Olivia Berman

Cowspiracy follows Kip Andersen, an avid environmentalist on his quest to find the most sustainable way of living, in an effort to combat one of the most pressing problems in our world today, climate change. Andersen reveals that just changing light bulbs and taking shorter showers is not enough to make a significant impact. Through various emails, phone calls and interviews, Andersen works to gather information from doctors, non-profit organizations, and farmers in an effort to reveal the catastrophic truth about animal agriculture. When these non-profit organizations don’t answer emails and phone calls or even give an explanation as to what is going on behind closed doors Andersen begins to dig deeper. He shows up at organizations demanding answers. Eventually previous employees and current and former farmers come forward exposing the truth. Animal agriculture is the greatest contributor to climate change and this film does an excellent job at explaining how and why. Various doctors and scientists explain that going vegan is the most and only effective way to fight climate change as an individual. Andersen did a great job of getting his point across about the environmental benefits of cutting animal based products out of your diet, but it was almost too extreme. Cowspiracy achieved its goal in the sense that it made me feel like I needed to take more action and do more research when it comes to non-profit organizations or any organization. The wide range of interviewees were really informative but I feel some of them could have conveyed their thoughts in a less aggressive way. Yes, climate change is important and that we have limited time till the effects are irreversible but the documentary discredited all small actions people take on a daily basis. For example many of the people interviewed discussed how meatless Mondays are pointless and not effective. Making it seem like little actions are useless and you have to commit 100% or else your actions are a waste. Overall, just lowering your consumption of meat might not be the most effective but it's a step in the right direction. The world is not able to all go plant-based tomorrow it takes time. Andersen left in these harsh interviews, and, as the audience, I felt targeted. One environmental researcher Dr. Richard Oppenlander discussed his thoughts behind meatless Mondays by explaining that, “You're creating a false sense of justification on those other 6 days of a week. Other words we really shouldn't be resting on our laurels about what you do right one- seventh of the time”. This makes it seem like there are no positive effects to Meatless Mondays and you either are all in or all out but our world doesn't work like that. Meatless Monday can easily make a huge difference and especially for those who eat meat everyday it is a step in the right direction. It could help them see how easy it can be to eat meatless then hopefully empowering them to continue to cut more meat out of their diet. Climate change documentaries should inform you, then make you feel a little bad and lastly empower you to want to make change, not make you feel hopeless and belittled.