land isn't suited to graze livestock." "Wewould have to convert all mountain ranges to grassland." "Clearancient forests and national parks to grazing." "And demolish everycity justto make room to graze cows." "Just like Brazil, the United States isn't suited to meetthe demandsfor meat." "Ittakes 23 months fora grass-fed animal to grow tothe size and agethat it's slaughtered, whereas a grain-fed takes 15 months." "So that's an additional eight months ofwateruse, land use, feed, waste and interms ofacarbon footprint, that's a huge difference." "Turns out, dueto land use grass-fed beefis more unsustainable than evenfactoryfarming." "Ihad to come totermswith the fact there was no wayto sustainablyraise enough animals to feed the world's current demand on meat and had my doubts on dairy as well." "ButIdid wantto talk with apremierorganic dairycompany to see iftheybelieved theirproductwas sustainable forthe world's population." "It requires a lot ofinputs to produce milk." "The feed, the water, the land." "It does." "And it may not be practical to expectthat there can be enough dairyproduction produced in asustainable way to feed the entireworld." "ljust don'tthink that that's necessarily agiven." "Ithink it's maybe too muchto expect that the world can be fed with dairy in a sustainable way." "Idon't knowthe answer, but common sense would say that's along shot." "Iwas shocked to hearsuch an honest answer." "Ifthis is whatthe dairy CEOwould say, Iwondered whatthefarmerwould claim." "Based on their marketing it seemed theirfarms were an oasisfor cows." "Itwas notwhatIexpected." "Typically a cowwill eat 140to 150 pounds offeed aday." "A hundred and forty--?" "Fortyto 50 pounds offeed every day." "And then she's also gonna drink between 30 and 40 gallons ofwater." "Oh, my Lord." "Probably go through about 20 tons perweek." "Twentytons ofgrain perweek." "Twentytons ofgrain." "For...?" "Primarilyfor ourmilking cows, so about 250 cows." "Yeah, sothe biggest part ofsustainabilityto me the numberone thing onthe list should be profitability." "So howthe process completelyworks, from startto finish is the cow needs to have ababy in orderto give milk." "And so she'll have herbaby." "That baby's gonna stay with the motherforat least two days." "The babies will go off to ourcalf-raising facility so they have an individual hutch thatthey'll be raised in." "Since we're adairy, it's onlythe girl cowsthat give us milk." "So the boys, on typical dairies, they're sold offto beef-raisingfacilities." "But we do keep approximatelyhalf and we raise them fortwo years and sell them as organic grass-fed beef." "So all dairy cows eventually go to the beefindustry?" "At some point she'll really drop off." "So you haveto make abusiness decision atthat point:" "Areyou gonna keep investing in her to give milk or areyou gonna sell her offagain to anotherdairy, or into the beefindustry?" "There's veryfew places on this planet that havethistype of environment." "Butthe demand on dairy-based protein inthe world is only gonnaincrease." "And there's not enough land on the planet to do this type ofdairying around the world." "It'sjustthe environment is not gonna be thatway." "The land's notthere." "SoIguess on a global scale the conclusion would be dairy's not sustainable." "Unlesswe start digging up houses and putting pastures back." "And the onlywayto start digging up houses and development is to have less people." "Butwe only know thatthe population is gonna continueto grow." "So that means more commercial dairying, I'm sure." "Eitherthat orsomehow lower demand bythe people?" "Yeah, or some otherproduct's gonnatake its place." "We see there are all sorts ofsoy milks and almond milk and a lot ofother products that are coming out." "And different blends, you know, where you takejuices and proteins." "Ithink you'll see alot more ofthat." "He was right." "How could cows' milk be sustainable?" "Forone gallon ofmilk, ittakes upwards of1000 gallons ofwaterto produce." "Doing research on grass-fed livestock I kept coming across the work ofAllan Savory." "Almost athird ofthe planet's land is becoming desert with the vast majority due to livestock grazing." "Savoryclaimsthatthe best way to reverse this desertification isto actually graze more animals." "This reminded me ofOceana saying the best wayto help fish is to eatfish." "This is the same man during the 1950s working as a research officer forthe Game Department ofwhat is nowZimbabwe came upwith atheory, in spite ofscientific evidence that actuallyelephantswere the cause ofdesertification there." "And his solutionwas convincing the government to kill 40,000 elephants." "Yet after 14years of relentless slaughter, the conditions only got worse." "His theorywas wrong." "The cullingfinally ended but not until tens ofthousands ofelephants andtheirfamilieswere killed." "This is not someoneIwould ever take ecological advice from." "Itturns outthe cattle industry is havingthe same effect on wildlife inthe United States." "The government has been rounding up horses en masse." "We now have more wild horses and burros in government holding facilities" "Fifty-thousand wild horses and burros." "thanwe have free on the range." "Basicallyyou have ranchers who getto graze on ourpublic lands for afraction ofthe going rate." "They're getting this huge tax subsidy." "It's about one-fifteenth ofthe going rate." "And the Bureau of Land Management hasto say:" ""How muchforage and water is onthe land?"" "And thenthey divvy it up." "They give so muchto the cows, so muchto, you know, "wildlife" and so much to thewild horses and burros." "And whatwe see isthe lion's share ofthe forage and water is going to the livestock industry." "Andthen they scapegoat the horses and burros and say:" ""Oh, there aretoo many horses and burros." "Let's remove them."" "Ialwaystell people, wild horses and burros arejust one ofthe victims ofthe management ofour public lands forlivestock because we also see the predator-killing going on." "We know wolves are now being targeted byranchers, to get rid ofwolves." "USDA has aircraft, and all they do is aerial gunning ofpredators." "All arancherdoes is call up and say, "I've got coyote here."" "They'll come over and shootthe coyote." "Orthey'll shoot the mountain lion orthe bobcat." "Andthis is all for ranching." "In Washington State, after cattle were found to be attacked on public lands wheretheywere grazing underpermit Washington State decided to kill the entire Wedge pack ofwolves." "And those wolveswere not introduced." "They had in-migrated from Canada." "Butthey're no longerthere." "And it starts atthe local level, withthe Bureau of Land Managements butthen it goes all the way to Congress." "And we see Congress willingto allow this type ofmismanagement ofour public lands to continue." "It is the insistence of, and the lobbying power of the animal agriculture industry that continues to seewolves killed continues to see an insistence that predators be maintained at a low level that does not benefit ecosystems." "I've seen so many pieces ofland, looked at so manyenvironmental assessments from the Bureau of Land Management where theysaythe range lands are not meeting standards." "Andthey say, straight-up, livestock grazing is a cause for not meeting range standards." "And yettheywill continue to allow livestock grazing." "They're at the very core ofmaking sure that cougars are treed byhounds and thatwolfpacks are run down and that hunting seasons are opened up year-round and thattraps are set so thattheycan suffer." "Ifanyone cares aboutwild horses and wildlife and public lands and the environment, you can't ignore the livestock" "The negative impactthat livestock grazing is having on ourpublic lands in the West." "I've added up the costs ofanimal food production thatthe producers don't actuallybearthemselves." "These arethe hidden costs orthe externalized costs thatthey impose on society." "And those are in categories like health care, environmental damage subsidies, damage to fisheries, and even cruelty." "Ifyou take those externalized costs, which are about $414 billion ifthe meat and dairyindustrieswere required to internalize those costs ifthey had to bear those costs themselves the costs ofthe retail prices ofmeat and dairywould skyrocket." "So a$5 carton ofeggswould go to $13." "A $4 Big Mac would go to $11." "The problem with these externalized costs being imposed on society is thatwhetheryou eat meat or not whetheryou're an omnivore oran herbivore you are paying part ofthe costs ofsomebody else's consumption." "Sowhen somebody goes into a McDonald's and buys a Big Macfor$4 there's another$7 ofcosts that's imposed on society." "I'm paying that." "You're payingthat, whetheryou eat meat ornot." "When you look atwho's benefiting, and who lobbiedforthis system ofagriculture it's the largestfood producers inthe country and the largest meat producers." "And once theybecome so large and wealthy then theycan dictatethe federal policies around producing food becausethey have so much political power." "Was this whyAl Gore, even during his vice presidency neveraddressed the issue ofanimal agriculture and failed to talk about it inAn inconvenient Truth orhis organization, The Climate Reality Project?" "Was this truthjusttoo inconvenient foreven him?" "Ifelt let down bythe man who inspired me on this entire path." "IknewIneeded to talk to an animal agriculture lobby group to see whatthey had to say." "lfthey could silence the government, arethey influencing and possibly have connections to these environmental groups aswell?" "Animal AgricultureAlliance, one ofthe biggest livestock lobbygroups has agreed to an interview." "Greenpeace won't give us an interview butAnimalAgricultureAlliance has agreed to an interview." "Now, that...." "Now, that is saying something." "People hearthe word GMOs, andthat's a really scaryterm." "Agriculture's kind ofstruggled to explain whatthat means, but in reality whatwe've done is to usetechnology to make advancements in how we raise crops and how we raise animals." "We're not gonnafeed theworld going back to how itwas 100 years ago where all the animalswere, you know, pasture-fed." "We didn'tjust move animals inside andjust implement these large vertically-integrated systems because ofsustainability." "It certainly reduces the environmental impact while improving animal well-being and food safety." "Soyou're saying that animals like it just as much being inside say, the chickens and the cows like beingjust as much inside as pasture grass-fed?" "In alot ofcases, it's been a significant improvement in theirwell-being just in terms ofthe amount ofcare they can get, individualized care." "Does the meat and dairyindustry eversupport or donate to environmental non-profits?" "Idon't knowthatIwould want to comment on that." "Yeah, I...." "Idon't...." "Idon't know." "Idon't know thatwe would know whatthey donate to." "Does meat and dairy industry eversupport ordonate to, say, Greenpeace?" "Again,Idon't know thatIwouldfeel comfortable...." "Hey, sorrywe didn't get back toyou earlier." "Ihave some bad news." "We are no longerable to fund yourfilm project." "We had a meeting and due to the growing controversial subject matter we have some concerns and have to pull out." "Whywas this subject so controversial?" "The first personIcould think to speak with was Howard Lyman who had been sued by cattlemen forsimply speakingthe truth about animal agriculture on The Oprah Winfrey Show." "Iwas born on the largest dairyfarm inthe state of Montanain 1938." "Grew up my entire life on a livestock farm." "Grew up my entire life on a livestock farm." "Went to Montana State University, got adegree inAgriculture." "Came back and started amega agriculture endeavor whereIhad 10,000 acres ofcrop 7000 head of cattle and about 30 employees." "SoIspent45 years ofmy life in animal agriculture." "And so I've been there, donethat." "WhenIwas on The Oprah Show, we had the food disparagement law." "Now, thefood disparagement law, in my opinion, was unconstitutional but what it basically said, that itwas againstthe law to say something you knew to be false about a perishable commodity." "Ididn't say anything on The Oprah Show Ithoughtto be false." "Iwentthere and told the truth." "Now, ittook five years and hundreds ofthousands ofdollars to end up extricating myself from the suitsfrom the cattle industry." "But if I wasto go on The Oprah Show today sayexactlythe same thingtoday thatIsaid back then I would be guilty." "Andfor me, whentheyweretalking aboutthe food disparagement law itwasthe fact ofwhether Itold thetruth ornot." "You can go today and tell the truth and youwill be guilty because ifyou cause a disruption in the profits ofthe animal industry you're guiltyunderthe PatriotAct." "Do you thinkthere should be any concern ofus makingthis documentary?" "Of course." "Ifyou don't realize right now thatyou're putting yourneck onthe chopping block you know, you bettertake that camera and throw it away." "Animal agriculture is one of the most powerful industries on the planet." "Ithink most people in this country are aware ofthe influence ofmoneyand industry on politics, and we really see that clearlyon display with this industry in particular." "Most would be shocked to learnthat animal rights and environmental activists are the numberone domestic terrorism threat according to the fbi." "And whyis that?" "lt's difficultto answer whythese groups are at the top ofthe FBI's priorities." "Ithink a big part ofit isthat they more than really any other social movements today are directlythreatening corporate profits." "You know, whenwe tryto find out how factoryfarms and how animal agriculture is pollutingthe environment theytryto claim exemptions tothat information either under national securityterms orpublic safety." "Trademark issues." "It's abusiness secret." "All these attempts to keep people in the dark aboutwhatthey're actuallydoing." "One ofthe largest industries onthe planet withthe biggest environmental impact keeping us inthe dark about how it's operating." "Throughthe Freedom oflnformationAct, we obtained documents from the counter-terrorism unit that showthey're monitoring my lectures mediainterviews, like this one, mywebsite, my book." "Are we at riskfilmingthis and showing it?" "You're going up against people that have massive legal resources." "Imean, it'sjust overwhelming, the amount ofmoney attheirdisposal." "Andyou have nothing." "AndIthink thatfearis abig part ofthe tactic as well." "Will was right.Iwas scared." "WhenIlearned about activists being killed in Brazil I was disturbed, butIfelt removed." "But to learn aboutAmerican activists andjournalists being targeted bythe industryand fbi?" "Myfunding being dropped?" "Iwas genuinelyworried and hit close to home." "Was this why no one was willing to talk aboutthe issue?" "Idecided to take precautionary measures with all the footageIshot." "Iwas beyond frightened to imagine what could possibly happen if I pursued this subject anyfurther." "It seemed the onlydecision to makewas to put downthe cameras and walk away." "ButthenIrealized this issue was way bigger than any personal concern Icould ever have formyself." "Thiswas about all life on Earth hanging in the balance ofouractions." "Nowyou either live forsomething, or die fornothing." "AndIactuallyhad no choice all along." "Idecided to surrender nottofearfrom the secret but ratherto a cause towardstruth." "Icouldn't be like these environmental organizations and sit silentlywhilethe planet was eaten alive right in front of oureyes." "Ihad to stand up and continue on." "Some people would saythe problem isn't really animal agriculture but actuallyhuman overpopulation." "In 1812, there were 1 billion people onthe planet." "In 1912, there were 1.5 billion." "Thenjust 100 years later, our population explodedto 7 billion humans." "This numberis rightlygiven a great deal of attention but an even more importantfigure when determining world population isthe world's 70 billion farm animals humans raise." "The human population drinks 5.2 billion gallons ofwater every day and eats 21 billion pounds offood." "Butjusttheworld's 1.5 billion cows alone drink 45 billion gallons ofwaterevery day and eat 135 billion pounds offood." "This isn't so much a human population issue." "It's ahuman-eating-animals population issue." "Environmental organizations not addressing this is like health organizationstrying to stop lung cancer without addressing cigarette smoking." "But instead ofsecondhand smoking, it's secondhand eating which affects the entire planet." "We're growing enough food right now to feed between 12 and 15 billion people." "We only have 7 billion people." "We have roughly a billion people starving everysingle day." "Worldwide, 50 percent ofthe grain and legumes thatwe're growing we're feeding to animals." "So they're eating huge amounts of grain and legumes." "In the United States, it's more like closer to 70, 80, depending on which grain it is." "About 90 percent ofthe soybeans." "Eighty-two percent of starving children live in countries where food is fed to animals in livestock systems that are killed and eaten bymore well-offindividuals in developed countries such as the U.S. and Europe." "Thefact ofit is thatwe couldfeed every human being on the planettoday an adequate diet ifwe did no more thantake the feed that we'refeeding to animals and actuallyturn it into food forhumans." "And so somebodytrying tojustify GMOs that's liketryingto give a drowning man a drink ofwater." "You can produce, on average, 15 times more protein from plant-based sources than from meat on anygiven area ofland whetherit's-- Usingthe same type ofland whether it's a veryfertile area in one area ofthe world or it's an areathat's depleted." "Ifwe would reducethe amount ofmeat we're eating, and dairyand eggs we could allow all these mono-cropped fields ofgenetically-engineered corn and soybeans to revert backto forest again, to be habitat for animals." "You know, anytime somebodytells you thatwe can't growfood forhumans on the land thatwe're growing feed foranimals this is somebody that" "Evoking the numberone crop out in California." "The fact of it is if you can grow corn to stuff down the throat of an animal you can actually grow corn and feed it to a human." "You encourage peopleto eat less meat, forthe resources required and the toll on the environment." "And on the animal." "And on the animals." "Andthe workers in the system." "It's abrutal system at every level." "Asthe world population continuesto grow to almost 9 billion people doyouforesee someday thatwe mightjust completely haveto stop eating meat altogether?" "Idon't knowthatwe'll completelystop." "Ithink thatthe amount of meat-eatingwill decline." "There's no wayto support 9 ounces per person per day which is whatAmericans are eating now." "Ifthe Chinese alone decide theywanna eat that much" "Andthey've decided theywanna eatthat much." "wejust can't-- We don't have enoughworld to produce the grain to generate that much meat." "Ithink a plant-based diet isthe most sustainable." "What do you recommend to see for9 billion people can eat forthe planet to not only sustain, but to thrive?" "Would youthrow out a numb--?" "Like an ounce, one ounce?" "Oh, permeat?" "And including dairy." "Yeah,Idon'tthinkIknow enough." "But, yeah, itwould be onthe order ofa couple ounces aweek." "You know, it's not gonna be thewaywe're eating it now." "We're gorging on meat." "We're eating huge amounts." "Does that include cheese too?" "Yeah, yeah." "Like, two ounces total?" "Yeah, cheese and milk." "Like, two ounces total?" "Yeah, cheese and milk." "Only2 ounces aweek seem like nothing." "People could probably raise that in theirown backyard." "Maybe backyard farming was a sustainable solution." "Ihave 42 ducks." "Istarted offwith three ducks threeyears ago." "And then those burdened into a population." "Ibuya 75-pound bag ofseed and that seed bagwill last me, right now, abouttwo weeks." "The ducks nowthatwe're gonnabe culling are about 2 years old." "When you're living with them, they get used toyou." "You know, they're not intimidated orwhatever." "And so they make all their vocal sounds, like natural." "Slow down." "Easy, easy, easy." "Okay." "No, we're gonna keep you." "Ron, these two gofirst." "Being smart-wise?" "Compared to a chicken, they're probablythe same." "That one's nice, see?" "Yeah, he is." "Alrighty." "Okay." "Rightthere." "That's gonnabe a little gruesome." "How could that still be alive?" "How could that still be alive?" "They're not." "That's nerves." "A nerve reaction." "Five years old or something likethat, Ithink itwas the firsttime my dad came out and made us watch as we did rabbits." "And we'd raise probably a couple dozen rabbits each year." "And then we would take those rabbits and skin them and clean them up and keepthem forfood." "As ayoung kid,Iwas kind of...." "Idon'twant to say it was hard, but itwas kind of, from my memory...." "Because some ofthe rabbits Ihad named." "SoIwas kind oflike going...." "But afterdoing it acoupletimes, you kind ofjust learned it'sjust something that hasto be done." "Notthefingers." "ljust can't do it." "Idon'tthinkIcould have someone else do itforme, if I can't do it." "lfl can't do it,Idon't want someone else doing itforme." "And then sustainability" "Forsustainability, 75 pounds is 2 pounds per" "So it's a pound perweek perduck." "Fifty-two weeks, 110...." "So it's 110 pounds offood for1 to 1.5 pounds ofmeat." "So on a sustainability issue, it's 100to 1." "And that grain gets--You know, who knowswhere that grain comesfrom?" "But,Imean, when it getsto this point, it's not even about sustainability itwasjust...." "You know,Idon'tfeel real good inside." "It was the firsttime I've everseen that." "So kind of...." "Yeah." "I'd been so caught up in the destruction caused by animal agriculture I realized I'd nevertrulydwelled on the obvious reality that every one ofthese animals was killed." "Itwas always a disconnected, abstractfact of eating meat." "Butwhen it became personal, face to face, the storychanged." "Ihad scheduled weeks in advance tofilm anotherbackyard slaughter ofa chicken that stopped producing eggs." "Ididn't know howIwas gonna possibly gothrough anotherslaughter." "SoIdidn't." "Animal Place is afarm animal sanctuary in Northern Californiathatfocuses on rescuing animals from the animal agriculture industry." "A lot ofpeople don't realize, meat-breed chickens like this guy behind us they're generally slaughtered at about42 days old." "Whereas chickens that are bred foregg production are killed when theirproductivity starts to decrease when they start laying less eggs." "And that generally happens about 18 monthsto 20 months." "It doesn't matter ifyou buy caged eggs, eggs from cage-freefarms orfree-range or pasture-based farms." "Hi, Carol." "It doesn't matter." "Turns outthere's asuccessful movement of sustainable animal-alternative food producers based right here in California funded by big names like Bill Gates and Biz Stone." "When egg-laying hens eat all that soy and corn you have an energy conversion ratio at about 38 to 1 whereas alternatively you can find plants you can growthose plants and convertthose plants intofood." "The energy conversion ratio forthe plants we're using to replace the eggs is about 2to 1, compared to 38to 1 for eggs." "So ourexplicit goal isto have the maximum amount ofimpact by creatingthis new model that makes the global egg industry entirely obsolete." "We're making Omega products proving we make bettertasting food that's great foryou and ittakes one-twentieth ofthe land and resources that dairydo." "Ifyou could havethe fiberstructure, satiating bite, protein and all the nutritional benefits ofmeat without having animal protein itself and bydoingthat you could address climate change the human health epidemics thatwe're seeing, animal welfare and natural resource conservation, wouldyou make the change?" "Butwhat ifpeoplejust ate less animal products?" "Like going meatless on Mondays." "Whenyou go meatless on Monday, you essentially contribute to climate change, pollution depletion ofourplanet's resources and yourown health then on onlysix days ofthe week, instead ofseven." "You're creating afalsejustification, clearly afalsejustification forwhat you're doing on those othersix days." "So in otherwords, we really shouldn't be resting on ourlaurels ofwhat you do right only one-seventh ofthe time." "You can't be an environmentalist and eat animal products, period." "Kidyourselfifyou want, ifyouwant to feed your addiction, so be it." "But don't call yourself an environmentalist." "IknewIhad to stop eating all animal products." "Iwanted to helpthe planet be sustainable, butIneeded to sustain myself." "Ihad doubts about being healthy and not eating meat, dairy and eggs." "AllIknew was the standardAmerican diet Igrew up on." "ls it even possible to be a healthy vegetarian orvegan?" "ls it possible to be ahealthy vegetarian orvegan?" "Ibecame veganfor, let's see, 32 years ago now." "AndIrun several miles every day." "Igo biking 40, 50 miles through the countryside." "Iwork long hours." "Ifeel great." "It's nice waking up in alight, trim bodyeveryday." "And so many ofmy vegan friends and patients arejustthriving since theirtransitionto a vegan diet." "So, yes, and I've seen vegan moms go through healthy vegan pregnancies and deliverhealthy vegan children and raisethem to tall, full-sized, intelligent vegan adults." "And, yes, certainly all the nutrients are there in the plant kingdom to dothis that is correct." "Think anyone should be consuming dairy?" "Ireally don't." "When youthink about it, the purpose ofcows' milk" "Idid most ofmy growing up on adairyfarm in Wisconsin." "The purpose ofcows' milk is to turn a 65-pound calf into a400-pound cow as rapidly as possible." "Cows' milk is baby-calf growth fluid." "It'swhatthe stuffis." "Everything in thatwhite liquid, the hormones, the lipids, the proteins the sodium, the growth factors, the lGF every one ofthose is meantto blow that calfup to a great big cow oritwouldn't be there." "And whetheryou pour it on yourcereal as a liquid whetheryou clot it intoyogurt whetheryou ferment it into cheese whetheryou freeze it into ice cream it's baby-calfgrowthfluid." "Andwomen eat it and it stimulates theirtissues and giveswomen breast lumps, it makes the uterus get big and theygetfibroids and they bleed and they get hysterectomies andthey need mammograms and gives guys man boobs." "This is...." "Cows' milk is the lactation secretions ofa large bovine mammal whojust had a baby." "It's for baby calves." "Itell my patients, "Go look in the mirror." "Do you have big ears, atail, are you a baby calf?" "Ifyou're not, don't be eating baby-calfgrowth fluid."" "In any level, there's nothing in it people need." "In any level, there's nothing in it people need." "Itwas areliefto hearl didn't have to eat animal products to be healthyand even thrive butIstill thoughtyou needed animal manure to grow organic agriculture." "Turns outthere's an entire movement with people growingfood without any animal inputs." "Ivisited Earthworks Urban Farm in Detroit." "Theywork with and growfood forthe low-income community." "We tendto see ourselves as individuals in abubble and forgetthat we inhabitthis land and this earthwith other creatures." "So we have to learn how to share more,Iguess." "Jah here is working on his garden." "You'd be surprised whatyou can do with not a lot ofspace." "About a4-by-8, yeah." "What's yourgoal this year?" "How much do you think you can maximize?" "l would pushfor 100 at least.At least." "A hundred pounds." "That's amazing." "The one full year afterthiswas constructed we doubled ouryield to over 14,000 pounds offood." "Fourteen-thousand pounds?" "On about how many acres?" "Abouttwo and a half." "So as muchfood as we produce and we grow orthe earth helps us grow we also have to return those nutrients back to the soil." "We think ofourwork as being regenerative." "Thatwe're putting as much life-giving substance in the ground as we're taking out." "So is itjust kind ofhealthierand safer to use vegetarian..." "...or vegetable composting stuff?" "Yeah, that'swhat we found." "But also because ittakes lesstime and it's a lot easierto manage." "A lot easier, yeah." "Yeah." "And the soil'sjust as rich?" "Yeah, absolutely." "Not only is veganic more compassionate, it's also more efficient." "And in asocietywiththis many billions ofpeople we need to be as efficient as possible." "Some people might go back and say ifwe embraced this primitive approach ofonlywild animals everywhere and we go back to, like, a hunter-gatherer system that sounds great." "Butthatwas 10 million people on the entire continent." "Maybe alittle bit more, a little bit less, no one really knows." "Today, nowwe have what?" "We have 320 million in the U.S., 25 million in Canada another100 and so-many-million in Mexico." "So, NorthAmerica is up to almost, you know, 450 million people." "Trying to figure out away to bring animal agriculture in balance with450 million hungry people is impossible." "This is amazing,Ididn't believe it whenIfirst learned it but 216,000 more people are born to the plant every day." "Everyday." "It's extraordinary." "Butwhat's reallyextraordinary is you need, per day 34,000 new acres offarmable land." "It's not happening." "Tofeed a person on a vegan dietfor ayear requiresjust one-sixth ofan acre ofland." "To feed that same person on a vegetarian diet that includes eggs and dairy requires threetimes as much land." "To feed an average U.S. citizen's high-consumption diet ofmeat, dairy and eggs requires 18 times as much land." "This is because you can produce 37,000 pounds ofvegetables on 1.5 acres, but only 375 pounds ofmeat on that same plot ofland." "The comparison doesn't end with land use." "A vegan diet produces halfas much CO2 as anamerican omnivore uses one-eleventh the amount offossil fuels one-thirteenth the amount ofwater and an eighteenth ofthe amount of land." "Afteraddingthis all up,IrealizedIhad the choice everysingle day to save over1100 gallons ofwater, 45 pounds ofgrain 30 square feet offorested land, the equivalent of20 pounds ofCO2 and one animal's life everysingle day." "Ifwe all did go vegan and moved awayfrom animal foods and toward a plant-based diet, whatwould happen?" "Ifwe didn't kill all these cows and eatthem then wewouldn't have to breed all these cows becausewe're breeding cows and chickens and pigs and fish." "We're breeding them overand overagain, relentlessly." "So ifwe didn't breed them, then wewouldn't haveto feedthem." "Thenwe wouldn't have to devote all this land to growing grains and legumes and so forth to feed to them." "And sothen the forest could come back." "Wildlife could come back." "The oceans would come back." "The riverswould run clean again." "The airwould come back." "Our health would return." "Renewable energy infrastructure, such as solarand wind generators to reduce climate change, that's a pretty good idea but it's projectedto take at least 20 years and at least, minimally, $18 trillion to develop." "You know, it's importantto realize that we don't have that long of atime frame." "Wejusttalked about how it might be afour-yeartime frame so we don't have 20 years and we don't have $18 trillion to develop these so anothersolutionto climate change:" "we could stop eating animals." "And it could be done today." "It doesn't have to take 20years and it doesn't have to take $18 trillion, because it costs nothing." "Some say, "Fix CO2, then worry about methane."" "It'sthe otherway." "Do something about methane, you'll get aresponse right away." "The most powerful thing that someone can doforthe environment no other lifestyle choice has afartherreaching and more profoundly positive impact on the planet and all life on Earth than choosingto stop consuming animals and live a vegan lifestyle." "Do you realize 75 percent ofamericans considerthemselves to be environmentalists?" "You don'tthinkwe couldn't solve this problem in a heartbeat?" "I'll tell you what, all we would need is forthe environmentalists to live whatthey profess and we'd be on a new course in the world." "We will not succeed until we stop animal agriculture." "And by"succeed,"Imean wewill not save ecosystems tothe extent necessary wewill not have enough food forpeople around the planet we will not stop global warming wewill not stop pollution in the dead zones that run off all the fields ofcorn and soy that are grownto feed livestock and we will not stop the hunting ofwolves and otherpredators." "Organic farming is one step in the right direction, butwe need to keep walking." "We need to get beyond organics." "We need to getto sustainability." "Whenyoutake the animal out, you takethe greenhouse gas issue out you take thefood safety issues out youtake some otherexternalities related to food scarcity out." "But one thingthat's amazing is Ithink you put ourvalues back in." "You put values like compassion and integrity and kindness valuesthat are natural to human beings, you put that in you build that back into the story of ourfood." "AndIthink as this begins to progress, Ithink it also helps people to pause before theyeatthat egg, beforethey eatthat steak before theyeatthat chicken nugget and askthemselves, is that reallywhattheywant?" "Or do theyactuallywant something more?" "Ihadto come to the full conclusion the onlywayto sustainably and ethically live on this planet with 7 billion otherpeople isto live an entirely plant-based vegan diet." "Idecided instead ofeating others, to eat for others." "At first, likethese environmental groups, Iwas afraid ofwhat it'd mean to change." "But nowIembrace it." "All this talk about sustainability sounded like our planetwas on life support." "AndIdon'twant herto simply survive orto sustain, butto thrive." "Life today is not about sustainability." "It's about "thrive-ability."" "She's given so much to usfor so long, itwas time to give back." "A hundred-and-eight percent of everythingwe have." "Itfelt good." "It was an alignment." "And we seethis movement, notjust about providing cheaper inexpensivefood that everyone can have, but also a spiritual move." "A move towards understanding who we really are and howwe can connect to each other." "Do whatyou can do as well as you can do it..." "We become part ofa gathering momentum of otherpeople." "It's happening." "This is really what's happening." "This is the new." "Selflessness is a nice wayto be." "It has all these benefitsforyourself, aswell as the planet and otherpeople." "So it's abeautiful wayto live." "Ecologically, itjustfeels better." "This is about massivelytransforming how oursociety eats, because it's a necessity." "It's acting on whatwe know." "And acting kindly and gently on thewhole planet andwith otherpeople to accomplish the goals of living better." "We can do it, butwe haveto chooseto do it." "You can changethe world."