Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret

This is a major movie event, a real eye opener, documenting why animal agriculture is the #1 contributor to greenhouse gases, the #1 environmental problem , the leading cause of rain forest destruction and habitat loss, creating massive amounts of untreated waste and using far more of our precious aquifers than if we all simply ate a plant-based diet.

It's not a message most meat eaters and dairy users want to hear, as it's not easy to eat vegan in a culture so oriented to meat consumption. And it's not a message environmental groups acknowledge, a mystery explored by this courageous film maker. After learning that over 1100 activists were murdered in Brazil after protesting conversion of rain forests to animal agriculture, he considered putting the lid on this project.

But it was too important not to get the message out, he realized. The answer to so many environmental problems is right in front of us. It costs nothing, can be implemented today and simply requires people to switch to a plant based diet, which could amply feed several times our current population with the same production as today.

One of the most startling statements of the film was this: even if we stopped all systems of transportation (cars, trains, trucks, planes etc.) and turned off our utilities, we would still have irreversible damage from global warming, so long as we continued to raise so many animals for food.

The take away from this film is, go ahead and conserve energy, put solar on your roof, change to LED light bulbs, minimize long trips. But first, switch to a plant-based diet.