If you didn’t think that Leonardo DiCaprio was talented enough, he now has directed the documentary Cowspiracy, and it’s amazing. The presentation was great, but the content was the most staggering part of all. The fundamental message behind this movie is the traditional one: that global warming is real and we need to take action immediately. It’s undeniable that as the temperatures of our planet rises, we have an increasing responsibility to save it. However, it takes on an unprecedented perspective by placing blame on the animal agriculture industry.
The first twenty minutes of the movie hits you with jarring statistics. They’re shocking and deeply concerning because they uproot the message of so many environmental organizations by addressing facts that usually are completely omitted. One of these facts explained that 51% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock and their byproducts – that’s about 32 million tons of carbon dioxide. It seems unimaginable that a statistic so significant has remained until now unmentioned. Despite the clear significance of this statistic, only a handful of organizations acknowledge it.
Cowspiracy tackles why these statistics have remained in the dark for so long. Organizations that address climate change rarely do talk about animal agriculture, despite the clear indications of it being the biggest contributor to global warming. For this, it’s important to revisit the fundamentals of these organizations: how they’re run, and how they’re funded. Organizations like the Sierra Club that focus on climate change are non-profit, and publicly funded. Their primary source of income is from the people who choose to donate. Because an omnivore diet is held so dearly to many Americans, these facts would be troubling and might discourage them from making further donations. By deciding to omit this information from their website, non-profit organizations prioritize their revenue over being truthful. Furthermore, even independent environmental activists have similar pressure to stay silent. The movie states that “over 1,100 activists have been killed in the last 20 years in Brazil.” They use Dorothy Stang as an example, who spoke out against the cattle industry for all the deforestation it’s involved in. Stang lived in the Amazon Rainforest abd was killed by a gunman hired by the cattle industry. As meat and animal product industries are so large and powerful, they have access to the best lawyers and have a great amount of control over legislation. A a result, the meat industry plays a large role in censoring the accusations made against them.
Ultimately, the movie concludes by reiterating that a regular diet has a large impact on the state of our planet. A vegan or vegetarian diet is an overall much healthier choice both for our own bodies and for the state of the planet. Countless research papers have shown a correlation between many health defects and the consumption of animal products. If you save the animals, you save the world!
So, no matter what diet you currently follow, or where you stand on climate change, you should still watch Cowspiracy anyways because I 100% recommend it!