Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret Page #10

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 realize, meat-breed

chickens like this guy behind us...

...they're generally slaughtered

at about42 days old.

Whereas chickens that are bred

for egg production are killed...

...when their productivity starts

to decrease...

...when they start laying less eggs.

And that generally happens

about 18 months 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.

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 2to 1,

compared to 38to 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.

If you could have the fiber structure,

satiating bite, protein...

...and all the nutritional benefits of meat

without having animal protein itself...

...and by doing that

you could address climate change...

...the 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 on 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.

Ls it even possible

to be a healthy vegetarian or vegan?

Ls it possible to be

a healthy vegetarian or vegan?

I became vegan for, let's see,

32 years ago now.

And I run several miles every day.

I go biking 40, 50 miles

through the countryside.

I work long hours.

I feel great. It's nice waking up

in alight, trim body everyday.

And so many of my vegan

friends and patients...

...are just thriving since

their transition to a vegan diet.

So, yes, and 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 did most of my growing up

on a dairy farm in Wisconsin.

The purpose of cows' milk is

to turn a 65-pound calf...

...into a400-pound 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...

...every one of those is meant to blow

that calf up to a great big cow...

...or it wouldn't be there.

And whether you pour it

on your cereal 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 b*obs.

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 in habit 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.

You'd be surprised what you can do

with not a lot of space.

About a4-by-8, yeah.

What's your goal this year? How much

do you think you can maximize?

- I would push for 100 at least.At least.

- A hundred pounds.

That's amazing.

The one full year

after this was constructed...

...we doubled our yield

to over 14,000 pounds of food.

Fourteen-thousand pounds?

On about how many acres?

About two and a half.

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?

- Yeah, that's what we found.

But also because it takes less time

and it's a lot easier to manage.

- A lot easier, yeah.

- Yeah.

- And the soil is just as rich?

- Yeah, absolutely.

Not only is veganic more compassionate,

it's also more efficient.

And in a society with this many

billions of people...

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