Keegan Kuhn talking:
the drought in California is being caused primarily from climate change and there is not enough rainfall. Average rainfall has decreased. But really what we’re dealing with is water shortage, not only just a drought. California is using more water than it actually has available to it. And as you said, 47 percent of a California’s water footprint is made up in meat and dairy products. So these are very water intensive products, and that Californians and Americans are consuming which, again, is exacerbating the already drought conditions.
fracking is a great example. Fracking gets a lot of attention because of water use. Fracking uses about 100 billion gallons of water every year in the U.S., which is a tremendous amount of water, but animal agriculture uses in excess of 34 trillion gallons. So it’s magnitudes greater. And then again the emissions that come from animal agriculture are about equal to natural gas and petroleum production. So it’s an issue that is vastly more destructive when it comes to water consumption, water pollution, and even emissions.
Kip Anderson talking:
I found out that one quarter pound hamburger requires over 660 gallons of water to produce. Here I’ve been taking the short showers trying to save water and to find out just eating one hamburger is equivalent of showering two entire months. So much attention is given to lowering our home water use, yet domestic water use is only 5 percent of what is consumed in the U.S. versus 55 percent for animal agriculture. That’s because it takes upwards of 2500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. I went on the government’s Department of water resources save our water campaign where it outlines behavior changes to help conserve our water like using low flow shower heads, efficient toilets, water saving appliances, and fix leaky faucets and sprinkler heads, but nothing about animal agriculture. When added up, all of the government’s recommendations, I was saving 47 gallons a day but still that is not even close to the 660 gallons of water for just one burger. to produce one gallon of milk takes 1000 gallons of water.
Keegan Kuhn talking:
It takes that much water because the animals have to be fed grains or feed of some type. Alfalfa is an incredibly water-intensive crop. Actually uses — alfalfa which is fed primarily to livestock — uses 10 percent of all of California’s water — or 15 percent, excuse me. So the water footprint that’s embedded in the products that the animals are eating goes on to animal product and then on to the consumer. So again, looking at a pound of beef in California takes from 2500 to 8000 gallons of water to produce. These are extremely water intensive products.
Dr. Richard Oppenlander and Dr. Will Tuttle talking:
Concerned researchers of the loss of species agree that the primary cause of loss of species on earth that we are witnessing is due to overgrazing and habitat loss from livestock production on land and by overfishing, which I call phishing in our oceans.
We are in the middle of the largest mass extinction of species in 65 million years. The rain forest is being cut down at the rate of an acre per second and the driving force behind all of this is animal agriculture, cutting down the forests to graze animals and grow soybeans, genetically engineered soybeans to feed to the cows and pigs and chickens and factory farmed fish.
Keegan Kuhn talking:
it’s the the destruction that’s happening to the entire ecosystems, as Dr. Tuttle says, massive areas of the rain forest, Amazonian rain forest, being cleared for cow production. They look at up to 91 percent of Amazon destruction is linked to animal agriculture in some way, whether clearing land to create grazing or for growing soy and corn that is then fed to those livestock. But it’s also — when you look in the United States, we have public land grazing where animals are grazed on federal lands and those animals then compete with native fauna for vegetation and then they’re also predated on by wolves and coyotes, bears and bobcats. And so the ranchers put pressure on government officials to exterminate. And that’s why we’ve seen a decrease in wolf population and why wolves are being targeted because of their threat or perceived threat to the cattle industry.
Ten percent of all water in California is used for almonds, which is a tremendous amount of water. But again, just alfalfa alone, a crop that is not consumed by human beings, that is fed for livestock, consumes 15 percent. California produces 82 percent of the world’s entire almonds. This is — again 10 percent of California’s water is feeding the 82 percent of the world’s almond demands. And the other important fact is that Americans aren’t consuming, and Californians in particular, aren’t consuming nine ounces of almonds per day, which is not the case for animal agriculture. Animal products we’re consuming nine ounces per person per day in the United States. Again the water footprint is vastly greater because of the quantity that we are actually consuming. It takes about 1500 gallons of water to produce a pound of almonds, which is a tremendous amount of water. But again it’s the quantity that we’re actually consuming.
Kip Anderson talking:
The environmental group’s handling of this issue of livestock’s effect on the environment is frustrating. That’s where the film took a turn for — looking to these organizations to tell us the answers and what they’re doing about this. And to find out they’re really not doing anything. You go onto these organizations’ websites and their mission statements and they don’t mention the greatest destruction across the board. It is like one-stop shop for nearly every single environmental destruction that’s happening today is from this one industry, and yet you do not hear about this or they don’t want to talk about this. And the interviews we have in the film, a lot of people, when they see them they’re laughing, but if it’s not so serious it would be a lot more humorous. But it is, it’s very serious. And these are the organizations we have to look at to step up and tell the truth, just to share the information of what’s really going on.
Will Potter talking:
The animal agriculture industry is one of the most powerful industries on the planet. I think most people in this country are aware of the influence of money and industry on politics, and we really see that clearly on display with this industry in particular. Most people would be shocked to learn that animal rights and environmental activists are the number one domestic terrorism threat according to the FBI.
It’s a difficult question to answer, why these groups are at the top of the FBI’s priorities. I think a big part of it is that they, more than really any other social movements today, are directly threatening corporate profits.
Keegan Kuhn talking:
There is a tremendous amount of repression activists face for blowing the whistle against this industry. There is a series of ag-gag laws that have been passed around the U.S. that criminalize exposing the atrocities being committed against animals and the environment on factory farms. And this is because the government and this industry work hand-in-hand oftentimes. The government — this industry is so powerful, it can put pressure on Congress to pass legislation that doesn’t benefit consumers and only benefits the industry. We joked around about the title “Cowspiracy” for a while because it just seemed so ridiculous that nobody would talk about this issue. But you know, it really starts to come out and it’s something we explore in the film in depth that this issue is so rooted in so many environmental ills, as Kip said, no matter what issue you care about, whether it’s ocean dead zones, species extinction, habitat destruction, rain forest distraction, literally the list goes on and on, animal agriculture is at the forefront of the issue. Why aren’t these organizations talking about it? And again, it’s something that we explore in depth in the film. And we really encourage people to go to our website, cowspiracy.com, to find out more and to look at all of the facts. We have a fact sheet on our website, cowspiracy.com, that has all of the information that we used in the film.
— source democracynow.org
Kip Andersen, co-director of the documentary film, “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret.”
Keegan Kuhn, co-director of the documentary film, “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret.”