''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 Keegan Kuhn is an American documentary filmmaker, director, producer, and professional musician. He is best known for co-directing the documentary films '' Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret'' and ''What the Health'', along with Kip Andersen. ...

. 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 A water footprint shows the extent of water use in relation to consumption by people. The water footprint of an individual, community, or business is defined as the total volume of fresh water used to produce the goods and services consumed by th ...

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

, 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 (), methane ...

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

, and explores the impact of

animal agriculture Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, sta ...

on the environment, and investigates the policies of

environmental organizations An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces. In this sense the environme ...

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 t ...

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, who b ...

Surfrider Foundation The Surfrider Foundation USA is a U.S. 501(c)(3) grassroots non-profit environmental organization that works to protect and preserve the world's oceans, waves and beaches. It focuses on water quality, beach access, beach and surf spot preservati ...

Rainforest Action Network Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California, United States. The organization was founded by Randy "Hurricane" Hayes and Mike Roselle in 1985, and first gained national prominence with a gr ...

, and Oceana.

Production

The film was

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

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 201 ...

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 yea ...

(physician, author, advisor) * Howard Lyman (former rancher, author, activist) *

lauren Ornelas lauren T. Ornelas is an American animal rights advocate for more than 20 years and is the founder of the Food Empowerment Project. Background and education Ornelas was born in San Antonio, Texas and grew up in Texas, where she became a veget ...

( Food Empowerment Project) *

Michael Pollan Michael Kevin Pollan (; born February 6, 1955) is an American author and journalist, who is currently Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction and the first Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer at Harvard University. Concurrently, he is the Knight Professo ...

(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 ...

(founder of Hampton Creek) *John Jeavons ( biointensive agriculture 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'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 (), methane ...

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) ...

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 A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ma ...

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 Su ...

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 change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

is primarily caused by humanity's burning of

. 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