All language subtitles for The.End.of.Meat.2017.AMZN.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-NTG - HI

♪♪

[announcer]
There's beef.

There's pork and ham.

There's lamb.

Meat and eggs help the body grow
and make it strong.

[audio slows, stops]
Meat is good for you...

[man] It was just like... meat, meat,
meat, meat and meat and more meat.

And man, they like meat!

[man 2] It was like nonstop.

E. coli, salmonella,
people getting sick,

and I'm sure some people
died from it.

[newswoman]
Eating processed meat
can cause cancer.

[man over phone] We can assure
consumers that our beef is safe.

[newswoman] Rats, foxes,
even minks

are being fraudulently
sold as beef or mutton.

[newsman]
Meat consumption is rising

in many countries
despite warnings.

[man] This is the big elephant
in the room that nobody's talking about.

[man 2] It's very tasty.

[newswoman]
Livestock contributes more
to climate change than cars.

[newsman] 1.8 million
hectares of the Amazon are
cut down each year,

75% attributed to
the expansion of cattle ranches.

[newsman] Perhaps one
of the most shocking things
about factory farms

is that there's almost
no one watching them.

[woman] Is this a sort of
a cultural war right now?

♪

[male narrator] Meat.

For most of us, it was and is

an integral part of the diet.

But recently, meat has lost
its mythical status.

Once a symbol of prosperity
and power,

meat consumption
has become problematic,

for the planet
and for ourselves.

Eating a steak or a burger
is no longer a luxury,

and we've gotten more
and more disconnected

from where our meat
actually comes from.

Meat-free diets are a growing
trend in Western countries.

Although this is not a new idea,

plant-based diets are becoming
increasingly popular in Germany.

This made me wonder
what the world would look like

were we no longer
eating animals.

And so I set out to connect
with the pioneers

of the vegan revolution
in Germany,

met with researchers

examining the effects
of a plant-based diet,

traveled to the first
vegetarian city in the world,

learned about the lives
of rescued farm animals,

spoke with philosophers
and lawyers

working to have
animals' interests considered,

and talked to scientists

developing meat-free
future foods.

But first, I wanted to learn
more about the origins of meat

and our treatment
of farmed animals.

[man] Well, first of all,
I was raised being taught

that the domestication
of other animals

was a great thing for humanity
and a great thing for animals.

But then over time, I came to learn
that actually it was a lie,

that other animals were
captured, they were enslaved,

they were biologically
manipulated.

I thought they were desecrated.

In my work, I refer
to that practice as "domesecration."

Once the domesecration
of other animals started,

men got on their backs
and they began to go long distances,

they began to use other horses
as instruments of warfare and violence,

raiding more sedentary peoples

and killing people,
enslaving them.

So, for example,
when the Europeans

invaded the Americas,
they could only conduct that invasion

through the use of horses
as instruments of war

and cows and pigs and sheep
as laborers and as rations,

and they needed land
to grow more animals,

to facilitate further invasion.

So the oppression
of the other animals

was deeply entangled
with the fates

of the indigenous peoples,

as the more land that they
needed for ranching,

the more people were killed,
their land was taken.

Once they cleared that land,
then they developed railroads

and began to transport
these animals back to cities

like Chicago and Cincinnati.

Large slaughterhouses
begin to develop,

then marketing firms
begin to develop,

and feed firms begin to develop,

and banks began to get
their share of this,

and retail organizations
begin growing

and then fast-food
organizations crop up.

Then we see the formation

of this animal
industrial complex.

There's a great political power,
ideological power,

and economic power,

and they continue to drive

increased consumption,

all to garner profits
for those in the industry.

So...

domesecration has been horrific
for the world and other animals,

and it's time that we begin to stop that
and change the course of world history.

[narrator] This is me
at nine years old

meeting a cow
for the first time.

And this is me
about to eat a cow.

Back then, I had no idea where
the meat on my plate came from,

and I wonder now
why it took me so long

to start questioning what,
or rather whom, I was eating.

[pigs snorting, squealing]

[woman] That's just the worst
part of my job.

I got to come and go.

I got to go in and photograph
and witness and experience

the horror and the pain,
but I got to leave.

And they don't get to leave.

I can complain about, you know,

the smell on my clothes
and the camera months later,

but, like, they're in it
all the time, that's their life.

That is the only thing that
they experience in life, this.

This is where they live
and this is where they will die,

except for when they get put on a transport
and go to slaughter.

Unbelievable.

But these things happen
behind walls

in these dark, horrible,
stinky places,

where no one's allowed to enter,

where we get put in jail,
we get arrested,

we get charged
if we enter these places.

There's a reason for that.

It's to protect the business

because the business
would fail if we knew.

My way of effecting change,
as well, is storytelling.

People remember emotions
and stories

more often than they
remember statistics,

and so I tell stories about the individuals
I've met around the world.

Bears rescued
from bear bile farms,

pigs rescued from factory farms.

Show the photos of
Julia the pig, Sonny the calf,

and Miracle the bear.

You could hear a pin drop
when I'm doing these talks,

and they're leaning forward
in their chairs

and they're engaged and it's
because it's storytelling.

And then they go off
and they share these stories.

Um, so things are getting worse
in some places,

but they're getting better
in a lot of places as well.

We're seeing meat-eating
growing in certain countries,

but we're seeing it decline
in other countries.

We're seeing laws changing,
very much so in Europe.

Better welfare laws
and all sorts of "improvements,"

but then enforcement
is a problem.

I've been to plenty of farms
where the laws have changed

two, three years ago,

and the farmers haven't
implemented anything

because the fine
is less expensive

than having to reformat
their entire farm.

[man] So I went undercover
in an industrialized slaughterhouse

because I was interested
in understanding

how massive processes
of violence work

in what we call
modern civilized society.

Slaughterhouses,
for the most part,

are located
far out of urban areas.

They're located in rural areas
where the vast majority of urban consumers

will never have to confront
what takes place inside of them.

They're also hidden socially.

We delegate the work of killing
to a group of people

who have very little rights.

We also hide them
linguistically, right?

Steers become steaks
and heifers become hamburgers.

We hide places of violence.

We hide places of ugliness,
so that we can continue to live

as if they didn't exist,
while still relying

on their products
in our everyday lives.

Two months into my fieldwork,

six cattle escaped
from a slaughterhouse

up the street from the one
that I was working in.

Three of them made
an immediate run

for the parking lot
of Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.

These cows were captured
and taken back to the slaughterhouse,

but one of the cows made a run down
the main boulevard in Omaha

and then took a turn
into an alleyway.

The escape took place
during the afternoon break

for the slaughterhouse
that I was working in,

and me and some of
the other slaughterhouse workers

watched as
the Omaha Police Department

pursued this cow
into an alleyway

that ended in a chain-link fence
bordering our slaughterhouse.

And when the police failed
to herd her into a trailer,

they opened fire on her
with shotguns and killed her.

And the next day,
the newspaper in Omaha

featured this escape
and killing on its front page,

under the headline
"Freedom is fleeting for cattle in plant escape."

And in the lunchroom
at the slaughterhouse,

the workers expressed a sense
of disgust and outrage

at the killing
of this one animal.

"They shot her just like
they shot an unarmed man

from Mexico last year,"

Julio, one of the quality
control workers said.

And then the lunch period ended,

and we all went back
to our places on the kill floor

where we proceeded to kill
another 1,250 animals

for the remainder of the day.

[narrator] Social media has radically
changed the distribution of information.

Images and videos highlighting
the plight of farm animals

are now reaching
a global audience

that is increasingly seeking
transparency and knowledge

surrounding the sourcing
of their food.

A video by Toronto Pig Save activist
Anita Krajnc made headlines worldwide

when she was charged for giving
water to thirsty pigs

on a hot day outside
a Toronto slaughterhouse.

Toronto Pig Save and the sister groups
are about bearing witness.

And that is the idea that
when there is injustice in your community,

you need to be present
and be there and try to help.

And so, for animals,
the darkest place is a slaughterhouse.

So Toronto Pig Save holds vigils
outside slaughterhouses.

[woman]
Here comes the truck!

[woman] I know, babies!

I love you.

♪

- [truck hydraulics hiss]
- [pig squeals]

[pigs snorting]

[pigs snorting and squealing]

♪

[Anita] I think a lot of people
felt hopeless before, saying,

"Oh, it's never going to change.
People are not going to stop eating meat."

And then they see these people doing vigils
saying, "This is wrong, stop this."

They find that very empowering
and encouraging.

I think if more and more people
bear witness firsthand,

it will change them,
and they would not participate

in violence against these animals if they
saw the animals firsthand.

I have no doubt about it.

[clattering]

[narrator] While in Toronto,
I came across someone else

who was changing hearts
and minds

and had a huge following
on social media.

Her name is
Esther the Wonder Pig.

One for you.

[man] The story behind
Esther is interesting.

She was a very unplanned
and last-minute addition to our family.

We were duped, you know.

We were under the impression
that she was a mini pig.

And, you know, man,
there's nothing mini about her.

[man 2] We'd fallen in love
in a pretty crazy way.

The thought of getting rid
of her was terrifying.

It was really, really upsetting.

I mean, we both knew
in the back of our minds

that we were gonna be
on one hell of a bumpy road.

We didn't know it was gonna
be a 500-pound road.

Yeah, I mean,
but we love all of her.

You know, she can put on
500 more pounds

and she's still welcome
to do as she please.

You know, she's part
of the family,

and it's not her fault
she got that big.

We created the Facebook page

and it was just
fun-loving photos of Esther,

and then we threw it out
to our family and friends,

and within a day there was
a hundred likes,

and we were just like,
whoa, like a hundred.

The next day it was 300
and the next day it was 500,

1,000, 2,000, 8,000,
it just started going like clockwork.

And it was at 8,000...
8,000 likes.

We woke up
and our phones were maxed out.

Somebody in Hong Kong
had sent us a text.

She said, "You guys are in
Hong Kong's biggest newspaper."

It was that moment
that I was like,

"Wow, like, what is going on?"

♪

[keyboard clacking]

You have this lightbulb moment.

We had a lightbulb moment
when we were cooking bacon on the stove,

and Esther's five pounds
at our feet,

waiting for something
to fall off the stove,

and I was like, "Oh, my gosh,"
it just happened.

- It was like this bulb.
- Can't do this.

Like, it just,
it was a crazy moment,

and, um...

we never ate meat
after that point.

[Steve] It's all her.
It's all her.

She's got this amazing ability
to get into your head.

That's what's happening
all over,

you know, all around us,
globally.

It's all over the world.

We hear from people
all over the world.

Yeah, one of the most amazing
signs of her intelligence

was, usually, she'd go
into the kitchen

and she would open a door,
try to pull food out,

and just cause chaos, so she got in trouble
every time, obviously.

And a few weeks in,
you'd walk into the kitchen,

you'd find a cupboard door open
and nothing wrong.

What the hell is that? And you'd
find a basket out on the floor,

and, what is going on, you know?

And we finally figured out
one day that it was her going in.

She'd open the cupboard
and then she'd leave the room

and leave it alone for a minute,

and then she'd go back
again a second later

and she'd pull out
whatever food she wanted,

but she'd leave it on the floor,
and then she'd leave again.

Then the third time in,
she would go into the kitchen,

grab the food and then run
out of the kitchen,

down the hallway to the bedroom
with whatever it was she stole.

Uh, and, I mean,
in our minds it was her

breaking it down into individual steps
and an individual process,

increasing her chances
of success, right?

She was quiet.
She'd come back in and...

[Derek] Check us out. Just to like,
"Oh, it's normal, everything's fine."

Give you a false sense
of security,

and then go back in
and just chaos ensues.

[keyboard clacking]

As hard as it was,
it's been the most rewarding

and, you know,
amazing experience

I think we've ever had
and probably ever will have.

Who gets to live
with a pig like that

and have those experiences?

I mean, it was incredible,
it was incredible.

[sizzling]

[woman] Over human history,
meat became

this food for sharing
and for celebrations.

This is why during festivities,
usually in most cultures,

you have meat at the center,
as a centerpiece.

You have the Thanksgiving turkey
for example,
in the United States.

Meat was always
important in that way.

It became so ingrained
in our traditions

in this kind of feeling
of commonality,

of sharing with other people, that it's
hard to let it go as well for that reason,

because if you say no
to the Thanksgiving turkey,

it's also saying, in a way, no to your traditions,
to your family, to your friends.

Definitely cultures
change slowly.

You see the meat industry
is putting a lot of marketing

and advertising and so on
to keep up all this kind of symbolism

that meat has, it lives on,
especially, for example,for masculinity.

[narrator] The land
of bratwurst and schnitzel

is renowned for its
heavy reliance on meat.

Germans eat
an estimated 60 kilograms,

or roughly 132 pounds,
of meat each, every year.

But scandals such as
mad cow disease

and wrongfully labeled
horse meat

have led to a loss of confidence
in the industry.

Climate change, as well
as the recurring images

of animal mistreatment
in factory farms

led to a public debate
about the animals on our plate,

and suddenly plant-based diets
were a newly found interest.

Presented to
a health-conscious audience,

vegan cookbooks that promised
weight loss and wellness benefits

were popping up
on best-seller lists,

attracting attention from
mainstream media and beyond.

Plants are no longer a side dish

but the creative
and healthy main course.

Numerous vegan restaurants have
cropped up all over the country

and many more
have added vegan options.

Supermarkets are stocking
vegan products

and the number
of vegan cookbooks

has grown exponentially,

from only 23 in 2012

to 220 in 2016.

With the highest number
of vegan restaurants

and spearheaded by the world's first
100% vegan supermarket chain,

Berlin has become
the vegan capital of Europe.

[wrappers crackling]

Mmm!

[narrator] I wondered how
the vegan explosion in Germany

had impacted the largest producer of tofu
and meat alternatives in Europe:

Tofutown, formerly called Viana.

[narrator] "The sausage is
the cigarette of the future."

This quote by the CEO
of Rugenwalder Muhle,

a traditional sausage producer
in Germany,

caused a stir
in the world of meat.

At the IFFA, the number one international
trade fair for the meat industry,

I was hoping to find out if this was indeed
where this sector was heading.

[narrator]
We live during a time

where our impact on the planet
has become so destructive

that, akin to other
natural forces,

humanity has become a global
geophysical force in itself.

Scientists call this period
the Anthropocene,

the age of humans.

During our relatively
short time on Earth,

we have made a mark
on our climate, our land,

our air and our oceans.

It's a mark we continue
making every day

and which will be felt
for generations to come.

Each year we breed,
raise and kill

56 billion farmed animals.

This system is responsible

for 18% of greenhouse
gas emissions,

uses a third of all fresh water,

occupies 45%
of the Earth's total land,

has destroyed 70%
of the Amazon rain forest,

and has become the greatest
threat to biodiversity.

And while 11% of the world's population
suffers from malnutrition,

we feed half
of the world's grain

to animals slated for slaughter.

So what would happen if meat
disappeared from the planet?

How could the end of meat
affect the planet, the animals,

and our own lives?

The global population
is projected

to grow to nearly
10 billion people by 2050.

As nations urbanize
and citizens become wealthier,

they consume more
resource-intensive foods,

such as meat and dairy,

intensifying the already
enormous burden

on our ecosystems,
the animals, our health,

and perhaps especially
the climate.

The most common indicator

for humans' massive impact
on the environment

is the increase
in greenhouse gas emissions.

In London, I wanted to learn
more about the relationship

between meat and our climate.

[woman] Here at Chatham House
we've been working on meat consumption

and climate change
and the interaction between the two

for about two years now.

We recognize that
the livestock sector

is a major driver
of climate change but one
that's often overlooked.

So we wanted to try and explore
why that's the case

and what could be done
to try and address this awareness gap

in what we're calling
the cycle of inertia,

by which governments aren't
taking action on a really critical issue.

We found in our survey
of 12 countries

that 83% of participants,
respondents,

recognize that human activity
is a major driver of climate change,

but only 30% recognize
the livestock sector as a key driver.

That's really striking
because we know

that the livestock sector contributes 15%
of greenhouse gas emissions,

which is roughly equivalent
to every vehicle on the planet,

so we're talking
about a major source here

of which people aren't aware.

We don't learn about the climate impact
of food production at schools,

we don't see it on a day-to-day basis
in the mainstream media.

Without tackling global
overconsumption of meat,

we will inevitably see
dangerous levels of climate change,

that we'll face
more frequent supply shocks,

so a situation
in which crops fail

and we have less food supply
than we might otherwise expect.

[narrator] In early 2016,

a team of researchers
from the University of Oxford

released a study about the climate
and health benefits of various diets.

The worldwide media response
was enormous.

This was the first global study
that estimated what would happen

if we stopped eating meat
and animal products altogether.

[man] Previous studies
have mostly looked

at the environmental benefits
of dietary change.

We modeled
three dietary scenarios,

diets that conformed
to global dietary guidelines.

On top of this, we implemented
two vegetarian scenarios,

one which is a normal
lacto-ovo vegetarian scenario

and one vegan scenario,
which doesn't include any animal products.

Continuing our diets
from now to 2050

would mean a huge increase
in greenhouse gas emissions.

We project that greenhouse gas
emissions would be increased

by about 50%.

If people change
from their expected diets

to global dietary guidelines,

then greenhouse gas emissions

could be reduced

by about a third.

If people went

to a vegetarian diet,

that would increase

to about two-thirds,

and then if people even went

to a vegan diet,

that would result in reductions

in greenhouse gas emissions

of about 70%,

so more than two-thirds.

So the headline results
of our study

were that a move
to more plant-based diets

could reduce
greenhouse gas emissions

of up to two-thirds

and result in reduced
climate damages

and reduced expenditure

for healthcare-related
services of $1.5 trillion.

So, this is gonna pass
right through your digestive tract...

[man] If a physician is
practicing medicine in the West,

in developed nations,

the vast majority of patients
that we are seeing

and the litany of diseases
they bring in

are the result
of them running a high fat,

high animal protein,
high sugar food stream

through their bloodstream
and their tissues,

hour after hour, day after day.

We used to think that food
just brings in calories

for energy and proteins
for structural building uses,

but we now know that food
brings in information.

It turns genes on
and turns genes off,

genes that stabilize
your tissues,

that suppress cancer growth,
that suppress inflammation,

and that's what
whole plant foods do,

as opposed to animal-based foods
that stimulate growth hormones

and processes that promote
cancer growth,

that are oxidizing agents
that damage our tissues.

Oh, I have thought about the day

when all Americans, all people around
the world, are eating a plant-based diet.

A vast number of ill people
in our country

would dwindle down rapidly.

The trillions of dollars that we spend
on just treating their symptoms,

the surgeries not done
and stents not placed

and scans not ordered,

the economics actually should
drive this change in awareness as well.

So there's a lot of positive
forces converging.

I'm just hoping
we have enough time

for this widespread
knowledge to sink in

and be acted upon
by enough people.

[Springmann] The findings of
our study with regards to health are that,

if people change their diets

to diets that would be in line
with global dietary guidelines,

then about five million lives

could be saved.

If people went

to vegetarian diets,

that would increase

to seven million lives saved,

and if they went to vegan diets,

that would increase

to eight million lives saved.

So almost any major, um...
region and country

could expect large savings
due to dietary change.

We indeed believe that governments
have a major role to play

by shaping the food environment
that we are all in,

for example, by mandating
food labeling,

taxing, for example, foods in regards
to their greenhouse gas emissions,

which would encourage
the consumption

of environmentally
more sustainable foods

and reduce the consumption
of highly greenhouse gas emitting foods,

such as animal products.

[narrator]
While I was researching

the effects of meat consumption
on biodiversity,

I came across a quote
that stuck with me.

"You eat a steak, you kill
a lemur in Madagascar.

You eat a chicken, you kill
an Amazonian parrot."

It was a comment made
by a researcher

on a study about
the destruction of habitat

for animal pasture
and feed crops.

I met with the author of
the paper in Miami, Florida.

[man] Currently,
there is a mass extinction,

that's called
the sixth mass extinction.

If you look at natural background
rates of extinction occurring in the world,

that's been going on
for millions of years,

we're at an accelerated rate,
about a thousand times

what natural
background rates are.

[insects chirruping]

[birds calling]

Biodiversity,
it's the fabric of life.

It's the enormous assemblage
of animals and plants

that exist on this planet that
we barely understand right now.

Tropical countries are blanketed
in this biodiversity.

It's very important for us
to protect that,

not only because of what
we know about it right now

but because of what
we don't know about it.

We need to keep that around
for future generations

for them to discover
and understand

and develop products
for human beings that are beneficial

but also just for the right of life to exist
and flourish and evolve in the future.

The strongest force driving extinction around
the world is animal product consumption

because it is responsible
for the destruction

of more habitats
around the world

than any other human activity.

If we look at the Amazon, which is
the largest tropical forest in the world,

it's the heart of biodiversity.

Over 75% of all the deforested
land in the Amazon

has been cut to produce
livestock,

either to directly put cattle
on pasture that is grown there
instead of the forest,

or to plant soy or corn
which is fed to livestock

and nowadays shipped all around the world
to feed livestock in other countries.

So the destruction of the Amazon
has been driven

by animal product
consumption, period.

If everyone on the planet
went vegan,

that would free up an enormous amount
of land to be used for other resources.

So one thing that could be done
is restoring habitats

to traditional natural ecosystems,
connecting them together,

creating corridors between
endangered habitats.

At the same time, it could allow
the development of biofuels

on properties as well

so that we could become more
of a carbon neutral society.

There's a lot of innovation
that could occur

on those properties
if we pull meat consumption

and meat production
off of those lands.

[narrator] A diet rich in meat
would require a 50% increase

in global cropland area by 2050.

If the world went vegan in 2050,
we would require less cropland

than we did in the year 2000.

This would allow us
to reforest an area

around the size of
the entire Amazon rain forest.

Pastures cover a quarter
of our global land mass.

Bill Ripple, an ecologist
from the University of Oregon,

is researching
what happens to pastures

when animals no longer graze.

[Ripple] At the Hart Mountain
National Wildlife Refuge,

the managers removed
all the cattle in 1990.

We found a decrease of 90%
in the amount of bare soil.

We found an increase in willow.

That increase is 388%,
so that's significant

because willow is an important
biodiversity indicator

for these streamside areas,

because many species
of plants and animals

are correlated
with the abundance

of willow and aspen.

This is about a 70-centimeter
diameter aspen tree,

originated in the 1800s,

before livestock arrived
on Hart Mountain.

I think the importance
of Hart Mountain here

is because it's a rare case
where we've documented

what happens when cattle
are removed from a landscape,

what happens when cattle are
removed from streamside areas.

Today, animal agriculture
uses a big percentage

of the land surface,

and if that could be converted
to more natural uses,

I think biodiversity would
increase in those cases

where there's less grazing,
less feed crop production.

♪

[narrator]
One of the countries

that featured frequently
in my research was India.

In a few years, it will be

the most populous
country on Earth.

I kept wondering,
what does a society look like

when 32% of its population
is vegetarian?

A staggering 400 million people
in India don't eat any meat.

Followed by 80%
of the population,

Hinduism is the major
religion of India.

Hindus advocate nonviolence
and respect for all life,

embracing vegetarianism.

Culturally, we have what I love to call
a mild indifference towards animals,

which is the reason you see
animals all around you when you live.

You have your birds of all sorts
are not getting shot down.

You have dogs, of course,
you have cows.

Your monkeys in cities,
you know.

We see ourselves
more as a unified whole,

where there is a place
for all other elements of nature as well.

- [pedestrians chatting]
- [horns honking]

[narrator] Cows in India
are a common sight.

Around 50 million stray cattle
and stray dogs

roam the streets of India
in search of food.

Once the provider
for the family,

cows are now seen by Hindus
as a maternal figure,

males and females alike sacred
for their generosity.

The slaughter of cows is banned
in most parts of India.

Violators of the ban may face
up to ten years in prison.

[woman] People think that Indians
treat cows as a holy animal,

but the reality is far from it.

India is apparently the largest
producer of milk in the world,

so it comes as no surprise that India
is also the largest exporter of beef

and fifth largest exporter
of leather products.

Because of the ban
on cow slaughter,

dairy owners use buffaloes,
because, of course, buffaloes

are exempted from this law.

[horn honks]

There's another very small
section of dairy owners

who actually leave
their animals on the road.

Now, one weird thing,
that this concept

of leaving animals
free on the road

is much better than the animals
being in the dairy,

but they don't have access
to food and water,

so they're left with no choice
but to find food in garbage bins.

Most of these throwaway eatables

are disposed of in
a plastic bag which is tied.

These animals can't open the bag

so they inevitably
eat these bags

along with the food items in it.

[woman] In the urban youth that
is going to all these colleges,

even the way these big
corporates are coming to India

and sort of targeting the youth,

the consumption of non-veg
is definitely rising

in the urban elite youth
who think it's cool or hip

to sort of consume non-veg,
to say that,

"Oh, I'm being open-minded
and liberal

and saying I can have
non-veg, it's a right."

[Sharma] As middle-class
incomes grow

with growing economy,

that's when the consumption
of luxury items increases,

and cheese and dairy
and more eggs and meats,

including exotic meats
is all a part of that continuum.

If we can simply hold steady

the rate of growth of non-vegetarianism,
that will be a big victory.

[narrator] Palitana, a city
in the state of Gujarat

in northern India,
made headlines in 2014

as the first vegetarian city
in the world.

Also known
as the city of temples,

Palitana is one of the most
holy sites to the Jains,

an ancient religion said to be
even older than Buddhism.

[Indian instruments playing]

[speaking foreign language]

The Jain Dharma believes
in nonviolence.

No birds, no animals,
no insects,

no human beings
should be harmed.

Each and every living beings
have the right to live.

You live and let live others.

Last hundred years...

many slaughterhouses
are allowed.

That's why it's
our duty to stop them.

If they are not Jains, so what?

This is the holy place.

You can't kill
any living beings.

You can't harm them.

[newscaster speaking
foreign language]

[Maharaj] All the monks
of Palitana, we went to fast.

If Gujarat government

will not stop the slaughtering,
then we'll sacrifice our lives

for the animals.

I announced, "If you want flesh,

we will donate our meat,
our own meat."

You cut us, you kill us.

So you eat of our flesh.
You eat of our body.

[narrator] A vegetarian zone
was established in 1999,

two kilometers along the main road
leading to the temple hill.

In an area of 250 meters
to each side, the sale of meat,

fish, and eggs is banned by law.

The aim of the monks is
to establish a larger zone

within a nine-kilometer radius
around the city.

All butchers,
we took meeting here.

Approximately 80 to 90
butchers came here.

So we give them options
that whatever your need is,

we will help you.

We gave them money
for change their professions.

[men speaking foreign language]

[narrator] The former butchers,

who now had grocery
and clothing stores,

did not want to speak on camera,

but they denied having
received a compensation

and said they felt ashamed
of their former profession.

The Muslim community, which accounts
for 25% of the city's population

compared to only 3% Jains,
was not happy about the ban

and deemed their religious freedom
had been violated.

When I discovered
a backyard slaughterhouse,

the meat had already been sold

and the leftovers were fed
to the dogs.

The butchers were suspicious
and reluctant to talk,

similar to the city officials
who referred me

to the district headquarters
in Bhavnagar.

[Maharaj] We trust
on Lord Adinath that very soon

the entire Palitana, holy city,
vegetarian zone,

vegetarian city.

And not only Palitana.

My wish is

that whatever the missions
going from Palitana,

it should be whole,
toward the entire world.

Whole world should be
vegetarian.

[narrator] In Mumbai,
I wanted to learn more about Jainism

and got in touch
with Pramoda Chitrabhanu, a vegan Jain.

I met her in the district
of Malabar Hill,

one of the most posh
residential areas in Mumbai

and an exclusively
vegetarian neighborhood.

Ahimsa is the center
of this philosophy

because in 599 BC,
Lord Mahavira,

who was the last apostle
of the Jain religion,

he said that those
who disregard and disrespect

the existence of life
in earth, water, fire, air,

vegetation, and all life forms,

disregards and disrespects
his own existence

because all life are
intertwined with each other.

The best means to stop
these people from eating meat

would be through educating.

Education is the only way.

I don't think so by stopping and burning
the slaughterhouses, all those things.

And to stop that,
one has to go out

and educate them, talk to them,

make them understand why
we are talking about this,

make them understand that
animals are not a commodity.

[narrator] My experience
in India left me wondering

what our cities and communities
could look like

if we no longer viewed animals
as commodities.

In Leipzig, I met
with artist Hartmut Kiewert,

who envisions a very different
way of living with animals.

[pig snorts]

[pig snorts]

[narrator] During my research,
I came across the "Zoopolis,"

a term describing an environment

in which humans and animals
not only coexist

but also thrive
alongside one another.

[woman] The idea of Zoopolis
arose from the idea

that urban theory,
ideas about the city
and how cities work,

were really only about people,

and when I started thinking about,
"Well, who actually lives in cities?"

it was clear that,
and it is clear that,

there's a lot of nonhumans
that live in cities,

and so I wanted to create what I called
a transspecies urban theory,

and also a transspecies
urban practice

in which built environment
professionals...

Environmental designers,
architects, planners,

landscape architects,
engineers...

Actually thought about
nonhuman residents of cities

as well as human inhabitants
and their needs.

But I think it raises
the question

of how do you include animals

in a democratic
decision-making process,

in a discourse of citizenship,

in a way that makes their...

needs and wants and desires
part of the conversation?

[narrator]
Two Canadian philosophers

turned the concept of the Zoopolis
into a radical claim,

going so far as to consider
animals our co-citizens.

While most animal rights
philosophers

call for a separation of
the world's humans and animals,

Will Kymlicka
and Sue Donaldson believe

that a shared world is possible.

[Donaldson] If we look around
just out the window here,

we see all kinds of animals
who make their homes

in our cities,
our communities, our houses,

and the idea that we could
somehow live separately from animals

and avoid domination
and exploitation that way

is completely unrealistic.

[Kymlicka] Yeah, so we
distinguish three categories,

or three broad patterns,
of relationships.

So domesticated animals
we think should be seen as

members of our society,

and the way in which we affirm
membership is through citizenship.

So we should think
of domesticated animals as our co-citizens,

and that means,
like other citizens,

they would have the rights
to protection from harm,

rights to health care,

rights to political
representation

to have their interests
taken into account.

And, of course, the right to live here
and rights of residency.

The second category concerns
animals who continue to live

independently of humans
on their own habitat.

So there's not much
wilderness left in this world,

we keep conquering
and colonizing,

so we recognize rights
of territory

and the rights
of wilderness animals

to live autonomously
on their territory.

And in political theory, we bundle
these rights to territory and autonomy

under the idea of sovereignty,

so we should think
of wild animals

as having sovereignty rights

over themselves
and their territory.

And the third category,

which is in some ways
the least studied,

the least theorized
in the animal rights debate,

concerns the nondomesticated
animals who live amongst us.

So, urban wildlife,
to simplify it.

Crows, pigeons, ducks, mice,

squirrels.

So in our view,
we need to recognize

that these animals
live amongst us,

and so they have
residency rights

and we need to learn to coexist.

So they have rights
to be accommodated

in this shared space.

But that's a looser
kind of relationship

than with citizenship,
and so we call that "denizenship."

So, so long as we are
committed to the idea

that we're going
to be living together

with at least some
domesticated animals,

what we want is a way
of framing that relationship

that imposes on us an obligation
to be responsive to them,

to the animals, and that's
what we view citizenship as doing.

[narrator] It was difficult to picture
a world with animals as our co-citizens.

But there were already
tiny communities

where this idea didn't seem
too far from reality.

German author and activist
Hilal Sezgin

moved from the city
to the countryside

and unintentionally
adopted a herd of sheep.

[ducks quacking]

[harrumphs]

[keyboard clacking]

[Steve] Hmm, she's due
for a family walk.

♪

[narrator] I heard that
someone else had traded life
in suburbia for the countryside.

Esther the Wonder Pig.

Through
a crowd-funding campaign,

Steve, Derek and Esther
founded a farm sanctuary

just outside of Toronto.

[Derek] So Happily Ever Esther
Farm Sanctuary is 50 acres,

and half of it is treed
and the other half is fields.

We had an Indiegogo
fundraising campaign,

and in 60 days,
we raised $450,000.

So this is the forest paddock.

And... here's someone
living a dream.

- [Steve chuckles]
- Here's Leonard.

There's a gate up there that
allows him to get into that area

from behind the barn and into the barn,
so he can go wherever he wants.

You know, pigs in the wild will travel
six to eight miles in a day.

The second we opened up the gate
for the big pigs to come into the woods,

they were like, "What?"
You know, "This is awesome!"

I love seeing the pigs
in the woods just chill,

like Esther when she's
walking through the woods.

She's just in her element,
she's so happy.

The idea behind a sanctuary
is to just let the animals be themselves.

It's really neat to see
an animal come here all on their own,

you know, just one,
and see how they start integrating in

and creating friendships
with different animals

and cross-species
where everybody fits in.

You know, not everybody
gets along,

and we recognize that too,
and they don't have to,

'cause there's two sides
to the fence.

They can be on that side
or they can be on this side.

It's just about recognizing
the needs for them.

[narrator] The idea
of farm sanctuaries

is to provide
a safe haven for animals

that were rescued or escaped
from factory farms

and slaughterhouses.

Here, they are cared for
and given the opportunity

to behave as naturally as possible in
a protective environment.

I was wondering what the people
who are running these sanctuaries

had learned from living
so closely with farmed animals

over the years.

[man] Farm Sanctuary started
back in the mid 1980s

to combat the abuses
of factory farming,

and we started by investigating farms
and stockyards and slaughterhouses.

We'd find living animals
literally thrown in trash cans

or on piles of dead animals.

We started rescuing them

and we were selling
vegan hot dogs

at Grateful Dead shows
to fund the work.

And we now have
three sanctuaries,

one in New York,
two in California.

The first animal farm
sanctuary rescue was Hilda,

who was a sheep, who was left on a pile
of dead animals behind a stockyard.

The maggots were so thick,
you could hear them buzzing

as they devoured
these carcasses.

And out of this pile,
a sheep lifts her head.

And we were stunned that a living animal
would be discarded like garbage this way.

And we picked her off the dead pile
thinking she would have to be euthanized.

But as the veterinarian
started looking at her and examining her,

she started perking up
and then she stood up,

and she lived a good, long life.

And ultimately all of us,
human beings and other animals,

want to live a good, long life,

and farm animals are not
given that opportunity.

[engine idling]

[woman] Hi!

Animals at farm animal
sanctuaries

behave very differently than if you were
to meet them out on a farm.

Many of these animals
are incredibly resilient

and they've lost
their fear of people,

and that allows people
to see their personalities.

[sniffing]

We had these three turkeys,
Boone, Alphonso and Hershel,

and so in the early days,
they would follow us everywhere,

when we were doing tours
and taking people around.

And sometimes you can tell

it's like a wife has brought
her husband and her kids,

and she's the one who has
compassion in her heart for animals

and she's trying to expose
her family to it.

We see this a lot.

[turkey gobbling]

So this father
was walking around,

and you could tell he just
sort of kept to himself

and had his hands in his pockets
and was sort of marveling

and laughing and smirking at the turkeys
as they would follow around,

and if the kids would laugh or clap
their hands, the turkeys would respond.

But at the end of the tour, I looked over
and he was petting Hershel's head,

and then he sort of squatted down
and he was face to face with Hershel,

and I saw like a tear
stream down his face,

and he said to his kids that
he was wrong all these years

and that he was so resistant
to his wife, their mother,

and that he never realized
that they could be so friendly

and that they had
such unique personalities

and that he could ever
find himself being so fond of a turkey.

♪

[children calling]

[narrator] It is the first
open day of the year

at Friend Animal Rescue
in Kent, England.

I came here to learn
how visitors interact

with farmed animals
at a sanctuary.

[lively chattering]

[man] When I first turned up here,
I was a committed meat eater.

And I met Marion.

I just saw this little woman
here on her own

with all these pigs and cows
and sheep and horses,

just caring for them,
feeding them and watering them.

I was just like, wow,
it was like a Disney cartoon.

It inspired me.

I firmly believed
I had to eat meat.

And on the premise, really,
if I didn't, I would get sick, possibly die.

So when she was explaining
to me about the industry,

the farmed animal industry
and what happens,

they're slaughtered so young,
for example.

Most of them are babies,
under a year old.

You kind of... I got defensive,
I think a lot of people did.

[woman] You like carrots,
don't you?

Oh! [laughs]

[Eaton] There's only
so many farmed animals

because people choose
to eat them.

When you start meeting
these animals,

it brings out a softer side,

and I think you have to be
very, very kind of fix minded

or very almost brutal
to suddenly meet these animals

and decide, "I could just
carry on eating them."

It affected me big-time,
to such an extent,

not only did I become vegan,

I ended up staying 15 years,
marrying Marion,

and it changed my life forever.

So that would be a very good
example of what this place does.

[cow moos]

[crowd laughs]

[horse snorts]

[narrator] The Erdlingshof,

a small sanctuary
in the Bavarian forest,

has a special focus on male cows

who are rescued
from the dairy industry.

[water rushing]

♪

[Baur] Sanctuaries provide
a sort of aspiration

to the kind of world
we could create,

one where the animals live
with us and we live with them,

and nobody has to be afraid of anybody
because we're not killing and eating them.

Now, there are also animals
that are carnivores,

and that creates
some challenging situations

for somebody
with a vegan mindset.

But at the end of the day,
certain animals don't have a choice.

Lions cannot live on plants.

Human beings do have a choice.

We can live and we can thrive
eating plants instead of animals.

[narrator] The role of animals
in society has evolved dramatically.

We've learned a lot about
animals' cognitive abilities
and social development.

Pigs, for example, share
a number of cognitive capacities

with other highly
intelligent species,

yet the law still considers
all animals mere things.

[woman] There are laws
affecting all animals.

Within the United States,
we have the Animal Welfare Act.

Sadly, though it's called
the Animal Welfare Act,

it doesn't cover farm animals,
so it doesn't cover 99% of the animals

in industrial use
in the United States,

and there are other important
exceptions as well,

but let's face it,
that's the big exception.

It's all the animals,
basically, from a statisticalpoint of view.

All the animals are farm animals,
they're not protected by federal law.

[man] For hundreds of years,
there's been this high, thick legal wall,

and on one side of that
are all the legal things

and the other side
are the legal persons.

If you take a snapshot in 2015,

all the nonhuman animals
of the world are on the thing side

and all the human beings
are on the person side.

It wasn't always that way.

Two hundred years ago,
women might have been things.

Slaves were things,
children were things,

but right now, all
nonhuman animals are things

and all humans are persons.

And the work of
the Nonhuman Rights Project,

especially the initial goal,
is to break through that wall

and begin bringing as many
nonhuman animals as possible

through that wall from the side
of the things to the side of the persons.

Things are slaves
and slaves are things.

When humans were slaves,
they were treated horrendously.

Nonhumans are slaves, they're
treated horrendously as well.

And if they're not treated
horrendously,

like my dog Yogi
who's running around here,

he's not treated
horrendously at all.

He's a very happy dog.

But it's really because
I want to treat him that way.

If I want him killed,
he would be killed.

If I want to do something to him
that doesn't amount to cruelty,

I could do something to him.

And that's not right.

[woman] Any lawyer working
for social change

will tell you that the law
usually follows society

and not the other way around.

And what we've seen
over the last few decades

is that society has made
tremendous strides

in understanding that animals
are deserving of our compassion
and our respect.

We now know that, in all the ways
that matter, animals are just like us.

They feel fear, they feel pain, but they also
experience joy and positive emotions.

One meaningful legal change that
we can make for animals tomorrow

is to give them the right to have someone
represent their interests in court.

Obviously animals
can't speak for themselves,

and in that respect they're
just like children or incapacitated people

who have special advocates
who go to court for them.

We could set up
the same system for animals

so that lawyers can go speak
on behalf of animals,

represent their interests
and ensure that they're protected.

[Sullivan]
As people become more concerned,
there will be more regulation.

Then the products will
become more expensive,

the use will be reduced.

I don't think there will ever be
a law against eating meat,

but I think that the day will come
when it will become socially unacceptable.

I don't see... I think
that it's so interesting

that 98% of
this country eats meat.

It seems very unlikely that we could
pass a law prohibiting it at this point,

and yet even
at this very moment,

they're nervous
that that could happen,

that their meat will be
taken away from them.

I don't see that that's
the way that the law will evolve.

I do see it as the way
that society will evolve.

I do see that
the law will evolve

to get more and more strict
in its regulation of the industries.

[narrator] The number
of plant-based alternatives is growing,

with taste and texture growing ever closer
to actual animal products.

But there is something else making headlines
around the world: cultured meat.

The same technique used to grow
human tissue in regenerative medicine

is now used to produce meat
without killing animals.

In August of 2013, the first
hamburger grown in a lab

was presented to 200 journalists
from around the world in London.

Financed by Google
co-founder Sergey Brin,

the cost of the patty was
estimated to be 250,000 Euros.

Okay, everyone sitting here
with bated breath

is dying to see what's
underneath the cloche,

so can you do the honors
and lift the lid on your creation?

I can.

[woman] Okay.
Now, obviously...

[man] Why do we need
cultured meat?

It's basically because none
of the substitutes so far

have been sort of capable
of completely mimicking

the meat experience,
if you like.

Uh, and in my mind,
people want meat

and not meat substitutes,

unless the meat substitute
at some point becomes so good

that you cannot distinguish them
from the real thing.

Uh, we, uh...

[Post] Better food security
for the entire population.

Less impact on the environment.

And less animal welfare issues.

Those are the three
major concerns.

And for those important reasons,
I really hope that at some point

we can deliver a product,
so that people can still eat
their beloved meat

without the negative
consequences.

We use cells from a cow.

We harvest them through
a harmless procedure,

and they have cells...
we all have cells in our muscles...

That are sitting there waiting
to repair an injury.

And they have the capacity
to multiply,

so we take them out of the cow,

expand them in the lab
until we have 40 billion cells.

And we do it in a particular way

so that they form
real muscle fibers,

and that's the basis
for our meat.

So if you have a lot
of those muscle fibers,

we can basically make
a hamburger out of them.

[narrator] Apart from meat,
I learned

that there were
also a number of startups

working on other
cultured products

to replace their
animal-derived counterparts

in the near future.

[woman] The mission
of New Harvest

is to accelerate
the post-animal bio-economy.

So we're trying to build
a whole new economy

where animal products are made
without animals,

and New Harvest's role
is in providing that initial catalytic step

that helps researchers get a first amount
of data done or a first prototype done

so that once they have
that prototype,

other investors and other
funders will get involved.

Cultured meat is getting a cell
and then dividing the cell.

So there's no reason
for GMO to be involved at all

in the production
of cultured meat.

Cultured meat
will not come from a lab.

The actual vision of this future
is one that looks like a brewery,

and you go to a brewery and you see
these gigantic stainless-steel tanks,

and you don't perceive
the brewer as a scientist,

you think of him as an artisan
or a crafts person.

You know, I've been combing
the comments of cultured meat
and cultured milk

and cultured egg articles
for a long time,

and a lot of people are like,
"Well, if this tastes as good,

then how could I choose something that came
from a slaughtered animal

if what my experience is
is the same?"

[narrator] In San Francisco,
several companies are working

on animal products
without the animal.

Indie Bio is
a startup accelerator
for synthetic biology.

Backed by a venture
capital fund,

companies that join the program receive
a quarter million dollars

and the lab space to reach
a prototype in just four months.

[man] Indie Bio
is an accelerator

for early stage
biotechnology companies.

The vision was to create
something totally new.

We think we can use biology
to replace animals,

so instead of domesticating animals,
we're domesticating cells.

And we're really focusing
on a new paradigm

in producing the foods
and goods that people want,

without the environmental
or ethical aspects of using animals.

[man] We're making gelatin
without the animal.

So there are a litany
of consumer goods

that contain gelatin
that many people don't realize,

in everything from yoghurt
to gummi bears,

industrial applications,
medicines.

So the approach
that we're taking

is to engineer
microbial factories

that can make
the same exact gelatin

that people would get
out of animal tissues,

but instead of taking it from an animal
and doing it in a top-down approach,

we're building it from scratch
with stuff like yeast.

How long will it take?
Are we talking about five years?

Are we talking about ten years?
I hope it's five,

when we see the last animal
product taken off the shelf

and replaced with a biologically derived,
clean version of that product,

whether it's meat or whether it's milk
or whether it's eggs.

[narrator] Not far away,
in a space for DIY biology,

a group of biohackers is working on what
most people say they could never give up:

cheese.

[man] Real Vegan Cheese
is a project

to basically make cheese

that is exactly like
cow's milk cheese,

or any other animal cheese,
but make it without using animals.

And so the way we do this is
we search databases

that give us the sequence of DNA
which encodes for the proteins in milk.

We then take that information
and go to a synthesis service

that makes us
that snippet of DNA.

We put it into yeast.

That yeast then starts
producing that protein.

So now these yeasts
are sort of like our dairy.

Sort of like,
instead of milking cows,

we're actually just getting
these proteins out of the yeast.

This is important because
these proteins

are what give milk all of its
really interesting properties

and what gives cheese the properties
that you associate with cheese.

Things like meltability,
stretchability, that texture.

Those proteins are
the most important thing.

So that's what the project is.

It's taking yeast and making
these exact same proteins

so we can make real cheese
which is also vegan.

[device rattling]

What we get out,
if we do our job well,

is exactly like
what the cows produce.

The protein is identical.

So once it's purified, this
is not genetically modified.

It's a natural product.

So our future plans,
once we can make cheese

out of our
yeast-cultured proteins,

are to file intellectual property,
file a patent on this,

but then abandon it, so that
it is in the public record,

it is prior art but we don't
own any rights to it.

You could imagine that
if someone like, uh...

someone who is also involved
in the dairy industry directly,

if they developed this
and owned all the IP,

they could make a few products
just for vegans

but they could prevent
someone else from
pushing it far enough

that it would challenge
their existing business.

So we don't want someone who has
an interest in dairy continuing

to own all
of the rights to this.

If it's open source,
no one can do that.

[narrator] While I was
researching future foods,

I came across a recent
discovery by scientists

from the University of Oregon.

They said they had found
the unicorn,

an algae that
is healthier than kale

and when deep fried,
tastes like bacon.

[man] We started out
with about 40 or so ideas.

And today I have three
of the five that we tested.

This here is a rice cracker. These are
going to be a little bit more savory

and bring out a little bit
of that umami taste that's in the seaweed.

And then this is just
kind of an interesting way

to use a bit of the salt
that you would find

in kind of those ocean tastes.

Dulse is a bit
of a novel ingredient

that many people in America
aren't very familiar with,

outside of sushi
or seaweed salads.

So it's nice to kind of be
at the forefront

of getting this ingredient
into kind of the mainstream.

[sizzling]

[man] You know, in 2025,
there will be 7 1/2 billion people on Earth.

And every human being

needs roughly 50 grams
of protein a day to live,

so the world's gonna demand
400 million grams
of carbohydrates a day.

And we figured out that,
at least with this dulse,

if we had a 25 by 25 mile
stretch in the ocean

off the Oregon coast,

we could grow enough protein
to feed the world, just like that.

So the potential
is extremely large.

[thunder rumbling]

[man] Uh, well, people
got very interested in the dulse story

because of its link to bacon,

and the fact that it has
some of the flavors of bacon

and is also nutritionally
much better for you than bacon,

it doesn't have the cholesterol
and the high-fat content,

makes it very appealing
to people.

Ah, how are the dulse looking?

Ah. Looking good.

Yeah. That's fantastic.

Bubbling away.

So these are
our 6,000-liter tanks.

So we're hoping to produce about 30 pounds
of dulse per week

from these tanks.

What we found with dulse
is that it grows vegetatively.

So what you can do is you can
basically break a plant apart

and each piece will grow
into a new plant.

So it's very, very easy to grow,

and this is one
of the great benefits

of this type of cultivation.

It has a good protein content,

high iodine, high potassium.

And so in many respects,
it is a superfood.

It has a lot of potential,
I think, in the long-term future

as an alternative
to some of these other terrestrial crops,

and also an alternative to meat.

So the amino acid profile
is pretty good,

and it has the savory flavor,

so I think there's
a very good potential for it.

[Post] So, what we are doing,
we are taking a small sample from a cow.

Use its muscle-specific
stem cells

that have sort of a limited
capacity to proliferate.

That means that we have to go back
to the cow after a certain period

and get new stem cells.

And then it's not a completely
animal-free product,

but I don't really think
that's that important.

Maybe for vegans it is,
but for most people, it may not be.

Still we would be able,
and that's obviously the condition,

we would be able to reduce
the total number of cows tremendously.

Even if it will not reduce
energy consumption,

then it will still reduce
methane emission,

so it will still have an effect on
our greenhouse gas emission.

But we are more ambitious
than that.

We really want to reduce
energy consumption as well.

I'm saying that there's
nothing in it,

but that's not completely true.

There is...

Oh, this is just
a small-scale cell culture,

but it's tiny.

Tiny muscle rings
in these little wells.

We are never, with
this cultured beef program,

are never going to be
as efficient

and as friendly
to the environment

or to animals as a vegetarian
or a vegan diet.

We will never achieve
that level of efficiency.

So if vegetarians and vegans
start to eat this,

that's sort of the opposite
of what my goal is

in this whole endeavor.

The target group
is pretty much myself,

the people who are
stubbornly eating meat,

while knowing that they
probably should not.

If at some point we are capable

of producing
exactly the same tissue,

exactly the same sort
of sensory quality of meat,

at a competitive price,

I think it will eradicate
traditional livestock meat production.

[Nibert] It's
absolutely imperative

that people recognize

that one of the worst practices
ever developed on the planet

was this consumption of other animals
for food and using them for resources,

and we're never going to get
our societies back on track

unless we step back
from that practice,

and we can begin
to do that, first of all,

by changing the way that we eat.

Nothing serious
is going to change

until there's just a catastrophe
that forces us to change.

And my best guess,
it would be something related to the...

It could be an issue
about tainted food,

but more likely it's going to be
an environmental catastrophe

that we just realize that
we're killing the planet, and then...

we'll be forced to engage
in some radical rethinking,

not because we suddenly care
about animals

but just because we're
destroying our own existence.

[narrator] Reflecting on
my search for a post-meat world,

the resource-intensive methods
of animal production seem outdated,

especially in the light
of the challenges

we'll face in the near
and far future.

What we eat has
tangible consequences,

for the world around us

and for the trillions
of nonhuman animals.

The end of meat as we know it

might just be
the best solution we have

to save ourselves,
the animals and the planet.

Of course, if we're talking
about stopping meat overnight,

that would be a problem because overnight
we'd have lots of people going jobless.

But the truth is that
all industries evolve.

Everything changes.

If you talk to people about
cars coming, for example,

everybody would be worrying, what's
going to happen to the horse carriages?

Right? But it doesn't happen overnight,
thankfully, and everybody adapts.

♪

[Sullivan] There is
a vision of the future

that doesn't include
the exploitation of animals.

You don't get somewhere
unless you envision it.

And people really seem
to have trouble envisioning

this world without
animal exploitation.

We've always done it, so we'll
always continue to do it.

But if you take a step back

and look at where technology is,

what we do to animals
is just insane.

[Brown] The first time I had
visited a farm animal sanctuary,

blew my mind.

There was nothing like it.

I could not believe, not only what I was
learning at the time

about the sheer number
of farmed animals

who suffer and who are killed
for human consumption,

but then to get to know them

and to realize that
these are the individuals

who make up those statistics,

and the statistics
can be staggering,

but it's even more overwhelming

when you get to know
the victims.

And that affects me
to every cell of my being,

because this is the social
justice movement of our times.

It affects the most
number of beings.

[Post] Twenty years from now,
we will look back

with a completely
different perspective

and our kids will say
to each other,

"Well, you know,
in the days of our parents,

they still killed animals
for our food supply."

And they will probably look
at that as sort of barbarian.

♪