Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret Page #6

and this last year...

...one of the awardees was

a sustainable pork producer, actually...

...that doesn't use any antibiotics.

And also the antibiotic use

that industrial food production...

...in the United States uses

right now is...

We're giving... The majority

of antibiotics in the United States...

...are administered to healthy livestock.

I wanted to visit one

of these sustainable farms.

I found the Markegard Grass-Fed

beef farm...

...on the lush, misty California coast.

I met Erik and Doniga Markegard

and their four children.

Lea and Larry are usually up at 6

and out milking the cows...

...slopping the hogs.

All together, we graze about

4500 acres.

And this is our home ranch.

And this is 952 acres of that.

On average, it's about one cow,

or a cow and a calf, per every 10 acres.

We would produce annually

roughly 80,000 pounds...

...of finished, plate-ready meat.

We keep about 10 pigs

in roughly a50-acre area...

...and we move them around

in 10-acre pastures.

Some people think that pigs are dirty

and gross, but I really like them.

They have... They know people,

and they'll befriends and really nice.

And they could be like your best friend,

or could be like a sister.

See?

They know you

when you get to know them.

I mean, I shouldn't be bonding,

but we have to have nice pigs.

Why shouldn't you bond with them?

Well, because they're gonna

turn into bacon.

- These pigs are about 7 months old now.

- That's it?

So these bigger ones

are getting ready to be killed.

Those two smaller ones there, you know,

they could grow up a few more months.

I love animals.

That's why I'm in the meat business.

It's what more of society needs to see...

...is that that packaged piece of meat

is a living animal.

Living and breathing creature that...

Yeah, it's hard, it's hard,

but like what Doniga said earlier...

...we do it because we love them.

With the land use,

there's anywhere between...

With industrial, as low as

2to 2.5 acres per cow...

...all the way up to some, depending-

It's not as lush as this. Up to 35 acres.

Yeah, we have a ranch

in South Dakota that's 50 acres.

- Fifty acres per...?

- Yeah, it's about 50 acres. Yeah.

And why is that?

Same thing, it was just farmed

and robbed of all the nitrogen...

- The land was abused.

- It's also seasonal, right?

And it's also seasonal.

Ls it possible and is it practical

for the whole world to say:

"Have grass-fed cattle"?

I mean, like, say Brazil,

where, you know...

...supposedly 80 percent of the rainforest

was destroyed for cattle...

...what are your thoughts on that?

They shouldn't be eating beef.

If their environment wasn't

designed to raise beef...

- ...then they shouldn't be eating it.

- Yeah.

How do you offset

the carbon footprint of livestock?

We don't feel like livestock

have a carbon footprint.

I left there feeling confused.

As far as grass-fed beef

not having a carbon footprint...

...it sounded like it could make sense...

...until added up the numbers

on land use and population.

If we're to use the Markegard model

of raising animals...

...which requires 4500 acres

producing 80,000 pounds of meat...

...the average American eats

209 pounds of meat per year.

If that was all grass-fed beef,

only 382 people could be fed on their land.

That equates to 11.7 acres per person

times 314 million Americans...

...which equals 3.7 billion acres

of grazing land.

Unfortunately there are only I.9 billion

acres in the U.S.' lower48 states.

Currently nearly half of all U.S. land

is already dedicated to animal agriculture.

If we're to switch to grass-fed beef...

...it would require clearing

every square inch of the U.S...

...up into Canada, all of Central America,

and well into South America.

And this is just to feed

the United States' demand on meat.

But that figure doesn't even

take into consideration...

...that much of that land isn't suited

to graze livestock.

We would have to convert

all mountain ranges to grassland.

Clear ancient forests

and national parks to grazing.

And demolish every city

just to make room to graze cows.

Just like Brazil, the United States isn't

suited to meet the demands for meat.

It takes 23 months

fora grass-fed animal to grow...

...to the size and age that it's slaughtered,

whereas a grain-fed takes 15 months.

So that's an additional eight months

of water use, land use, feed, waste...

...and in terms of a carbon footprint,

that's a huge difference.

Turns out, due to land use...

...grass-fed beef is more unsustainable

than even factory farming.

I had to come to terms with the fact

there was no way to sustainably raise...

...enough animals to feed

the world's current demand on meat...

...and had my doubts on dairy as well.

But I did want to talk

with a premier organic dairy company...

...to see if they believed their product was

sustainable for the world's population.

It requires a lot of inputs

to produce milk.

The feed, the water, the land. It does.

And it may not be practical to expect that

there can be enough dairy production...

...produced in a sustainable way

to feed the entire world.

I just don't think that

that's necessarily a given.

I think it's maybe too much to expect...

...that the world can be fed with dairy

in a sustainable way.

I don't know the answer,

but common sense would say...

...that's along shot.

I was shocked

to hear such an honest answer.

If this is what the dairy CEO would say,

I wondered what the farmer would claim.

Based on their marketing it seemed

their farms were an oasis for cows.

It was not what I expected.

Typically a cow will eat

140to 150 pounds of feed a day.

- A hundred and forty...?

- Forty to 50 pounds of feed every day.

And then she's also gonna drink

between 30 and 40 gallons of water.

Oh, my Lord.

Probably go through

about 20 tons per week.

- Twenty tons of grain per week.

- Twenty tons of grain. For...?

Primarily for our milking cows,

so about 250 cows.

Yeah, so the biggest part

of sustainability to me...

...the number one thing on the list

should be profitability.

So how the process completely works,

from start to finish...

...is the cow needs to have a baby

in order to give milk.

And so she'll have her baby.

That baby's gonna stay...

...with the mother for at least two days.

The babies will go off

to our calf-raising facility...

...so they have an individual hutch

that they'll be raised in.

Since we're a dairy,

it's only the girl cows that give us milk.

So the boys, on typical dairies,

they're sold off to beef-raising facilities.

But we do keep approximately half

and we raise them for two years...

...and sell them as organic

grass-fed beef.

So all dairy cows eventually go

to the beef industry?

At some point she'll really drop off.

So you have to make a business decision

at that point:

Are you gonna keep investing in her

to give milk...

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