''Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret'' is a 2014 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

produced and directed by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn. The film explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment—examining such environmental concerns as

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, water use,

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then land conversion, converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban area, urban ...

, and ocean dead zones—and investigates the policies of several environmental organizations on the issue. ''Cowspiracy'' has been criticized for falsely asserting that animal agriculture is the primary source of

greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor (), carbon dioxide (), met ...

emissions and environmental destruction, with other sources assessing the impact as being less than is stated in the film. The film won the Audience Choice Award at the 2015 South African Eco Film Festival and the Best Foreign Film Award at the 12th annual Festival de films de Portneuf sur l'environnement.

Synopsis

The documentary was directed by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn, and explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment, and investigates the policies of environmental organizations on this issue. Environmental organizations investigated in the film include

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth ...

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, w ...

, Surfrider Foundation, Rainforest Action Network, and Oceana.

Production

The film was crowdfunded on Indiegogo, with 1,449 contributors giving $117,092. This funding was 217% of their goal, and it allowed them to dub the film into Spanish and German and subtitle it into more than 10 other languages, including Chinese and Russian. Screenings are licensed through the distributor, as well as through the now-defunct

Tugg Inc. Tugg Inc. was a film-based collective action and crowdsourcing platform that enabled individuals to create film screenings at their local cinema. Tugg ceased operations in January 2020. Incorporated in 2011, Tugg was officially launched in 2012 ...

website. An updated version of the documentary, executive-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, premiered globally on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

on September 15, 2015. The 2017 documentary '' What the Health'' was written, produced, and directed by the same production team (Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn) as ''Cowspiracy''.

Featured individuals

The following individuals were featured in the film: *

Michael Klaper Michael A. Klaper (July 19, 1947) is an American physician, vegan health educator, conference and event speaker, and an author of articles and books of vegan medical advice. Graduating from medical school in 1972, Klaper became a vegan ten ...

(physician, author, advisor) * Howard Lyman (former rancher, author, activist) * lauren Ornelas ( Food Empowerment Project) * Michael Pollan (author, lecturer) * William Potter (journalist) * Kirk R. Smith (environmental health sciences) *

Josh Tetrick Joshua Stephen Tetrick (born March 23, 1980) is an American social entrepreneur and speaker. He is currently the CEO of JUST, Inc., a food startup company based in Northern California. Tetrick spent three years in Sub-Saharan Africa working on v ...

(founder of

Hampton Creek Eat Just, Inc. is a private company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It develops and markets plant-based alternatives to conventionally produced egg products and cultivated meat products. Eat Just was founded in 2011 by Josh Tetric ...

) *John Jeavons (

biointensive agriculture Biointensive agriculture is an organic agricultural system that focuses on achieving maximum yields from a minimum area of land, while simultaneously increasing biodiversity and sustaining the fertility of the soil. The goal of the method is ...

advocate)

Reception

''Cowspiracy'' won the Audience Choice Award at the 2015 South African Eco Film Festival, as well as the Best Foreign Film Award at the 12th annual Festival de films de Portneuf sur l'environnement. It was also nominated for

Cinema Politica Cinema Politica (CP) is a non-profit media arts organization based in Montreal with nearly 100 screening locations all over the world (as of September 2011). Each chapter ("local") screens independent political documentaries for free or by donation ...

's 2015 Audience Choice Award.

Factual inaccuracy

''Cowspiracy'' has been criticized for falsely claiming that animal agriculture is the primary source of both

greenhouse gases A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor (), carbon dioxide (), meth ...

and associated environmental destruction. Scientific reports from the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...

have consistently reached the consensus that the leading cause of

anthropogenic warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

is the combustion of fossil fuels accounting for about two-thirds of emissions, not animal agriculture. Doug Boucher, reviewing the film for the

Union of Concerned Scientists The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environmenta ...

, disputed the film's assertion that 51% of global greenhouse gases are caused by animal agriculture. He described the 51% figure as being sourced from a 2009

Worldwatch Institute The Worldwatch Institute was a globally focused environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C., founded by Lester R. Brown. Worldwatch was named as one of the top ten sustainable development research organizations by Globescan Surv ...

report by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, not from a

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer revie ...

scientific paper. He claimed to have observed methodological flaws in Goodland and Anhang's logic, and said that the scientific community formed a consensus that

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in a broader sense also includes ...

is primarily caused by humanity's burning of fossil fuels. He stated that the scientific consensus is that livestock contribute 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, far lower than the 51% stated by the film. A 2018 peer-reviewed meta-analysis found that a "no animal products" scenario would deliver a 28% reduction in global

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and ...

across all sectors of the economylower than the film's assertion of 51%, but higher than Boucher's claim of 15%.

References

Works cited

* (pb: ).

External links

*
''Cowspiracy'' infographic
* * * {{Portal bar, Food, Global warming, Film, United States 2014 films 2014 in the environment American documentary films Documentary films about environmental issues Documentary films about agriculture Agriculture and the environment Documentary films about animal rights Documentary films about vegetarianism Vegetarianism in the United States 2010s English-language films 2010s American films