""In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." – Martin Luther King" "Climatologists say the level of safe emissions would be about 350 ppm CO2 of greenhouse gases and we're already at 400 ppm." "SIERRA CLUB (Deputy Director) They say the best we can hope to do without serious implications, such as drought, famine, human conflict, major species extinction would be an increase in temperature in the order of 2°C." "We are rapidly approaching this number and with the built-in CO2 already in the atmosphere, we're easily going to exceed that." "We are seeing the next major species extinction that we haven't seen since the dinosaurs disappearing." "When countries become submerged by rising sea levels, when countries realise that drought keeps them from feeding the population, and therefore have to migrate or invade another country, we will have climate wars in the future." "What about ... what about livestock and animal agriculture?" "Well, what about it.." "I mean... Co-director" "My name is Kip." "This is me." "I had a cliché American childhood." "My mom was a teacher, my dad was in the military, and I have a sister." "I played many sports but always loved the outdoors and camping." "Life was simple." "Not a care in the world." "Then this guy showed up." "Like many people, I saw his film "An Inconvenient Truth"" "on the impacts of global warming and it scared me." "In Al Gore's film he describes how earth is in peril." "Climate change stands for the fact that all life on this planet from monster storms, raging wild-fires, record droughts, melting glaciers, icecaps melting, acidification of the oceans, to countries being submerged, that could all be caused by human demands on the Earth." "With scientists warning, unless we take drastic measures to to correct our ecological footprint our time on this planet may be limited to only 50 more years." "I wanted to do whatever was in my power to help." "I decided at that moment to change my way of life and do all that was possible for me to to find a way to live together, in balance with the planet sustainably, forever." "I started by doing everything Al suggested us," "I became an OCE, an "Obsessive-Compulsive Environmentalist"" "I separated the trash," "I composted, changed all the light bulbs, took short showers, shut the water when I brushed my teeth," "I turned off the lights when leaving the room, and I traveled by bicycle everywhere." "But over the years things seemed to get worse." "I wondered:" "with the continuous ecological crisis on the planet, even if everyone adopted these conservation habits would it be enough to save the world?" "There seemed to be more to the story." "I thought I did all to help the planet." "But with a post from a friend, everything changed." "The post sent me to a UN report stating that cows produce more greenhouse gases than the entire transport sector." "This means that raising cattle generates more greenhouse gases than all cars, trucks, trains, boats and planes combined." "13% compared to 18% produced by livestock." "This is because cows produce a large amount of methane from their digestive process." "Methane gas from livestock is 25-100 times more destructive than carbon dioxide from vehicles." "Here I rode my bike everywhere to help reduce emissions but climate change is more than just fossil fuels." "I did more research." "The UN and other agencies recorded that not only did livestock play a major role in global warming, it is also the leading cause of resource consumption and environmental degradation destroying the planet." "How was I not aware of this?" "I thought this information would be everywhere in the green community." "I visited the websites of the nation's largest environmental organisations, 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 not have this information on there?" "The focus seems to be natural gas and oil production, with fracking being the latest hot issue due to water usage and contamination." "Hydraulic fracking for natural gas uses an incredible amount of water." "378 billion litres of water is consumed each year in the US." "But compared to animal agriculture the US consumes 130 trillion litres of water." "And the emissions of methane of both industries are almost equal." "Living in California, a state plagued by drought and water shortages, water use is a major concern for many of us." "(PACIFIC INSTITUTE) The average Californian consumes about 5678 litres per person, per day." "Half of that is related to meat and dairy products." "Meat and dairy are incredibly water-intensive, partly because animals consume grains produced with much water, that's what they eat." "All the water embedded in grain, what the animal eats is considered part of the virtual water footprint of the product." "I found out a 110 gram hamburger needs more than 2500 litres of water to produce." "I take short showers to save water to find out that eating one hamburger is the equivalent of showering two entire months." "Much is made from reducing home water use, yet domestic use is only 5% of the total in the US while 55% for animal agriculture." "This is because it takes up to 9500 litres of water to produce 450 grams of beef." "I went to the department of water resources' "Save Our Water" campaign, which outlines habits to help conserve water." "Like using low-flow shower heads, efficient toilets, water-saving appliances and fix leaky faucets and sprinklers, but nothing about animal agriculture." "Following all recommendations, I saved 177 litres per day." "Still not close to the 2500 litres for one burger." "I wanted to see if I could talk to the government about this." "I'm calling to see if we can schedule an interview." "Yes, that would be good." "Whatdoyouthinkofthisafternoon or tomorrow afternoon?" "Tomorrow afternoon could be good." "Government of California Sacramento, CA" "(CA DEPT." "WATER RESOURCES) (Chief Water Use and Efficiency Branch) Much can be done for the urban environment." "Indoors, using low-flow shower heads, low-flow faucets and toilets, efficient water-using appliances." "All those areas can help a lot." "But the biggest water savings is from outdoors." "(CA DEPT." "WATER RESOURCES) (Statewide Integrated Water Management) We must be mindful about how we use water." "We have to use it as efficiently as possible." "We must protect its quality and be good stewards of the environment that depends on water." "And checking the sprinklers." "Often there are leaks and broken sprinklers..." "Things like that wastes water." "We can save a lot in these areas." "A lot was about animal agriculture..." "Can you comment on how that plays a role in water consumption and pollution." "That's not my area..." "One study found that producing 450 grams of beef uses 9500 litres of water." " Yes." " Yes." "Eggs 1800 litres of water." "Cheese almost 3400 litres." "Why doesn't it appear on "Save Our Water"?" "It's as if it you go to someone's house and one neighbour has a faucet dripping and you see a giant hose turned full blast until 2500 litres of water shout out in the street flooding the entire street." "I think I would say:" ""Turn that off, please."" "It seems to be a big thing we could do by far more than anything else." "If that is really the case." "I think the water footprint of animal husbandry is greater than other activities." "Without a doubt." "That would be really powerful." "Rather than waiting for a drought, just start now and tell whoever administers "Save Our Water", say" ""Lets encourage people eating less meat because these studies are coming up."" " I don't think it will happen." " Why?" " I don't this will happen." " Why?" "Because the way government is organised here." "It's interesting, why though?" "One is water management, the other behaviour change." "Changing habits like picking showers and not watering the lawn, that is behaviour." "Yes." "Clearly the government did not want talk about this issue." "The inability to answer along with the environmental organisations' silence on animal agriculture, suggested that something more was going on." "I investigated more about animal agriculture and found that the situation was worse than I thought." "In 2009, two advisors from the World Bank issued an analysis on human-induced greenhouse gases, finding that animal agriculture was responsible not for 18% of emissions as the UN stated, but for 51% of all greenhouse gases." "51%." "Yet all we hear is about burning fossil fuels." "This devastating figure is due to clear-cutting rainforest for grazing, respiration and all the waste that animals produce." "This makes animal agriculture the main contributor to human-caused climate change." "But more than that, I found that raising animals for food consumes 1/3 of all fresh water, occupies up to 45% of the Earth's land." "It's responsible for 91% of the Amazon destruction, it's the main cause of species extinction, ocean "dead zones", and habitat destruction." "Yet the largest environmental groups who should be saving our world didn't mention it anywhere." "I had to speak with them to find out why they weren't addressing this issue." "I sent dozens of emails, made call after call." "Spent hours on hold." "Days became weeks and weeks became months" "For some reason, nobody wanted to talk about this." "So bizarre." "I supported these organisations so long and I was met with silence." "However I did connect with a handful of environmentalist authors and advocates that were willing to talk." "I took my trusty van Super Blue out of retirement and hit the road." "My calculations are" "Environmental researcher (Author "Comfortably Unaware") without using any gas, oil or fuel, ever, from today, we would still exceed the maximum level of emissions of greenhouse gases, by 565 gigatons, by the year 2030." "Even without counting the energy sector, just by raising and eating livestock." "UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY (Professor of Global Environmental Health) Reduce methane gas emissions and the level in the atmosphere drops drastically." "Within decades." "As opposed to CO2, reducing the emissions into the atmosphere we will not see a signal at least 100 years." "THE SUSTAINABILITY INSTITUTE MOLLOY COLLEGE The biggest contributor to any known environmental ill:" "deforestation, land use, water scarcity, social instability, world hunger..." "The list doesn't stop." "It's an environmental disaster that's ignored by those who should be championing." "Environmental Author and ethics (Author of "The World Peace Diet") Free-living animals made up 99% of the biomass." "Humans were only 1% of the biomass." "Today, only 10.000 years later, only a fraction amount of time, we humans and animals we hold as property, make up 98% of the biomass." "And wild and free animals only 2%." "Basically, we've stolen the world, the Earth, free-living animals for our benefit," ""our" pigs, cows, chickens and factory-farmed fish and our oceans and are even more devastated." "Environmental researcher (Author "Comfortably Unaware") Concerned researchers on the loss of species agree that the main cause of loss of species we witness, is overgrazing and habitat loss from livestock production on land and overfishing, which I call fishing in the oceans." "We are experiencing the biggest species extinction in 65 million years." "Rain forests have been destroyed at 4050 m2 per second." "The driving force behind all of this is animal agriculture." "Deforestation to create pasture and grow soybeans." "Transgenic soybeans for cows, pigs, factory-farmed chickens and fish." "Environmental researcher (Author "Comfortably Unaware") 91% of forest loss in the Amazon to date 91% of which is destroyed is due to raising livestock." "INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABILITY MOLLOY COLLEGE The main cause of environmental destruction is animal agriculture." "I couldn't understand why the largest environmental organisations are not addressing this when their entire mission is to help protect the environment." "They say:" "Environmental Author and Food Author ("The Omnivore's Dilemma") "Use less coal, ride a bike..."" " Not "eat less meat"" " Yeah." "I think they focus-grouped it and it's a political loser." "They are membership organisations." "They want to maximise the number of people making contributions and if they are identified as anti-meat or challenge people on their habits, something that is so dear to people, it will hurt their fundraising." "They don't want to address the main cause of environmental devastation, which is animal agriculture, because they are businesses." "They want to ensure they have a reliable source of funding." "UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY (Professor of Global Environmental Health) I met with Al Gore a few years ago and talked about methane but he was really pushed back." "His argument is this:" ""It is difficult enough to make people think about CO2."" ""Don't confuse them."" "Former Executive WHOLE FOODS MARKET I think the problem many of these organisations have is a laser focus, they don't want to go off-message because they don't want to piss off another group of people that will make their lives difficult." "INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABILITY MOLLOY COLLEGE Most large organisations don't tell you to do much." "Besides "live life as usual, but change the light bulb from time to time, drive less, use less plastic, recycle more..."" "It's better for their fundraising and their profile to create a victim- and-perpetrator plotline." "Environmental Ethics Author ("The World Peace Diet") It's like a dysfunctional family." "The father is an alcoholic, but it's the one thing no one talks about." "All go around it, yet it's the cause of destroying the relations in the family." "Because nobody wants talk about it." "How can these organisations not know?" "The issue is before them, unmistakable at this point." "And organisations do everything to show the public that climate change is human-caused and completely fail to see what's in front of them:" "that animal agriculture, raising and killing animals for food is what is killing the planet." "That was it." "No more e-mails and phone calls, I had enough." "I realised that if I wanted answers," "I would have to go to these organisations in person." "GREENPEACE San Francisco Headquarters" " Hi, how's it going?" " Good." "We are doing a documentary." "It's on sustainability and animal agriculture." "And we would talk with David Barre." " With Barre?" " Yes." " Do you have an appointment?" " We tried for almost two months." " We did not receive one email, nothing." " Sure." " To see if we can set something up." " Let me ..." "They sent the PR person instead." "She refused to be filmed and told us to turn off the camera, but promised to send someone from the rainforest, ocean and climate change department who would all speak with us." "Finally." "Next stop was the Sierra Club." "Turns out they were a bit more receptive to our visit." "How's it going?" "SIERRA CLUB Deputy Executive Director" "What is the main cause of climate change?" "Basically burning too many fossil fuels." "Coal, natural gas, oil, tar sands." "Oil shale..." "All new fuel exotic fuels and hybrids between them." "Basically this is what loads the atmosphere." "We have this greenhouse effect, where the heat is trapped and temperatures are soaring at a rate that never existed before in the history of the Earth." "What about ... what about livestock and animal agriculture?" "Well, what about it.." "I mean..." "We   did research" "A couple of UN reports say animal livestock causes more emissions than all forms of transport put together." "A 2009 Worldwatch report:" ""Livestock causes 51% of all greenhouse gases..."" "Well ..." "It is a big issue we need to address but, you know, there are so many potential sources of methane and carbon emissions..." "If the number one leading cause is animal agriculture and meat consumption then shouldn't it be the number one focus or at least the number two?" "Well, that's your assessment, our assessment is different." "That was bizarre." "Greenpeace responded today and said:" ""Great to meet you yesterday."" ""I spoke with various people here at Greenpeace about your request, but I'm afraid we can't help this time."" ""Thanks again, and best of luck."" "The response of Greenpeace reminded me of the statistic that 53.000 kilograms of farm animal excrement is produced every second in the US." "Enough waste per year to cover all of San Francisco," "New York, Tokyo, Paris," "New Delhi, Berlin, Hong Kong, London," "Rio de Janeiro, Delaware, Bali, Costa Rica and Denmark combined." "Environmental researcher (Author "Comfortably Unaware") Livestock operations on land created more than 500 nitrogen-flooded dead zones around the world and our oceans." "It comprises more than 245.000 km2 of totally lifeless areas." "Any discussion about the about the state of the oceans must begin with frank discussions about land-based animal agriculture, which is not at the apex of conservation groups" " Oceana being the largest and most influential in the world, and others - of their discussions." "On my favourite oceans protection organisation's website," "Surfrider Foundation, to see what they are doing about this." "Mostly campaigns about plastic bags and trash but nothing about animal agriculture." "SURFRIDER FOUNDATION Environmental Director" "What is the main coastal water pollutant?" "A lot ..." "We call it the "toxic cocktail."" "Because it's a truly diffuse source." "Heavy metal from tyres, brakes and cars, heavy metals herbicides and pesticides" "Everything we leave on the ground, collecting it and pushing it into the ocean." "It's hard to target one thing." "We're doing research on a particular one, and as we interviewed more people, what keeps coming up, is animal agriculture as being the number one water polluter." "considerably more than any others..." "Interesting, I guess it depends on the regions you focus on." "Urban areas, like here in southern California where we are, we don't see that, so not a lot of agricultural farms but in the mid-Atlantic" "Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina," "I know there are many poultry farms, pig farms where waste is a big issue." "I was surprised they not only did not focus on runoff from farms they also not mention no campaign about how our oceans are near collapse." "The UN reporterd that the 3/4 of world's fisheries are overexploited, fully exploited or nearly depleted, due to overfishing." "SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY The oceans are under siege like never before and marine environments are at risk." "If we don't wake up and do something about it we have oceans without fish by the year 2048." "That's the prediction of scientists." "FOOD EMPOWERMENT PROJECT (Executive Director) Sometimes, when people look at fishing they look only at the fish eaten by humans, not necessarily at the animals caught in the drift nets" "All the others animal killed in the industry," "Even the shrimp industry devastated much of the planet because of breaking natural barriers that we have to protect the islands." "Over 28 billion fish were taken from the oceans last year" "SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY they never have a chance to recover." "They don't multiply that quickly, we don't give them the opportunity." "The oceans are in collapse, larger fish are almost extinct." "To meet the current demand, some 90 million tonnes of fish, fishing is done with big nets." "For every 450 grams of fish caught, about 2,2 kg of other species become trapped, such as dolphins, whales, sea turtles and sharks, known as by-kill." "If we imagine the same happening on the African savannah, targeting the gazelle but scooping up every lion, giraffe, ostriche and elephant nobody would stand for it." "However, this happens in our oceans every day." "40-50 million sharks are killed every year in fishing lines and nets as by-kill." "Then the fins may be cut off or not but they're caught initially as by-kill." "And it's from sustainable fishing for fish labeled sustainable by for instance Oceana and for fish labeled sustainable by for instance Oceana and other sustainable certified organisations, by for instance Oceana and these sustainable certified organisations." "So my thought is why stop banning shark fin soup if you're concerned about sharks?" "Which these organisations are, and most of the public." "If we're really worried about sharks we would ban fishing." "I went on the world's largest ocean conservation's website," "Oceana to see what they do about this." "On their site, along the TED Talk by CEO Andy Sharpless," "I was shocked to read that one of the best ways to help fish is to eat fish." "With the world's fish in near collapse, it is like saying that the best way help endangered pandas is to eat pandas." "I couldn't understand how Oceana could tell we could kill close to million 100 tons of fish per year and this could be sustainable and good for our oceans." "In many species that are near extinction, have done so and" "Environmental researcher (Author "Comfortably Unaware") haven't recovered on the watch of Oceana on the watch of Marine Stewardship Council, and on the watch of Monterey Bay Sea Food." "I commented in one of my lectures they are aptly named, because they are watching, instead of aggressively halting it." "OCEANA Monterey Bay, California" "According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation" "OCEANA California Program Director 3/4 of fisheries are either "fully exploited or overexploited"." "So there are not many fish stocks out there that we consider healthy for the ecosystem." "Watching Andy's TED Talk about feeding the world..." "In 1988, the fishery peaked at 85 million tonnes." "How can we sustainably catch 100 million tons in 2050?" "Regardless if it's a farm or in an ocean." "For every 450 grams of fish caught you catch 2,2 kg of wild fish whether it's in a farm or an ocean." "How can that be sustainable?" "The ultimate question is that there is a tremendous amount of natural production that comes out of the oceans all the time." "We have a massive upwelling from our ocean conveyor belt that brings ancient nutrients and our ecosystems turn that into fish." "They eat each other and you lose some of the production every step up in the food chain, but every year we have more." "You can fish, take some out and next year there will be more." "And if we do well, without hitting the fundamental driver..." "It's like living off the interest, right?" "As long as you don't bring the principle down if you invest in something, and the principle stays high, you can live off the interest forever." "This is the basic idea with fish." "With our population now... 75% of the fish is depleted." "It's a good analogy with money," "We are not living off interest, we are extremely indebted." "And if our population tries to live as a family on the same amount of money" " and it rises to 9 billion people." " Right." "Should we not say: "We have to stop spending money"?" " Yes." " "Stop eating fish."" "If you can bring the principle back..." "Environmental researcher (Author "Comfortably Unaware") Fishing not only depletes the species, it leads to serial depletion, where one species is minimised and the industry moves on to the next species." "It's aptly named serial depletion." "In the process fish is lost, but the next in line is lost, the mechanism is still very destructive." "They lose the fish species, but also destroy habitats." "SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY They invented the term "sustainable fishing" to feel good about eating fish and continue to take fish from the oceans." "In fact, Sea Shepherd says that there is no such thing as "sustainable fishing"." "Former Executive WHOLE FOODS MARKET Sea food is not a protein source for the planet." "SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY Nobody wants to hear it because it makes them feel they have to act." "Many people don't want to to disclose because it's uncomfortable to tell others what to do." "But we are at a point where we must all be rational, and have to realise we have to take action." "SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY Our founder captain Watson says:" ""If the oceans die, we die." It's not a tagline, it's the truth." "Perhaps the only ecosystem that is being destroyed at such a rapid rate are the rainforests." "Our global rainforests are the planet's lungs." "They absorb CO2 and release oxygen." "4047 m2 of rainforest is cleared every second." "To create pastures and cultivate animal feed." "The equivalent of a football field cleared every second." "It is estimated that every day over 100 plant, animal and insect species are lost due to rainforest destruction." "Rainforest Action Network Headquarters, San Francisco" "What is the main cause of rainforest destruction?" "(Executive Director) Human intervention, either by logging or agribusiness." "The top global drivers varies somewhat depending on the forest but the way we use these natural resources, on an industrial scale is the main cause." "When I went to the Rainforest Action website" "I couldn't believe there was nothing about cattle." "But there was a big campaign against palm oil." "Palm oil plantations cause tremendous deforestation in the Indonesian rainforest." "Estimations say palm oil is responsible for 10 million hectares of deforestation." "However, livestock feed crops are responsible for 56 million hectares of lost rainforest today." "But I was shocked to discover that their website cattle was not included as one of the four main issues." "Instead, it focused on palm, pulp and paper, coal and tar sands?" "How can can they not have the main cause of deforestation?" "I wondered: why focus on fossil fuels and not on cattle?" "Is it more more fuel fossils or is it more animal agriculture?" "I don't know why we have to choose." "I just want to know which one is it?" "I don't necessarily know what it is." "The executive director of one of the largest rainforest protection groups really did not know what is happening?" "Or even worse, hid something?" "If so, why?" "I went immediately to Amazon Watch to see what they would say on the main cause of rainforest destruction." "AMAZON WATCH Program director The most biologically and culturally place on the planet, is under massive attack." "The Amazon forest may disappear in ten years." "What is the main cause rainforest destruction?" "The main cause of rainforest destruction..." "Say ..." "To put Amazon Watch in perspective ..." "There are many causes for deforestation." "Many reasons and ways to destroy forests." "The main cause that cause the most damage are mega projects." "Such as oil and gas pipelines." "Mining projects, such as mega dam projects." "We're not talking about ..." "I felt like walking in circles with all of these groups." "As if caught in some "Cowspiracy" Twilight Zone where nobody could talk about cows." "I couldn't believe that these organisations wouldn't tell the true cause of rainforest destruction." "I had to ask one more time." "It's hard to say what the biggest cause of deforestation in the Amazon because all are destructive: oil and gas, mineral mining, dams, agriculture, 577Amazon 00:34:49,482 -- 00:34:53,549 but in terms of land use" "the amount of land destroyed..." "Comparing all the causes of deforestation causing the most trees to fall" "it would definitely be agriculture." "Unfortunately, one of the largest causes of deforestation definitely in the Brazilian Amazon, is agribusiness." "Cattle grazing and soy production in particular." "This is what really is going on." "Why do you think ..." "Nobody, like Greenpeace, will say the whole story?" "Yes." "I think you raised very good points, why is anyone doing anything about it." "I think in Brazil, especially when we look at what happened after Forest law was passed people stood up against the lobbyists and private interests:" "the cattle industry, agribusiness... what happened to them, many of those who spoke out were killed." "If you look at Ze Carlos, Claudio" "People who put themselves out there and said cattle ranching destroys the Amazon" "a lot of people who put themselves out there like Dorothy Stang, a nun who lived in Para ... was killed." "Many people will speak up, many people stay silent because they don't want to be the next to end up with a bullet to their head." "Sister Dorothy Stang was an American nun who lived in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest." "She dedicated her life to protect the Amazon." "She spoke openly against to destruction of the rainforest and cattle ranching for years." "One night, returning home was gunned down at point blank range by a hired gun of the cattle industry." "Sister Dorothy Stang 1931 - 2005" "More than 1,100 activists have been killed in the last 20 years in Brazil" "After Greenpeace denied the interview" "I wrote again, begging to reconsider." "Greenpeace responded again and said again:" ""Unfortunately, we explored ways to help and are not able to help this time."" "You mentioned you would also speak with Oceana, certainly they will be able to give good quotes on the ocean-related issues." "Thanks again for thinking of us."" "Unbelievable." "With Greenpeace refusing an interview" "I had to find another way to get answers." "There's something very fishy over there." "Fortunately, I found a former director of Greenpeace who now speaks openly on the industry." "FOUNDER OF ALASKA GREENPEACE (Former member of direction We "Greenpeace USA) Environmental NGOs and others don't tell the truth about what the world needs from us as a species." "It's frustrating when the information is before them." "It's documented in peer-reviewed journals, there for all to see but environmental organisations refuse to act." "Nowhere in the policies or mission of Greenpeace, that diet is important." "That animal agriculture is the problem." "They refuse, like other environmental organisations, to look at the issue." "The environmental community fails us and fails the ecosystems." "It's frustrating to see them do this." ""NRDC, the Earth's best defense"" "Ok, here are a few things about animal agriculture." "NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL California Advocacy Director" "The main cause of environmental degradation is too much pollution." "Too many engines churning too fast in too many places around the globe." "In late 2009, according to a Worldwatch report cattle is responsible for 51% of greenhouse gas emissions and transport about 13%." "On the low end there's the UN between 18 and 30%, which is more than all transport together." "Nationally ... or internationally?" " Or nationally?" " Worldwide, yes." "I think energy production and transport are still the major sources so I think ..." "I'm not going to comment on that, because I don't know these numbers." "So don't quote me on this but that's cow farts." "It think that is what that is." "I think that's cow fart." "Well, that's part of the story." "Methane production from cows and other livestock flatulence is a major contributor." "But mostly it is due to deforestation and their waste" "Which exceeds 130 times more than the waste of all humans." "Almost all without the benefit any waste treatment." "The NRDC absolutely has a big food programme." "In fact, every year, we do the "Going Green Awards"" "and we recognise food innovators." "Last year, one of the awardees was a sustainable pork producer that doesn't use antibiotics." "The antibiotic use that industrial food production in the US uses..." "We're getting the majority of antibiotics in the US are administered to healthy livestock." "RANCH DAYS FARMSTEAD CHEESEMAKING" "I wanted to visit one of these these sustainable farms." "I found the Markegard beef farm on the lush misty California coast." "I met Erik and Doniga Markegard and their four children." "Lea and Larry are usually up and out at 6 milking, feeding the pigs..." "(Co-owner Markegard family grass-fed) Altogether, we graze 1800 hectares and this is our home ranch, and this is 381 hectares." "On average it's one cow or a cow and a calf for every four hectares." "Annually we produce almost 36,300 kg plate-ready meat." "We keep about 10 pigs in a 20 hectare area." "and move them in 4 acre pastures." "(Daughter) Some say pigs are dirty and disgusting, but I like them." "They know people and they will be friends and real nice." "They could be your best friend or like a sister." "See." "They know you and we get to know them." "I shouldn't be bonding but we have to have nice pigs." "Why shouldn't you bond with them?" "Because they will turn into bacon." "These pigs are 7 months now." "They are getting ready to be killed." "The two little ones can grow for a few more months." "(Owner Markegard family grass-fed) I love, I love animals and that's why I'm in the meat business." "(Owner Markegard family grass-fed) What society needs to see more is that that packaged meat is a living animal" "living, breathing creature." "Yes, it's hard, it's hard, but like Doniga said, we do it because we love them." "With the land use that is between 1 to 1,5 hectare per cow ... all the way up to, depending on, not as lush as this, up to 14 acres." "Yes, we have a ranch in South Dakota that is 20 hectares ..." "Yes, it's 20 ha, yes." "Why is that?" "The same thing, it was farmed and robbed of the nitrogens." " Abused the land..." " It's also seasonal, right?" "It's also seasonal." "Is it possible and practical for the world to say:" ""Grow grass-fed cattle"?" "With reference to Brazil, where 80% of the rainforest was destroyed for cattle." "What are your thoughts on that?" "They shouldn't eat beef." "If their environment wasn't designed to raise beef" " they shouldn't eat it." " Yes." "How do you offset the carbon footprint of livestock?" "We feel that livestock don't have a carbon footprint." "I left feeling confused." "As far as grass-fed beef not having a carbon footprint sounded like it could make sense." "Until I added up the numbers on land use and population." "If we use the Markegard model for raising animals it requires about 1800 ha to produce 36,300 kg of meat." "The average American consumes 95 kg of meat per year." "If that was all grass-fed beef 382 people would be fed on the land." "That's 5 ha per person, times 314 million Americans, which equals 1,3 billion ha grazing land." "Unfortunately, there are only 809 million ha in 48 US states." "Currently almost half of US land is dedicated to animal agriculture." "If we switch to grass-fed beef it would require every cm2 in the US." "Up to Canada, all of Central America and well into South America." "And this is just to feed US demand on meat." "But the number does not take into consideration that most land is not suitable for livestock." "We would have to turn all mountain ranges to pastures." "Clear ancient forests and national parks for grazing." "And demolish all cities to make room to graze cows." "Like Brazil, the US is not suited to meet demands for meat." "SUSTAINABILITY INSTITUTE AT MOLLOY COLLEGE It takes 23 months for a grass-fed animal to grow and reach slaughter age." "A grain-fed cow takes 15 months." "That's eight extra months of water use, land use, feed, waste." "The carbon foot print is a huge difference." "Turns out, due to land use grass-fed beef is more unsustainable than even factory farming." "I had to come to terms with the fact that there are not enough animals for the global demand for meat and had doubts on dairy as well." "But I wanted to talk with a premier organic dairy company." "to see if their product was sustainable for the world's population." "It requires a lot of inputs." "Clover-Stornetta Dairy (President) Feed, water, land." "It may not be practical to expect there can't be enough dairy produced sustainably to feed the world." "That's not necessarily a given." "I think perhaps too much to expect that the world can be fed with sustainable dairy." "I don't know the answer, but common sense would say, that's a long shot." "I was shocked to hear such an honest answer." "If the CEO would say this, what would the farmer claim?" "According to the marketing their farms are an oasis for cows." "FOR GOODNESS SAKE Drink Clover Milk" "It wasn't what I expected." "Bivalve Organic Dairy (Co-owner) Normally a cow consumes 64-70 kg of feed a day." " Between 64 ..." " Between 64 and 70 kg a day." "She also drinks between 114-151 litres of water." "My God." "We use about 20 tons per week." " 20 tonnes of grain per week." " 20 tonnes." "Primarily for milking cows so about 250 cows." "The most important sustainability, for me, the first thing on the list should be profit." "The complete process from start to finish:" "The cow must have a calf to give milk." "So she have the calf, the baby stays with the mother for two days." "The babies are taken to the calve-raising facility." "They are raised in an individual hutch." "We are a dairy so only the girl cows give us milk, so the males are sold off to beef-raising facilities." "But we keep half of them for two years." "and sell them as organic grass-fed beef." "So all dairy cows go to the beef industry?" "At some point she drops off and then we have to decide if we continue to invest and milk it." "or to sell to another dairy or to the beef industry." "Only a few places on the planet have this type of environment." "But the demand for dairy-based protein will increase in the world." "There is not enough land on the planet for this kind of dairying." "The land is not there." "On a global scale 00:50:21,665 -- 00:50:27,000 dairy is not sustainable." "Unless we begin to replace houses for pastures." "For this to happen, there have to be fewer people." "But we know the population continues to grow." "That means more commercial dairy." "That or lower the demand ..." "Yes, or another product take its place." "We see all sorts of soy and almond milks other products and blends." "Juices and proteins." "I think we'll see more of that." "He was right." "How could cow milk be sustainable?" "To produce 1 litre of milk, need 1000 litres of water." "During research on grass-fed livestock" "I kept coming across the work of Allan Savory." "Almost 1/3 of the planet is turning into desert, with the vast majority due to livestock grazing." "Savory claims that the best way to reverse desertification is to graze more animals." "It reminded me of Oceana saying that the best way to help fish is to eat fish." "This is the same man who in the 1950s, working as a research officer for the Game Department of what is now Zimbabwe, created the theory, in spite of scientific evidence that elephants caused the desertification." "His solution was to convince the government to kill 40.000 elephants." "After 14 years of relentless slaughter the conditions got worse." "His theory was wrong." "The culling finally ended, but not before tens of thousands of elephants and their families were killed." "This is not someone I would take ecological advice from." "It turns out the cattle industry has the same effect on wild life in the US." "The government rounds up horses in mass." "(American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign) We have now more wild horses and donkeys in state farms." "50.000 horses and burros more than free on the range." "Basically, rangers get to graze on our public lands for a a fraction of the going rate." "They enjoy tax subsidies, about 1/15 of the going rate." "What the Bureau's Land Management has to do is say:" ""How much forage and water is on the land?"" "Then they divide, a part for the cows, other to "wildlife"." "and to wild horses and burros." "What we see is that most forage and water goes to the livestock industry." "They scapegoat the horses and burros and say:" ""There are too many horses and burros, let's remove them."" "I often say that the horses and donkeys are just victims of the management of public lands for livestock because we also see the killing of predators." "We know that farmers target the wolves." "The Department of Agriculture has helicopters and kills predators from the air." "All a rancher needs to say:" ""Here's a coyote."" "They come and shoot the coyote." "Or shoot the mountain lion or the bobcat." "And all because of ranching." "GREENPEACE ALASKA FOUNDER (Former member of directors Greenpeace USA) In Washington State, after cattle was attacked on public lands where it was grazing" "Washington state decided to kill an entire pack of wolves." "These wolves were not introduced, they had immigrated from Canada." "But they're no longer there." "It starts at the local level, with Bureau of Land Management" "(American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign) but then it goes to Congress." "And we see that Congress allows this type of mismanagement of public land to continue." "It is the insistence and power of the agriculture industry that continues to kill wolves and insists on keeping predators a low level that does not benefit the ecosystems." "I saw so much land, so many environmental assessments from the Bureau of Land Management that say the range land does not meet the standard." "They say straight up livestock is a cause for not meeting range standards." "Yet they allow livestock grazing." "They want to ensure that cougars are hunted by hounds, that wolf packs are run down that hunting seasons are opened up year-round, that traps are set so that they suffer." "If anyone cares for horses, wildlife and public land and the environment, you can't ignore livestock, the negative impact of livestock grazing on public lands in the West." "(Lawyer, Author "Meatonomics") I calculated the cost of animal food production that producers don't bear themselves." "The hidden or externalised costs." "they impose on society." "They fall into categories such as health care, environmental damage, subsidies, damage to fisheries and even cruelty." "Those external costs are about 332 billion euros." "If the dairy and meat industry would internalise these costs, if they had to bear the costs, the price of meat and dairy would skyrocket." "A 5 euro carton of eggs would rise to 10 euros." "A 3,50 euro Big Mac would rise to 8,85 euro." "The problem with these external costs imposed on society is whether you eat meat or not whether you're an omnivore or an herbivore you pay the cost of someone else's consumption." "When someone goes to McDonald's and buys a 3,50 euro Big Mac." "the remaining 6,35 euro of costs are imposed on society." "You and I are paying for that, whether you eat meat or not." "FOOD  WATER WATCH (Executive Director) When we look at who benefits and lobbies for this system of agriculture it's the largest food and meat producers in the country." "And when they grow so large and wealthy they" "US Livestock Industry (Senate Agriculture Committee) can dictate policies on producing food." "because they have so much political power." "Was this why Al Gore, even as vice-president, never addressed the question of animal agriculture and never mentioned it his film "An Inconvenient Truth"" "or in his organisation the Climate Reality Project?" "Was this truth just too inconvenient, for even him?" "I felt let down by the man who inspired me in on this path." "I had to speak with an animal agriculture lobbyist to see what they would say." "If they can silence the government, can they influence environmental groups as well?" "Agriculture Animal Alliance, one of largest animal agriculture lobbyists agreed to an interview." "Greenpeace won't talk with us but Animal Agriculture Alliance agreed to an interview." "Now that ..." "That is saying something." "ANIMAL AGRICULTURE ALLIANCE (Pro-Livestock Lobby Group) People hear about GMOs and it's a scary term." "and agriculture struggle to explain what it means." "In reality we use technology to evolve in how we grow and raise animals." "We're not feeding the world on how it was 100 years ago where all animals were pasture-fed." "We not just move animals inside and implemented large integrated systems." "Because of sustainability it certainly reduces the environmental impact, while improving animal welfare and food safety." "So that animals like it inside just as much as say the chickens and cows, fond of being inside they like the ones pasture-fed?" "In many cases it improved their wellbeing, in terms of the care they receive, individually." "Does the meat and dairy industry ever support or donate to environmental NGOs?" "I don't know if I want to comment on that." "Yeah, I ..." "I don't know ..." "I don't know." "(Voice of the President Kay Smith Animal Agriculture Alliance) [?" "] we would know who we donate to or not donate to." "Did the meat and dairy industry ever support or donate to Greenpeace?" "Again, I don't know if I feel comfortable ..." "Hi, sorry we didn't contact earlier." "I have some bad news." "(call from film backer) Unfortunately, we are not longer able to continue to fund your film project." "We had a meeting and due to the growing controversial subject matter we have some concerns and have to pull out." "Why was this subject so controversial?" "The first person I could think to speak with, was Howard Lyman who was sued by cattlemen for speaking the truth on animal agriculture on The Oprah Winfrey Show." "(Former cattle rancher) I was born on the largest dairy farm of Montana in 1938." "Grew up and lived on a livestock farm." "I graduated on Agriculture at Montana State University." "Came back and developed a mega venture in agriculture with 4046 ha in crops," "7000 head of cattle and about 30 employees." "I spent 45 years of my life in animal agriculture." "I've been there, done that." "When I was on the Oprah show we had the Food-Disparagement Law" "In my opinion the law was unconstitutional." "What it basically said, it was illegal to state something that was known to be false about a perishable product." "I didn't say anything on the show that I thought was false." "I went there and told the truth." "It took five years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to get rid of the suits from the cattle industry." "But if was to go on the Oprah Show today say exactly the same thing I said back then," "I would be guilty." "For me the Food-Disparagement Law was about whether I told the truth or not." "You can go today and tell the truth and be guilty because when you cause a disruption in the profits of the animal industry, you're guilty under the Patriot Act." "Should we worry about making this documentary?" "Of course." "If you don't realise that you're putting your neck on the chopping block," "it is better to take that camera and throw it away." "Journalist, Author "Green Is The New Red"" "The animal agri industry is one of the most powerful in the world." "I think most people in this country know of the influence of money and industry on politics, and we see it clearly with this industry in particular." "Most people would be shocked to learn that animal rights and environmental activists are the number one domestic terrorism threat according to the FBI." " Why?" " Difficult to answer why the these groups are on the top of the FBI's priorities list." "It think a big part of it that they more than any other social movement, directly threaten corporate profits." "When we try to find out the impact of factory farms and animal agriculture is put in the environment, they try to claim exemptions to this information under national security terms or public safety, trade mark issues, business secrets." "We see these attempts to keep people in the dark about what they actually do." "One of the largest industries on the planet with the largest environmental impact, trying to keep us in the dark on how they operate." "Through the Freedom of Information Act I got documents from the antiterrorism unit, that show they monitor my lectures, media interviews like this one, my website, my book ..." "Are we at risk filming and showing this?" "You're going up against people that have massive legal resources." "The amount of money at their disposal is overwhelming" "And you have nothing." "I think that fear is part of the tactic." "Will was right, I was scared." "When I learned about activists killed in Brazil" "I was disturbed, but it was far away." "But learn about American activists and journalists being targets of the animal agriculture industry and the FBI?" "My funding being dropped?" "I was very worried when it hit me directly." "Was this why no one wanted to talk about the issue?" "I decided to protect all footage." "I was beyond frightened to imagine what could happen if I would pursue this project further?" "It seemed the only decision was to put down the camera and walk away." "Then I realised that this issue was bigger than any personal concern I could ever have for myself." "This was about all life on earth hanging in the balance." "Either you live for something or die for nothing." "I had no choice all along." "I decided to surrender not to fear of a secret but to a cause to its truth." "I couldn't be like the environmental NGOs" "When the planet was being eaten alive in front of our eyes." "I had to stand up and continue." "Some say it's not really animal agriculture but human over-population." "In 1812 there were 1 billion people on the planet." "In 1912, 1,5 billion." "Just 100 years later, our population exploded to 7 billion." "This number gets much attention but a more important figure are the 70 billion farm animals humans raise." "The human population drinks 20 billion litres of water per day and eats 9,5 billion pounds of food." "But the 1,5 billion cows in the world, drink 170 billion litres of water per day." "and eat 60 billion pounds of food." "This less of a human population issue but more a "human eating animals" population issue." "Environmental organisations not addressing this is like health organisations fighting lung cancer and not speaking about cigarette smoking." "But instead of passive smoking, it's second-hand eating which affects the entire planet." "(Environmental and Ethics Author) We grow enough food to feed between 12 and 15 billion people." "We have 7 billion people." "Roughly a billion people starve every day." "50% of the grain and legumes we grown worldwide, only feed animals." "They eat an enormous amount grain and legumes." "In the US it's close to 70-80%, depending on the grain 90% ... 90% of the soybean." "Environmental Researcher (Author "Food Choices and Sustainability") 82% of the world's starving children live in countries where food is fed to animals in the livestock systems and are killed and eaten by more well-off people" "in developed countries, US and Europe," "Former cattle rancher (Author "Mad Cowboy") The fact is today we could feed all the people of the world with a proper diet, if we take the feed we allocate to animals and turn it into human food." "Someone trying to justify GMOs is like trying to give a drowning man a drink of water." "You can produce on average, 15 times more protein from plant-based sources than from meat on any given land either a very fertile area or on a depleted area." "If we reduce the consumption of meat, dairy and eggs." "we can allow mono-crop fields with genetically modified corn and soybeans to reverse back to forest and back to the habitat of animals." "When someone says "we can't grow food for humans on land on which we cultivate feed for animals,"" "this is someone [..] the number one crop out of California." "The truth is that if we can grow corn to feed an animal, we can grow corn to feed a human." "Best Selling Food Author "In Defense of Food"" "You encourage people to eat less meat, for less resources and the toll on the environment." " And on the animals." " And on the animals." "And the workers in the system." "It's a brutal system at every level." "As the world population grows to 9 billion do you think one day we will have to stop eating meat altogether?" "I don't know if we will completely stop." "I think the amount of meat eating will decline." "There is no way to support 255 gr meat per person per day, what Americans consume today." "If the Chinese decide eat the same amount, and they decided they want eat the same amount." "We don't have enough world to produce the grain to produce that much meat." "I think a plant-based diet is the most sustainable." "What do you recommend the 9 billion people to eat, not only to sustain, but also to thrive?" "Would you throw a number ..." "Like 30 grams?" " For meat?" " Including dairy." "I don't know enough." "It would a few ounces per week." "Not how we're eating it now." "We are gorging on meat, eat huge amounts." " This includes cheese?" " Yes, yes." " Some 60 grams in total?" " Yes, cheese and milk." "Only 60 grams per week seems nothing." "People could probably produce it at home." "Maybe backyard farming was a sustainable solution." "I have 42 ducks." "(Backyard farmer) I started with three ducks three years ago." "Those burdened into a population." "I buy a 70-pound seed bag." "That seed bag will last about two weeks." "The ducks that we're gonna be culling are about two years old." "When you're living with them, they get used to you." "They're not intimidated or whatever." "And so they make all their vocal sounds, like natural." "Slow down." "Easy, easy, easy." "Okay." "No, we're gonna keep you." "Run." "These two go first." "Being smart-wise?" "Compared to a chicken, they're probably the same." "That one's nice, see?" "Yeah, he is." "Alrighty." "Okay." "Right there." "That's gonna be a little gruesome." "How could that still be alive?" "They're not." "That's eh nerves." "A nerve reaction." "Five years old or something like that, I think it was the first time my dad came out and made us watch" "as we did rabbits." "We'd raise probably a couple dozen rabbits each year." "Then we would take those rabbits and skin them and clean them up and keep them for food." "As a young kid, I was kind of..." "I don't want to say it was hard, but it was kind of, from my memory... some of the rabbits I had named." "So I was kind of like going err" "After doing it a couple times, you kind of just learned it's just something that has to be done." "Not the fingers." "I just can't do it." "I don't think I could have someone else do it for me, if I can't do it." "If I can't do it, I don't want someone else doing it for me." "And then sustainability " "For sustainability, 34 kg is 900 gr per..." "So it's a 450 gr per week per duck." "52 weeks, 50 kg." "So it's 50 kg of food for 450-700 grams of meat." "So on a sustainability issue, it's 100 to 1." "And that grain gets.. you know who knows where the grain comes from?" "But I mean, when it gets to this point, it's not even about sustainability... it was just..." "You know, I don't feel real good inside." "It's the first time I've ever seen that." "So kind of...." "Yeah." "I'd been so caught up in the destruction caused by animal agriculture" "I realised I'd never truly dwelled on the obvious reality that every one of these animals was killed." "It was always a disconnected, abstract fact of eating meat." "But when it became personal, face to face, the story changed." "I had scheduled weeks in advance to film another backyard slaughter of a chicken that stopped producing eggs." "I didn't know how I was gonna possibly go through another slaughter." "So I didn't." "Animal Place is a farm animal sanctuary in Northern California that focuses on rescuing animals from the animal agriculture industry." "A lot of people don't realise meat-breed chickens like this guy behind us they're generally slaughtered at about 42 days old." "Whereas chickens that are bred for egg production are killed when their productivity starts to decrease when they start laying less eggs." "That generally happens about 18 to 20 months." "It doesn't matter if you buy caged eggs, eggs from cage-free farms or free-range or pasture-based farms." "Hi, Carol." "It doesn't matter." "Turns out there's a successful movement of sustainable animal-alternative food producers based right here in California funded by big names like Bill Gates and Biz Stone." "(Beyond Eggs) 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 grow those plants and convert those plants into food." "The energy conversion ratio for the plants we're using to replace the eggs is about 2 to 1, compared to 38 to 1 for eggs." "So our explicit goal is to have the maximum amount of impact by creating this new model that makes the global egg industry entirely obsolete." "We're making Omega products proving we make better tasting food that's great for you and it takes one-twentieth of the land and resources that dairy do." "(Beyond Meat) If you could have the fibre structure, satiating bite, the protein and the nutritional benefits of meat without having animal protein itself and by doing that you could address climate change human health epidemics that we're seeing, animal welfare" "and natural resource conservation." "Would you make the change?" "But what if people just ate less animal products?" "Like going meatless on Mondays." "When you go meatless on Monday, you essentially contribute to climate change, pollution depletion of our planet's resources and your own health then only six days of the week, instead of seven." "You're creating a false justification, clearly a false justification for what you're doing on those other six days." "So in other words, we really shouldn't be resting on our laurels of what you do right only one-seventh of the time." "You can't be an environmentalist and eat animal products, period." "Kid yourself if you want, if you want to feed your addiction, so be it." "But don't call yourself an environmentalist." "I knew I had to stop eating all animal products." "I wanted to help the planet be sustainable, but I needed to sustain myself." "I had doubts about being healthy and not eating meat, dairy and eggs." "All I knew was the standard American diet I grew up on." "Is it even possible to be a healthy vegetarian or vegan?" "Is it possible to be a healthy vegetarian or vegan?" "(Physician True North Health Center) I became vegan 32 years ago now." "I run several miles every day." "I go biking 60 km through the countryside." "I work long hours." "I feel great." "It's nice waking up in a light, trim body everyday." "And so many of my vegan friends and patients are thriving since their transition to a vegan diet." "So yes." "I've seen vegan moms go through healthy vegan pregnancies and deliver healthy vegan children and raise them to tall, full-sized, intelligent vegan adults." "And yes, certainly all the nutrients are there in the plant kingdom to do this, that is correct." "Think anyone should be consuming dairy?" "I really don't." "When you think about it, the purpose of cows' milk" "I grew on a dairy farm in Wisconsin." "The purpose of cows' milk is to turn a 65-pound calf into a 200 kilo cow as rapidly as possible." "Cows' milk is baby-calf growth fluid." "It's what the stuff is." "Everything in that white liquid, the hormones, the lipids, the proteins the sodium, the growth factors, the IGF Everything in that white liquid, the hormones, the lipids, the proteins the sodium, the growth factors, the IGF" "every one of those is meant to blow the calf up to a great big cow or it wouldn't be there." "And whether you pour it on your cereals as a liquid whether you clot it into yogurt whether you ferment it into cheese whether you freeze it into ice cream it's baby-calf growth fluid." "And women eat it and it stimulates their tissues... and gives women breast lumps, it makes the uterus get big and they get fibroids and they bleed and they get hysterectomies and they need mammograms and gives guys man boobs." "This is..." "Cows' milk is the lactation secretions of a large bovine mammal who just had a baby." "It's for baby calves." "I tell my patients, "Go look in the mirror." "Do you have big ears, a tail, are you a baby calf?" "If you're not, don't be eating baby-calf growth fluid."" "In any level, there's nothing in it people need." "In any level, there's nothing in it people need." "It was a relief to hear I didn't have to eat animal products to be healthy and even thrive but I still thought you needed animal manure to grow organic agriculture." "Turns out there's an entire movement with people growing food without any animal inputs." "I visited Earthworks Urban Farm in Detroit." "They work with and grow food for the low-income community." "We tend to see ourselves as individuals in a bubble and forget that we inhabit this land and this earth with other creatures." "So we have to learn how to share more, I guess." "Jah here is working on his garden." "(Urban Gardener) You'd be surprised what you can do with not a lot of space." "About a 4-by-8, yeah." "What's your goal this year?" "How much do you think you can maximise?" " I would push for 45 at least." "At least." " 45 kilos." "That's amazing." "One full year after this was constructed we doubled our yield to over 6,350 kg of food." "6,350 kilos?" "On about how many hectares?" "About one." "So as much food as we produce and we grow or the earth helps us grow... we also have to return those nutrients back to the soil." "We think of our work as being regenerative." "That we're putting as much life-giving substance in the ground... as we're taking out." "So is it just kind of healthier and safer to use vegetarian" " or vegetable composting stuff?" " That's what we found." "Also because it takes less time and it's a lot easier to manage." " A lot easier, yeah." " Yeah." " And the soil's just as rich?" " Yeah, absolutely." "(Veganic Farmer) Not only is vegan more compassionate, it's also more efficient." "And in a society with this many billions of people we need to be as efficient as possible." "Some people might go back and say if we embraced this primitive approach of only wild animals everywhere and we go back to a hunter-gatherer system, that sounds great." "But that was 10 million people on the entire continent." "Maybe a little bit more, a little bit less, no one really knows." "Today, now we have what?" "We have 320 million in the US, 25 million in Canada." "Another 100 and so-many- million in Mexico." "So, North America is up to almost 450 million people." "Trying to figure out a way to bring animal agriculture in balance with 450 million hungry people is impossible." "(Biointensive Farming Innovator) This is amazing, I didn't believe it when I first learned it but 216,000 people are born to the planet every day." "Every day." "It's extraordinary." "But what's really extraordinary is you need, per day 14,000 new hectares of farmable land." "It's not happening." "To feed a person on a vegan diet for a year requires just one-sixth of a ha of land." "To feed that same person on a vegetarian diet that includes eggs and dairy requires three times as much land." "To feed an average US citizen's high-consumption diet of meat, dairy and eggs requires 18 times as much land." "This is because you can produce 17,000 kilos of vegetables... on 0,6 ha, but only 170 kilos of meat on the same plot of land." "The comparison doesn't end with land use." "A vegan diet produces half as much CO2 as an American omnivore, uses one-eleventh the amount of fossil fuels one-thirteenth the amount of water and an eighteenth of the amount of land." "After adding this all up, I realised I had the choice every single day to save over 4100 litres of water, 20 kilos of grain" "10 m2 of forested land, the equivalent of 9 kilos of CO2 and one animal's life every single day." "If we all did go vegan and moved away from animal foods and toward a plant-based diet, what would happen?" "If we didn't kill all these cows and eat them then we wouldn't have to breed all these cows because we're breeding cows and chickens and pigs and fish." "We're breeding them over and over again, relentlessly." "If we didn't breed them, we wouldn't have to feed them." "Then we wouldn't have to devote all this land to grow grains and legumes and so forth to feed to them." "So the forest could come back." "Wildlife could come back." "The oceans would come back." "The rivers would run clean again." "The air would come back." "Our health would return." "Renewable energy infrastructure, such as solar and wind generators to reduce climate change, that's a pretty good idea but it's projected to take at least 20 years and at least, minimally, $18 trillion to develop." "It's important to realise that we don't have that long." "We just talked about how it might be a three to four time frame, so we don't have 20 years and we don't have $18 trillion to develop these." "Another solution to climate change:" "we could stop eating animals." "It could be done today." "It doesn't have to take 20 years and it doesn't have to take $18 trillion, because it costs nothing." "Some say, "Fix CO2, then worry about methane."" "It's the other way." "Do something about methane and you get a response right away." "The most powerful thing that someone can do for the environment, no other lifestyle choice has a farther reaching and more profoundly positive impact on the planet and all life on Earth than choosing to stop consuming animals and live a vegan lifestyle." "Do you realise 75 percent of Americans consider themselves to be an environmentalist?" "You don't think we couldn't solve this problem in a heartbeat?" "I'll tell you what, all we would need is for the environmentalists to live what they profess and we'd be on a new course in the world." "We will not succeed until we stop animal agriculture." "And by "succeed," I mean we will not save ecosystems to the extent necessary we will not have enough food for people around the planet we will not stop global warming, we will not stop pollution in the dead zones that run of" "all the fields of corn and soy that are grown to feed livestock and we will not stop the hunting of wolves and other predators." "Organic farming is one step in the right direction, but we need to keep walking." "We need to get beyond organics." "We need to get to sustainability." "When you take the animal out, you take the greenhouse gas issue out." "you take the food safety issues out you take some other externalities related to food scarcity out." "But one thing that's amazing is I think you put our values back in." "Values like compassion and integrity and kindness values that are natural to human beings, you put that in you build that back into the story of our food." "I think as this begins to progress, I think it also helps people to pause." "Before they eat that egg, before they eat that steak, before they eat that chicken nugget and ask themselves, is that really what they want?" "Or do they actually want something more?" "I had to come to the full conclusion the only way to sustainably and ethically live on this planet with 7 billion other people is to live an entirely plant-based vegan diet." "I decided instead of eating others, to eat for others." "At first, like these environmental groups, I was afraid of what it'd mean to change." "But now I embrace it." "All this talk about sustainability sounded like our planet was on life support." "I don't want her to simply survive or to sustain, but to thrive." "Life today is not about sustainability." "It's about "thrive-ability."" "She's given so much to us for so long, it was time to give back." "A hundred-and-eight percent of everything we have." "It felt good." "It was an alignment." "We see this movement, not just about providing cheaper inexpensive food that everyone can have, but also a spiritual move." "A move towards understanding who we really are and how we can connect to each other." "Do what you can do as well as you can do it, every day of your life, and you will die one of the happiest individuals that ever died." "We become part of a gathering momentum of other people." "It's happening." "This is really what's happening." "This is the news." "Selflessness is a nice way to be." "It has all these benefits for yourself, as well as the planet and other people." "It's a beautiful way to live." "Ecologically it just feels better." "This is about massively transforming how our society eats, because it's a necessity." "It's acting on what we know." "And acting kindly and gently on the whole planet and with other people to accomplish the goals of living better." "We can do it, but we have to choose to do it." "You can change the world." "You must change the world." "subtitles by 2003ad"