This film, Cowspiracy, is causing me to take another look at going Vegan. It’s also causing me to re-examine what else I can do as part of mine and my family’s commitment to saving the planet. Here’s the facts from the film.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
I just watched this film again. It’s powerful. I have a blog, we buy organic, we have solar panels, we compost, we buy from local farmers. I thought I was doing a lot. While all this is great, it won’t be enough. This film has showed me I need to do a helluva lot more, to practice what I preach.
Some quotes from the film that moved me:
“If we all as a society did go vegan, and we moved away from eating animal foods and towards a plant based diet, well 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 fish, and eating them, over and over again, relentlessly. So if we didn’t breed them, then we wouldn’t have to feed them. If we didn’t have to feed them, then we wouldn’t have to devote all this land to growing grains, and legumes and so forth to feed to them. And so then the forests could come back. Wildlife could come back. The oceans would come back. The rivers would run clean again, the air would come back. Health would return”.
– Doctor Will Tuttle
Environmental and Ethics Author
Author, “The World Peace Diet”
“Renewable energy infrastructure, such as building solar and wind generators all around our country 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 dollars to develop. It’s important to realize we don’t have that long of a time frame…So we really don’t have 20 years and we don’t have $18 trillion dollars to develop these. Another solution to climate change is we could stop eating animals. And it could be done today. It doesn’t have to take 20 years and it certainly doesn’t take $18 trillion dollars because it costs nothing”.
Dr. Richard Oppenlander
Environmental Researcher
Author, “Food Choices and Sustainability”
“Quietly and un-mistakably it’s the most powerful thing that someone can do for the environment. No other lifestyle choice has a farther reaching and more profound and positive impact on the planet and all life on earth than choosing to stop consuming animals and live a vegan lifestyle”.
Demosthenes Maratos
The Sustainability Institute At Molloy College
“Do you realize that 75% of Americans consider themselves to be environmentalists? You don’t think we couldn’t solve this problem in a heartbeat? I 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”.
Howard Lyman
Former Cattle Rancher
Author, “Mad Cowboy”
“Do what you can do, as well as you can do it, every day of your life. And you will end up dying one of the happiest individuals that ever died”.
Howard Lyman
Former Cattle Rancher
Author, “Mad Cowboy”
“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. Not only is veganic more compassionate, it’s more efficient”.
“And in a society with this many billions of people, we need to be as efficient as possible. Some people might say if we go back and embrace this primitive approach of only wild animals everywhere, and we go back to like a hunter gatherer system, that sounds great. But that was when there was 10 million people on the entire continent. Today, now, we have what? 328 million in the US…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”.
Dr. Greg Litus
Veganic Farmer
Veganic Farmer
“It’s acting on what we know. And acting kindly and gently on the whole planet and other people. To accomplish the goals of living better. We can do it, but we have to choose to do it”.
“Now, organic farming is one positive step in the right direction but we need to keep walking. We need to get to beyond organics. We need to get to sustainability”.
John Jeavons
Biointensive Farming Innovator
Author, “How To Grow More Vegetables”
“It’s not about sustainability. It’s about thrive ability”.
Kip Andersen, Film Maker
Cowspiracy film maker
“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 world and on the planet. We will not stop global warming. We will not stop pollution and the dead zones that run off all the fields of corn and soy that are grown to feed livestock. And we will not stop the hunting of Wolves and the predators”.
Will Anderson
Greenpeace Alaska Founder
Former board of directors, Greenpeace USA
“You can change the world. You must, change the world”.
Howard Lyman
Former Cattle Rancher
Author, “Mad Cowboy”