1 00:00:39,059 --> 00:00:41,860 Is this how our story is due to end? 2 00:00:42,419 --> 00:00:46,126 A tale of the smartest species doomed... 3 00:00:46,540 --> 00:00:49,500 by that all too human characteristic of failing... 4 00:00:49,620 --> 00:00:53,500 to see the bigger picture in pursuit of short-term goals. 5 00:00:54,459 --> 00:00:56,386 Now, the global population officially 6 00:00:56,419 --> 00:00:58,820 passed 8 billion people today. 7 00:00:58,940 --> 00:01:02,180 That number has more than doubled in the past 50 years. 8 00:01:02,300 --> 00:01:04,980 Last year was the hottest year since records began. 9 00:01:05,099 --> 00:01:08,380 Global sea levels rose by more than expected last year. 10 00:01:08,499 --> 00:01:11,126 Temperatures were 1.6°C degrees higher... 11 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:13,380 than the pre-industrial average. 12 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:15,120 UN scientists have warned we are on course... 13 00:01:15,260 --> 00:01:18,573 for a catastrophic 3.1 degrees Celsius of warming... 14 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:19,680 this century. 15 00:01:19,693 --> 00:01:21,579 Bird flu is at a dangerous point. 16 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:24,775 H5N1 has taken root in US dairy 17 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:26,480 farms, and now it's jumped species. 18 00:01:26,699 --> 00:01:28,271 With evidence that climate change 19 00:01:28,296 --> 00:01:31,273 has played a significant role... in Los Angeles fires. 20 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:33,106 Abundance. Microplastics. 21 00:01:33,180 --> 00:01:35,660 170 trillion pieces in the ocean. 22 00:01:35,779 --> 00:01:38,339 Human-made chemicals known as forever chemicals. 23 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:39,539 Toxic chemicals. 24 00:01:39,740 --> 00:01:41,859 That consuming a single serving of fish... 25 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:44,880 would be equivalent to a year of contaminated water. 26 00:01:45,180 --> 00:01:48,540 Nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone now! 27 00:01:49,100 --> 00:01:50,579 Drought, floods, and fires. 28 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:51,746 Sea level rise. 29 00:01:51,859 --> 00:01:53,100 Time is almost out. 30 00:01:53,219 --> 00:01:54,939 At the point of no return. 31 00:01:55,059 --> 00:01:58,339 We are way off target when it comes to how dire things are... 32 00:01:58,460 --> 00:02:00,299 and those impacts are getting worse. 33 00:02:00,419 --> 00:02:02,339 It could potentially be irreversible. 34 00:02:02,740 --> 00:02:04,980 It isn't too late yet... 35 00:02:05,107 --> 00:02:06,866 Now or never. 36 00:02:23,459 --> 00:02:27,260 People must be capable of caring about things... 37 00:02:27,940 --> 00:02:30,626 beyond is my belly full... 38 00:02:31,060 --> 00:02:34,380 and, am I dry when I sleep at night? 39 00:02:37,299 --> 00:02:38,699 Otherwise, it is all lost. 40 00:02:45,060 --> 00:02:48,993 We are biological creatures and we live in an ecosystem. 41 00:02:50,380 --> 00:02:53,975 The ecosystem that we live in is partly... 42 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,520 what we have inherited over 43 00:02:56,522 --> 00:03:00,235 history, from 3.8 billion years... 44 00:03:00,260 --> 00:03:02,179 of life's evolution on this planet. 45 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:05,386 And, partly what we have done. 46 00:03:05,820 --> 00:03:06,826 The choices that we've made. 47 00:03:06,980 --> 00:03:08,180 Things that we've engineered. 48 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:11,366 Things that we've destroyed and the things that we've protected. 49 00:03:12,500 --> 00:03:15,575 It's an intellectual challenge to try and figure out... 50 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:16,600 what that would look like. 51 00:03:16,660 --> 00:03:18,353 Whether there would be a final collapse. 52 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:21,840 Or whether this planet would just... 53 00:03:22,714 --> 00:03:25,446 continue to drift through the universe... 54 00:03:25,859 --> 00:03:26,919 containing... 55 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:33,280 human engineering and almost no other form of diversity. 56 00:03:36,139 --> 00:03:39,380 We should be concerned about that final handful of species... 57 00:03:39,500 --> 00:03:41,179 on a dying mud ball... 58 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:42,673 floating through the universe... 59 00:03:42,739 --> 00:03:44,380 that used to be planet Earth. 60 00:03:45,340 --> 00:03:46,993 That's what we should be concerned about... 61 00:03:47,139 --> 00:03:48,213 in the immediate sense... 62 00:03:52,699 --> 00:03:54,298 For the last 15 years or so 63 00:03:54,310 --> 00:03:56,459 there's been a series of papers... 64 00:03:56,619 --> 00:04:01,114 published in Scientific Journals saying we really don't like... 65 00:04:01,139 --> 00:04:02,899 the look of what's happening to the food system. 66 00:04:03,540 --> 00:04:05,820 It looks a bit like the financial system... 67 00:04:05,980 --> 00:04:07,540 in the approach to 2008. 68 00:04:08,060 --> 00:04:10,940 The food system itself could collapse. 69 00:04:11,299 --> 00:04:13,820 It's dominated by just a few huge companies. 70 00:04:14,100 --> 00:04:16,899 Like the financial system was before 2008. 71 00:04:17,419 --> 00:04:19,939 So for example, just four corporations... 72 00:04:20,220 --> 00:04:22,619 control 90% of global grain trade. 73 00:04:23,259 --> 00:04:24,379 That's really dangerous. 74 00:04:24,499 --> 00:04:27,274 If one of those corporations fails, and it could just... 75 00:04:27,299 --> 00:04:28,739 bring down the whole system. 76 00:04:29,259 --> 00:04:30,266 People starve then. 77 00:04:30,460 --> 00:04:32,059 Huge numbers of people would starve. 78 00:04:32,739 --> 00:04:34,100 Everyone's doing the same thing. 79 00:04:34,220 --> 00:04:36,313 They're all producing crops in the same way... 80 00:04:36,619 --> 00:04:38,819 with the same chemicals, with the same seeds... 81 00:04:38,939 --> 00:04:40,493 from the same companies. 82 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:41,693 That's very dangerous. 83 00:04:41,700 --> 00:04:43,859 It stripped the diversity out of the system. 84 00:04:44,540 --> 00:04:46,619 Everyone's doing it for maximum efficiency. 85 00:04:46,900 --> 00:04:49,020 That strips the redundancy out of the system. 86 00:04:49,020 --> 00:04:51,474 These things like diversity and redundancy... 87 00:04:51,499 --> 00:04:52,904 they're essential for the 88 00:04:52,916 --> 00:04:54,900 resilience of a complex system... 89 00:04:55,020 --> 00:04:56,419 which is what the food system is. 90 00:04:56,859 --> 00:04:58,220 No one seems to know this. 91 00:04:58,340 --> 00:05:00,179 No government is prepared to talk about it. 92 00:05:00,252 --> 00:05:01,266 They're not interested. 93 00:05:01,660 --> 00:05:03,354 So food system just refers to the fact... 94 00:05:03,379 --> 00:05:07,220 that it's an interconnected web of connection... 95 00:05:07,340 --> 00:05:11,259 between the food chain and basically everything... 96 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:12,526 that is along that food chain... 97 00:05:12,580 --> 00:05:15,059 and how it has external outputs onto the world. 98 00:05:15,154 --> 00:05:16,394 We think about the food chain. 99 00:05:16,419 --> 00:05:17,788 We think about getting food from, 100 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:19,540 let's say, the grocery store... 101 00:05:19,939 --> 00:05:22,499 but what are all of the significant points... 102 00:05:22,499 --> 00:05:24,955 that made it possible for that food to come onto our plate... 103 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:26,393 and for us to get it to the grocery store? 104 00:05:27,433 --> 00:05:30,473 and then the politics of how land is used. 105 00:05:30,540 --> 00:05:33,379 Then that goes into how livestock are treated... 106 00:05:33,499 --> 00:05:35,034 how they're fed, in factory farms... 107 00:05:35,059 --> 00:05:37,914 the antibiotics so that we have the pharmaceutical part... 108 00:05:37,939 --> 00:05:40,660 as well, finally how that food is packaged... 109 00:05:40,780 --> 00:05:42,153 and brought to the grocery store. 110 00:05:42,340 --> 00:05:44,995 Every single part of that chain is interconnected. 111 00:05:45,020 --> 00:05:47,473 It's this flow, and that's why actually... 112 00:05:47,900 --> 00:05:49,580 it's so challenging to change it. 113 00:05:53,179 --> 00:05:54,640 Where are we heading? 114 00:05:54,819 --> 00:05:58,315 In my lighter moments, I think maybe we will be heading... 115 00:05:58,340 --> 00:06:01,280 to a future where we can live sustainably. 116 00:06:01,780 --> 00:06:03,540 In my slightly darker moments... 117 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:05,800 I think we're heading towards the world of Mad Max. 118 00:06:06,739 --> 00:06:11,259 Because we have converging threats, existential threats... 119 00:06:11,580 --> 00:06:13,586 that will impact on our food system... 120 00:06:13,819 --> 00:06:16,173 that will impact on our water security... 121 00:06:16,499 --> 00:06:20,619 they're going to impact on our wellbeing in general. 122 00:06:21,819 --> 00:06:24,953 The major players within the food industry... 123 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:27,560 they abide by regulations. 124 00:06:28,299 --> 00:06:30,555 The question is, are those regulations... 125 00:06:30,580 --> 00:06:32,100 the ones that are best for our health? 126 00:06:32,580 --> 00:06:36,059 I'd love to see regulations that help to make us healthy... 127 00:06:36,540 --> 00:06:39,540 while also yielding profits for those who are involved... 128 00:06:40,299 --> 00:06:41,660 in the production of food. 129 00:06:41,900 --> 00:06:46,460 We have a food system today that is focused on profit. 130 00:06:47,619 --> 00:06:50,100 Food corporations are selling food... 131 00:06:50,220 --> 00:06:52,760 in an extremely competitive environment. 132 00:06:53,220 --> 00:06:55,233 Many of them are privately held... 133 00:06:55,499 --> 00:06:58,200 which means that their stockholders... 134 00:06:59,660 --> 00:07:00,819 have the power. 135 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:04,440 So the agricultural system like any other... 136 00:07:04,460 --> 00:07:07,660 is focused on immediate and higher returns on profit. 137 00:07:08,840 --> 00:07:11,880 And it really doesn't matter what is being sold... 138 00:07:11,900 --> 00:07:14,939 or the health or environmental effects... 139 00:07:15,220 --> 00:07:16,819 of what is being sold. 140 00:07:16,939 --> 00:07:19,100 What matters is how quickly the companies... 141 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:20,213 are making money. 142 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:22,780 The system of food production today... 143 00:07:22,939 --> 00:07:25,819 is based on an industrial and intensive model. 144 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:28,240 Intensive, meaning what? 145 00:07:28,700 --> 00:07:32,700 All the components, the input and the animals within it... 146 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:37,193 even the workers, they are all used to the utmost intensity... 147 00:07:37,460 --> 00:07:40,100 in order to produce the maximum possible profit... 148 00:07:40,340 --> 00:07:43,299 in the shortest time and with minimal costs. 149 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,020 We need to be looking at the whole system. 150 00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:50,933 And what I began to see... 151 00:07:51,819 --> 00:07:54,499 reluctantly, because I did not want to see... 152 00:07:54,499 --> 00:07:55,980 and I still don't want to see it... 153 00:07:56,140 --> 00:07:58,660 but I can't unsee it now... 154 00:07:59,059 --> 00:08:02,340 is that "the" biggest threat to the living world... 155 00:08:02,980 --> 00:08:03,986 is food production. 156 00:08:04,660 --> 00:08:09,939 Food production is the primary cause of wildlife loss... 157 00:08:10,419 --> 00:08:12,660 the primary cause of habitat destruction... 158 00:08:12,819 --> 00:08:15,206 the primary cause of species extinction... 159 00:08:15,460 --> 00:08:17,600 the primary cause of fresh water use... 160 00:08:17,939 --> 00:08:20,206 the primary cause of soil erosion... 161 00:08:20,619 --> 00:08:22,939 and the primary cause of land use... 162 00:08:23,140 --> 00:08:26,259 which is the most important issue of all. 163 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:30,406 And it's also one of the biggest causes... 164 00:08:30,939 --> 00:08:34,459 of both water pollution, air pollution... 165 00:08:34,539 --> 00:08:37,060 and land pollution, and climate breakdown. 166 00:08:37,700 --> 00:08:39,100 All of these things together. 167 00:08:39,659 --> 00:08:40,820 I mean, it's up there... 168 00:08:41,180 --> 00:08:42,859 it's worse than the fossil fuel industry. 169 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:49,720 Today's food system is not just impacted... 170 00:08:49,739 --> 00:08:51,035 by animal agriculture... 171 00:08:51,060 --> 00:08:54,379 but indeed dominated completely by it... 172 00:08:54,580 --> 00:08:58,786 in the sense that, take for example land occupation. 173 00:08:58,820 --> 00:09:00,340 So you have two types of land... 174 00:09:00,460 --> 00:09:03,940 you find cropland and you have a range land. 175 00:09:04,060 --> 00:09:07,420 In the cropland, the predominance of corn... 176 00:09:07,539 --> 00:09:12,460 and soy for feed production results in most... 177 00:09:12,739 --> 00:09:15,773 of the cropland occupation. 178 00:09:15,899 --> 00:09:19,700 And that is the key asset that we need to feed ourselves. 179 00:09:20,019 --> 00:09:23,780 Use the cropland to produce corn and soy... 180 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:26,060 feed them to livestock... 181 00:09:26,139 --> 00:09:28,700 and then eat the products of the livestock. 182 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:33,120 And that has efficiency of somewhere between... 183 00:09:33,340 --> 00:09:37,720 you know, 10 or even 15%... 184 00:09:37,820 --> 00:09:41,420 all the way down to about 3%, which is beef. 185 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:47,800 And what that means is that of 100 kilograms of protein... 186 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:52,080 in feed, in corn, wheat, oats, et cetera... 187 00:09:52,220 --> 00:09:53,580 that you feed to beef... 188 00:09:54,019 --> 00:09:58,820 you get only three kilograms of edible beef protein... 189 00:09:59,139 --> 00:10:01,873 a hundred in, three out. 190 00:10:04,833 --> 00:10:07,073 The most important environmental issue of all... 191 00:10:07,180 --> 00:10:09,700 is the amount of land we use. 192 00:10:10,139 --> 00:10:12,834 Because every hectare of land that we use... 193 00:10:12,859 --> 00:10:15,594 for our own purposes is a hectare... 194 00:10:15,619 --> 00:10:17,580 which can't be occupied by wild ecosystems. 195 00:10:18,700 --> 00:10:20,980 Now, the great majority of species on Earth... 196 00:10:21,100 --> 00:10:23,300 need wild ecosystems for their survival. 197 00:10:23,420 --> 00:10:26,820 They can't survive in ecosystems which we've manipulated. 198 00:10:27,499 --> 00:10:29,726 But also the Earth system itself... 199 00:10:29,940 --> 00:10:31,300 the whole planetary system... 200 00:10:31,700 --> 00:10:34,139 is totally dependent on wild ecosystems... 201 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:37,240 and the less wild ecosystems you have... 202 00:10:37,467 --> 00:10:40,107 the more likely that earth system is to collapse. 203 00:10:40,700 --> 00:10:42,899 Now, what's the major reason why we don't have... 204 00:10:43,019 --> 00:10:44,446 enough wild ecosystems? 205 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:45,726 Cattle ranching. 206 00:10:46,180 --> 00:10:49,946 It's outdoor cattle keeping is the biggest cause... 207 00:10:50,139 --> 00:10:52,906 of the transformation of wild ecosystems... 208 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:56,506 into a man-made, human-made ecosystem... 209 00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:57,613 which is cattle pasture. 210 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:34,033 Animal agriculture impacts climate 211 00:11:34,058 --> 00:11:36,114 change primarily through... 212 00:11:36,139 --> 00:11:38,499 two, two and a half, let's call it... 213 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:40,066 major greenhouse gases. 214 00:11:40,379 --> 00:11:42,619 The trickiest to handle is methane... 215 00:11:43,980 --> 00:11:47,955 and that's mostly from what they call enteric fermentation... 216 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:51,080 which is basically burping by ruminants... 217 00:11:51,100 --> 00:11:54,015 especially beef, cattle, and dairy as well... 218 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:57,180 then there's CO2, which mostly is incurred... 219 00:11:58,180 --> 00:12:01,619 in the production of the feed... 220 00:12:01,739 --> 00:12:05,459 that goes to feeding those animals... 221 00:12:05,780 --> 00:12:09,539 and then there's nitrous oxide, a third greenhouse gas... 222 00:12:09,659 --> 00:12:13,619 which is mostly the result of manure management... 223 00:12:13,739 --> 00:12:15,366 not exclusively, but mostly... 224 00:12:15,733 --> 00:12:20,926 and they account somewhere between 25 to 30%... 225 00:12:21,180 --> 00:12:23,180 of all greenhouse gas emissions... 226 00:12:23,580 --> 00:12:25,300 by far and away, the biggest impact... 227 00:12:25,539 --> 00:12:29,520 of food production on land is meat, dairy, and eggs... 228 00:12:29,779 --> 00:12:30,786 is animal products. 229 00:12:30,811 --> 00:12:34,435 That hits ecosystems harder... 230 00:12:34,460 --> 00:12:36,019 than anything else we do on land. 231 00:12:36,139 --> 00:12:37,539 And at sea, by far and away... 232 00:12:37,659 --> 00:12:39,420 the biggest impact is commercial fishing. 233 00:12:39,980 --> 00:12:41,940 That hits marine ecosystems harder... 234 00:12:42,060 --> 00:12:44,200 than anything else we do at sea. 235 00:12:48,060 --> 00:12:51,499 I think the sea is always somewhere else... 236 00:12:51,899 --> 00:12:56,020 somewhere other than the place that we consider to be home. 237 00:12:56,659 --> 00:13:01,220 At best, we think of the planet as three quarters ocean... 238 00:13:01,499 --> 00:13:04,060 and water and quarter land... 239 00:13:04,180 --> 00:13:08,075 but in fact, the ocean makes up something like 97%... 240 00:13:08,100 --> 00:13:10,940 of the volume of living space on planet earth. 241 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:13,480 The assumption that we always made... 242 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:16,400 was that the sea was wild and intact... 243 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:18,640 and you could take as much as you liked from it... 244 00:13:18,659 --> 00:13:19,659 with no consequences. 245 00:13:21,619 --> 00:13:23,940 We've come late to this understanding... 246 00:13:24,259 --> 00:13:27,213 about the impact that we've had on the ocean. 247 00:13:28,379 --> 00:13:31,234 That just as on land, the underwater world 248 00:13:31,246 --> 00:13:33,779 has been transformed by human action. 249 00:13:35,300 --> 00:13:38,133 The ocean has absorbed something like 250 00:13:38,145 --> 00:13:41,139 30% of the carbon dioxide that human... 251 00:13:41,259 --> 00:13:43,257 activities have emitted since the 252 00:13:43,269 --> 00:13:45,220 industrialisation of the planet. 253 00:13:46,139 --> 00:13:48,714 What we realise now is that that carbon is not... 254 00:13:48,739 --> 00:13:51,980 necessarily safe, particularly the carbon in shallow seas... 255 00:13:52,779 --> 00:13:54,739 and those are the seas that we exploit most... 256 00:13:54,859 --> 00:13:56,739 intensively because they're the most productive. 257 00:13:57,220 --> 00:14:01,899 They supply about 95% of the seafood that we eat. 258 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:05,840 And much of that seafood is gathered by... 259 00:14:05,859 --> 00:14:09,420 dragging trawl nets and dredges across the seabed... 260 00:14:09,567 --> 00:14:11,780 and as they pass across the seabed, 261 00:14:11,805 --> 00:14:14,552 they kick up lots of sediment and mud... 262 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:18,321 and the stored organic carbon inside those sediments... 263 00:14:18,899 --> 00:14:21,259 and when it's released into the water column... 264 00:14:21,580 --> 00:14:24,460 it can then be turned back into carbon dioxide... 265 00:14:24,659 --> 00:14:26,498 and some of that carbon dioxide 266 00:14:26,510 --> 00:14:28,659 can end up back in the atmosphere. 267 00:14:30,300 --> 00:14:32,551 There was a study that was published in 268 00:14:32,563 --> 00:14:34,940 2021 that estimated that the amount of... 269 00:14:35,060 --> 00:14:38,042 carbon which was being released from these 270 00:14:38,054 --> 00:14:40,700 disturbed seabed carbon stores was... 271 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:44,399 equivalent to emissions from the world aviation industry. 272 00:14:44,899 --> 00:14:50,499 Can we perpetuate this forever while not... 273 00:14:50,619 --> 00:14:55,220 accruing ever rising environmental degradation? 274 00:14:55,499 --> 00:14:58,180 No! The answer is no, we cannot do that. 275 00:14:58,700 --> 00:15:02,215 Scientists have long worried about 276 00:15:02,240 --> 00:15:03,920 progressive change in things... 277 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,514 like you know the temperatures rising like this... 278 00:15:06,539 --> 00:15:08,940 as carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere... 279 00:15:09,379 --> 00:15:11,615 but actually the world doesn't 280 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:13,520 act in linear ways all the time... 281 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:16,634 and what we are beginning to appreciate more is... 282 00:15:16,659 --> 00:15:20,100 that there may be tipping points in the Earth system... 283 00:15:20,420 --> 00:15:23,216 and if you cross those tipping points, 284 00:15:23,228 --> 00:15:25,820 then you can get very rapid change. 285 00:15:26,060 --> 00:15:28,139 So, for example, loss of ice from 286 00:15:28,151 --> 00:15:30,180 Greenland or West Antarctica... 287 00:15:30,340 --> 00:15:34,100 you know once warming progresses sufficiently, then... 288 00:15:34,340 --> 00:15:36,460 you know, warming from beneath the ice sheet... 289 00:15:36,580 --> 00:15:39,335 from the sea is actually melting it from 290 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:41,040 below, which speeds up the rate of ice... 291 00:15:41,180 --> 00:15:45,455 loss off the continent or the island of Greenland... 292 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:49,480 and if the rate of ice loss accelerates enough... 293 00:15:49,660 --> 00:15:52,140 then you could see massive deglaciation happening... 294 00:15:53,006 --> 00:15:56,195 and loss of ice from the Greenland ice sheet alone... 295 00:15:56,220 --> 00:15:59,899 would raise world sea levels by seven metres or so. 296 00:16:03,539 --> 00:16:09,340 Is it wise to sink ever deeper into environmental debt? 297 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:11,200 To me, the answer seems no. 298 00:16:11,220 --> 00:16:17,935 We should strive to act in a judicious, 299 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:22,120 timely fashion, well ahead of a pending... 300 00:16:22,259 --> 00:16:27,786 catastrophe so that we have the latitude and the flexibility... 301 00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:32,800 to choose the kind of response that we are comfortable with. 302 00:16:34,575 --> 00:16:35,733 I don't think there is enough 303 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:38,240 attention to environmental problems. 304 00:16:38,340 --> 00:16:39,935 There have been five mass 305 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:41,360 extinctions in planetary history... 306 00:16:41,460 --> 00:16:45,626 which wiped out more than 75% of species at the time. 307 00:16:46,379 --> 00:16:51,139 But the sixth mass extinction, which we're in right now... 308 00:16:51,259 --> 00:16:56,019 is unfolding around us and we're not doing enough about it. 309 00:16:56,139 --> 00:16:59,460 There isn't nearly enough public attention. There isn't... 310 00:16:59,580 --> 00:17:01,655 enough resources being put into the 311 00:17:01,667 --> 00:17:03,580 protection of the environment... 312 00:17:03,779 --> 00:17:08,195 and so we're sort of sliding towards a time of reduced... 313 00:17:08,220 --> 00:17:12,940 biodiversity and increasing instability for the planet. 314 00:17:55,059 --> 00:17:57,940 It's about education, all the time... 315 00:17:58,140 --> 00:18:00,180 and that's where we fall down. 316 00:18:00,393 --> 00:18:02,005 All over the world. On so many fronts, 317 00:18:02,030 --> 00:18:03,693 kids are not genuinely educated. 318 00:18:04,019 --> 00:18:05,688 Climate crisis may come up a bit here and 319 00:18:05,700 --> 00:18:07,380 there and they feel a bit scared by it... 320 00:18:07,499 --> 00:18:09,566 you know, from something they've heard in geography. 321 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:13,280 Who is actually genuinely telling them 322 00:18:13,299 --> 00:18:17,133 how animals are farmed, how they are killed... 323 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:21,675 and what the consequences of that are for them, their... 324 00:18:21,700 --> 00:18:24,055 family's health, for those animals 325 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:25,560 themselves and for the planet. 326 00:18:25,940 --> 00:18:27,860 Because we are now in... 327 00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:30,206 the sixth mass extinction. 328 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:32,280 This is serious... 329 00:18:33,266 --> 00:18:35,975 and if we care about our future, then we 330 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,514 have to take this seriously and stop... 331 00:18:38,646 --> 00:18:42,460 farming billions of animals in the most appallingly cruel ways. 332 00:18:42,579 --> 00:18:45,399 Now, we all love animals, don't we? 333 00:18:51,819 --> 00:18:54,180 The big ones, the little ones... 334 00:18:54,620 --> 00:18:55,980 maybe not the ugly ones. 335 00:18:59,819 --> 00:19:01,888 My favourites are the old meat and 336 00:19:01,900 --> 00:19:03,980 dairy animals, burgers and shakes. 337 00:19:04,539 --> 00:19:06,166 And they're never going to go short because 338 00:19:06,191 --> 00:19:08,339 apparently there's now 70 billion of them. 339 00:19:08,460 --> 00:19:10,259 We're eating the earth. 340 00:19:18,620 --> 00:19:20,776 Believe it or not, they eat so much, they 341 00:19:20,788 --> 00:19:23,059 need 80% of all the agricultural land in... 342 00:19:23,180 --> 00:19:26,620 the world and horror of horrors, we've now run out of it. 343 00:19:26,739 --> 00:19:28,660 We're eating the earth. 344 00:19:30,339 --> 00:19:32,380 We're eating the earth. 345 00:19:34,539 --> 00:19:36,099 We're eating the earth. 346 00:19:42,299 --> 00:19:44,373 Someone just told me that we're in the 347 00:19:44,385 --> 00:19:46,739 sixth mass extinction and that a million... 348 00:19:46,860 --> 00:19:49,380 different species are going to be wiped out. 349 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:52,240 Ha! That's the bunny huggers for you. 350 00:19:54,539 --> 00:19:56,019 We're eating the earth. 351 00:19:58,019 --> 00:20:00,220 We're eating the earth. 352 00:20:01,660 --> 00:20:03,499 We're eating the earth. 353 00:20:05,539 --> 00:20:07,783 I want to keep hold of our creamy ice creams 354 00:20:07,795 --> 00:20:09,900 and bacon butties. We're just going to... 355 00:20:10,019 --> 00:20:13,486 have to chop down more forests. That's fine with me. 356 00:20:14,213 --> 00:20:16,767 If we are serious about the survival of 357 00:20:16,779 --> 00:20:19,754 the species and about our own so-called... 358 00:20:19,779 --> 00:20:22,374 civilisation, there needs to be a radical 359 00:20:22,386 --> 00:20:25,073 rethink in the way in which we behave and... 360 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,320 the way in which we treat others and other species as well. 361 00:20:32,900 --> 00:20:34,691 I used to be an merchant banker, 362 00:20:34,703 --> 00:20:36,900 specialising in corporate finance... 363 00:20:37,499 --> 00:20:39,900 and I went out to see a client who had interests in many... 364 00:20:39,925 --> 00:20:42,273 different industries. It was a conglomerate. 365 00:20:43,539 --> 00:20:45,601 And one of the operations that they 366 00:20:45,613 --> 00:20:48,073 had turned out to be a slaughterhouse. 367 00:20:48,819 --> 00:20:51,140 And we should bear in mind that at the 368 00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:53,554 time I was a meat eater and my favourite... 369 00:20:53,579 --> 00:20:55,786 food was fillet mignon and lobster... 370 00:20:56,245 --> 00:20:59,066 a fact for which I am so profoundly ashamed today. 371 00:21:00,460 --> 00:21:02,240 Well that day in that slaughterhouse 372 00:21:02,431 --> 00:21:04,464 I was absolutely terrified. 373 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:10,295 So I moved out of my profession and decided 374 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,835 to become involved in a process of... 375 00:21:13,860 --> 00:21:15,773 learning as much as I could about 376 00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:18,960 these industries but I call them atrocities. 377 00:21:19,333 --> 00:21:22,680 And as a consequence of that, today 378 00:21:23,120 --> 00:21:27,646 we support about 850 projects in 54 countries. 379 00:21:29,380 --> 00:21:32,074 As I travel around the world I give talks to sometimes... 380 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:35,893 small groups of 100 people and sometimes 5000 people... 381 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:38,935 and they are all good, caring, loving people 382 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:41,106 who genuinely want to change the world... 383 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:44,299 as long as they don't have to change themselves. 384 00:21:49,486 --> 00:21:52,067 Animals must be off the menu because tonight 385 00:21:52,092 --> 00:21:54,159 they are screaming in terror in the... 386 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:56,724 slaughterhouses, in crates and in 387 00:21:56,749 --> 00:22:00,733 cages, vile, ignoble gulags of despair. 388 00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:04,060 Eight billion people are alive today and 389 00:22:05,106 --> 00:22:08,713 we humans torture and kill two billion... 390 00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:11,720 sentient, living, loving animals every week. 391 00:22:12,746 --> 00:22:15,775 10,000 entire species are wiped out every 392 00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:18,886 year because of the actions of one species. 393 00:22:19,833 --> 00:22:21,739 If we were killed at the same rate... 394 00:22:22,180 --> 00:22:25,940 we would be wiped out as a species in one weekend. 395 00:22:27,220 --> 00:22:30,440 This is a crime of unimaginable proportions. 396 00:22:31,539 --> 00:22:34,946 Meat is still holding a symbolic status of power... 397 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:38,576 partly because, throughout history, 398 00:22:38,601 --> 00:22:40,019 it was the food of the kings. 399 00:22:40,165 --> 00:22:41,606 Of the higher class... 400 00:22:41,772 --> 00:22:43,850 It holds an inspirational element, 401 00:22:43,909 --> 00:22:45,940 as we can see in all societies... 402 00:22:46,133 --> 00:22:48,820 when they reach higher sources of income... 403 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:52,040 the first thing we observe is an increase in meat consumption. 404 00:22:55,019 --> 00:22:59,339 Everybody agrees that China is a country... 405 00:22:59,460 --> 00:23:02,620 with a huge impact on the rest of the world. 406 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,074 So China's food system has shared... 407 00:23:08,099 --> 00:23:10,900 many similarities with food systems elsewhere. 408 00:23:11,326 --> 00:23:15,560 And, for the last few decades, meat consumption... 409 00:23:16,158 --> 00:23:20,726 was on the rise and capitalist, production of food... 410 00:23:21,140 --> 00:23:25,593 and consumerism made people just want more. 411 00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:31,480 Even they don't need more. But with all the risks that 412 00:23:31,513 --> 00:23:34,446 come with this increasing consumption of meat in... 413 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:39,386 a country with huge populations, we can see that... 414 00:23:40,100 --> 00:23:45,155 the risks are pronouncing themselves much... 415 00:23:45,180 --> 00:23:46,380 more clearly now. 416 00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:49,234 This is a matter of scale, the scale at... 417 00:23:49,259 --> 00:23:54,220 which animals are raised for food... 418 00:23:54,739 --> 00:23:55,753 for people. 419 00:23:56,200 --> 00:24:00,960 The industrial scale husbandry of livestock... 420 00:24:01,940 --> 00:24:05,460 huge pig operations, huge poultry operations. 421 00:24:07,380 --> 00:24:10,180 Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, in some cases... 422 00:24:10,299 --> 00:24:13,820 millions of chickens on a particular chicken farm. 423 00:24:14,819 --> 00:24:19,099 Where you have thousands or tens of thousands of pigs... 424 00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:20,761 in particular pig operation. 425 00:25:05,339 --> 00:25:07,567 Something like 99% of the animal products 426 00:25:07,579 --> 00:25:09,980 that we eat are produced in factory farms... 427 00:25:10,779 --> 00:25:16,259 and factory farms are these concentrated operations where... 428 00:25:16,259 --> 00:25:17,579 I don't think any of us... 429 00:25:17,700 --> 00:25:19,568 whether we're vegan or not, can ethically 430 00:25:19,580 --> 00:25:21,460 stand by what happens in factory farms... 431 00:25:21,579 --> 00:25:24,806 where animals are treated as objectified 432 00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:27,426 commodities rather than as beings. 433 00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:30,400 They find it difficult to think that animals 434 00:25:31,260 --> 00:25:34,853 deserve to have equal consideration for their rights. 435 00:25:35,613 --> 00:25:37,346 It is a difficult thing. 436 00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:40,735 It's also very difficult, using the laws... 437 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:41,866 of supply and demand and 438 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:44,714 economics, to get companies and... 439 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,933 businesses and farms and institutions to change as well. 440 00:25:48,753 --> 00:25:51,704 We accepted and allowed to the removal of 441 00:25:51,716 --> 00:25:54,373 a control system on a political level... 442 00:25:54,566 --> 00:25:56,780 and that they would become privatised. 443 00:25:57,973 --> 00:26:01,753 All of this dates back to the 70s and the 80s... 444 00:26:02,633 --> 00:26:06,446 with the rise of neoliberal ideologies and politics... 445 00:26:06,539 --> 00:26:09,140 so the current system whose functioning forces 446 00:26:09,165 --> 00:26:11,900 people to buy and eat what is produced... 447 00:26:11,900 --> 00:26:14,278 it is functional and motivated by 448 00:26:14,290 --> 00:26:16,539 its own existence and survival. 449 00:26:18,660 --> 00:26:21,180 Corporations have an enormous amount... 450 00:26:21,406 --> 00:26:22,767 of political power... 451 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,175 and they use their money to get governments... 452 00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:27,599 to do what they want... 453 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:30,413 to do things that are good for business. 454 00:26:36,019 --> 00:26:37,726 When I visited a small river... 455 00:26:37,879 --> 00:26:39,633 in this county in Devon... 456 00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:41,680 which was famous for its wildlife... 457 00:26:42,145 --> 00:26:44,506 and I turned up with a friend... 458 00:26:45,059 --> 00:26:47,620 and you could tell straight away... 459 00:26:47,620 --> 00:26:49,099 something was very wrong. 460 00:26:49,420 --> 00:26:53,299 We stepped up to the bank of the river and it was dead... 461 00:26:53,900 --> 00:26:56,900 and its stank was a really powerful stink... 462 00:26:57,660 --> 00:26:59,700 and so I thought, what's happened here? 463 00:27:00,259 --> 00:27:01,526 I couldn't understand. 464 00:27:02,140 --> 00:27:05,019 Eventually, I found this pipe coming into the river... 465 00:27:05,660 --> 00:27:07,339 and even though it was a dry day... 466 00:27:08,059 --> 00:27:11,099 there was shit pouring out of this pipe into the river... 467 00:27:11,299 --> 00:27:13,819 and you could see below the pipe, everything was dead. 468 00:27:14,539 --> 00:27:16,059 And so I thought, what is this pipe? 469 00:27:16,120 --> 00:27:17,120 Where is it coming from? 470 00:27:17,539 --> 00:27:21,779 And so I followed the pipe up the hill to a dairy farm... 471 00:27:22,860 --> 00:27:25,660 and it came straight out of one of the slurry pits. 472 00:27:26,140 --> 00:27:29,946 And I looked at Google Earth and I saw that a few years before. 473 00:27:30,579 --> 00:27:32,700 The size of the dairy unit had been doubled. 474 00:27:32,940 --> 00:27:36,099 And I later found it had twice as many cattle as it had before. 475 00:27:36,660 --> 00:27:40,499 But they hadn't bothered to build any more slurry lagoons... 476 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:41,520 any more shit pits. 477 00:27:42,326 --> 00:27:44,175 Because it was cheaper just to build a 478 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:45,720 pipe going straight down into the river... 479 00:27:45,860 --> 00:27:48,299 and literally pour the shit straight into the river. 480 00:27:49,099 --> 00:27:51,099 So I thought, well, look, I'm a Guardian journalist. 481 00:27:51,819 --> 00:27:53,380 I'm a well-known environmentalist. 482 00:27:53,499 --> 00:27:55,955 I'm about the most empowered person there could be... 483 00:27:55,980 --> 00:27:57,586 when it comes to making a complaint. 484 00:27:58,099 --> 00:28:01,620 So I rang up the Environment Agency's pollution hotline. 485 00:28:02,099 --> 00:28:04,059 And they said, oh, this is very serious, sir. 486 00:28:04,739 --> 00:28:06,336 A few days later, I phoned up the 487 00:28:06,348 --> 00:28:08,099 Environment Agency again and said... 488 00:28:08,620 --> 00:28:09,940 so what are you going to do about it? 489 00:28:10,059 --> 00:28:12,900 They said, well, we decided not to take action, sir... 490 00:28:13,019 --> 00:28:14,299 because it's not a serious incident. 491 00:28:14,700 --> 00:28:15,893 So we went and had a look. 492 00:28:16,259 --> 00:28:18,420 And we didn't find any evidence of a fish kill... 493 00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:19,920 so it's not a serious incident. 494 00:28:20,339 --> 00:28:21,523 I said, of course you didn't find 495 00:28:21,535 --> 00:28:22,660 any evidence of a fish killing. 496 00:28:22,860 --> 00:28:24,826 There aren't any fish left to kill. 497 00:28:25,299 --> 00:28:27,535 And then I got this massive response 498 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:28,960 from people all over the country... 499 00:28:29,059 --> 00:28:30,700 saying our rivers had the same problem. 500 00:28:31,026 --> 00:28:34,393 But I also got two whistleblowers 501 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,506 from the Environment Agency... 502 00:28:36,620 --> 00:28:40,539 came to me and said, this is inevitable... 503 00:28:40,779 --> 00:28:42,739 because we've been told from the top... 504 00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,406 from the Secretary of State for the Environment... 505 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:47,520 not to prosecute dairy farmers. 506 00:28:48,180 --> 00:28:49,545 So then I looked into it further and 507 00:28:49,557 --> 00:28:50,860 found that dairy farm pollution... 508 00:28:50,980 --> 00:28:54,019 is one of the biggest forms of pollution in the whole country. 509 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:56,160 Chicken farm pollution is another one. 510 00:28:56,299 --> 00:28:57,486 They don't prosecute that either. 511 00:28:57,779 --> 00:28:59,380 Pig farm pollution is another one. 512 00:28:59,499 --> 00:29:00,513 They don't prosecute that. 513 00:29:01,420 --> 00:29:03,455 And I thought, if they're not 514 00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:04,880 going to regulate this industry... 515 00:29:05,700 --> 00:29:07,019 I'm not going to eat its products. 516 00:29:10,940 --> 00:29:13,779 There is an expression, what goes around comes around. 517 00:29:14,539 --> 00:29:16,099 You can't escape the consequences. 518 00:29:18,059 --> 00:29:20,259 The amount of plastic entering the ocean every year... 519 00:29:20,380 --> 00:29:23,460 has been estimated to be around 14 million tonnes. 520 00:29:24,660 --> 00:29:29,299 Of course, anything that doesn't degrade over time very fast... 521 00:29:29,420 --> 00:29:30,460 is going to build up. 522 00:29:30,579 --> 00:29:32,660 If you keep adding 14 million tonnes... 523 00:29:32,779 --> 00:29:37,460 14 million tonnes year after year, then it all accumulates. 524 00:29:37,900 --> 00:29:40,815 So the ocean now has up to an estimated 525 00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:43,040 200 million tonnes of plastic... 526 00:29:44,099 --> 00:29:47,259 embodied within the water and the sediments of the seabed. 527 00:29:47,900 --> 00:29:51,606 As plastic breaks down, it forms smaller and smaller particles. 528 00:29:52,059 --> 00:29:54,539 So it then is ingested by marine life. 529 00:29:54,779 --> 00:29:58,099 But those particles also attract nasty chemicals. 530 00:29:58,539 --> 00:30:00,140 Forever chemicals they're called. 531 00:30:00,259 --> 00:30:04,366 Things like DDT and PCBs and the plastic additives... 532 00:30:04,391 --> 00:30:06,351 that are added in agrochemicals. 533 00:30:07,019 --> 00:30:09,260 And those attach those plastic particles. 534 00:30:09,353 --> 00:30:11,122 As they're ingested by marine 535 00:30:11,134 --> 00:30:13,486 life, they build up in the tissues. 536 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:18,480 So when you catch a fish, which is at the top of the food web... 537 00:30:18,620 --> 00:30:23,120 like a tuna, the tissues may be laden with toxins... 538 00:30:23,499 --> 00:30:25,560 some of which is being absorbed from 539 00:30:25,572 --> 00:30:27,420 plastics that they have eaten... 540 00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:30,601 and if we eat that fish, then we then become... 541 00:30:30,779 --> 00:30:32,099 the carrier of those toxins. 542 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:36,593 Change is difficult for everybody... 543 00:30:37,539 --> 00:30:41,739 because animal agriculture forms such a significant part... 544 00:30:42,259 --> 00:30:45,373 of our gross domestic product, of our cultures. 545 00:30:46,059 --> 00:30:48,346 In fact, a lot of our best memories... 546 00:30:49,140 --> 00:30:51,299 occur from sitting around the dining table... 547 00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:56,766 and many of the bad habits that we live with today... 548 00:30:57,499 --> 00:31:00,800 we learned when we were babies in the arms of our mothers... 549 00:31:01,779 --> 00:31:04,819 and we associate the comfort food that our parents gave us... 550 00:31:05,059 --> 00:31:08,880 because they loved us, with safety and security and care. 551 00:31:09,779 --> 00:31:13,480 So it is almost hard-wired into our systems... 552 00:31:13,819 --> 00:31:15,779 that this is something that is good for us. 553 00:31:16,140 --> 00:31:23,140 As well, there is this feeling about people and livelihoods. 554 00:31:23,259 --> 00:31:25,766 This is a heroic way of making a living. 555 00:31:26,220 --> 00:31:30,195 Instead of seeing the dragging of trawl nets... 556 00:31:30,220 --> 00:31:37,026 across the seabed as incredibly destructive and impacting... 557 00:31:37,140 --> 00:31:39,779 on the sea in an industrial sense... 558 00:31:39,900 --> 00:31:44,539 this is just as destructive as clear-felling forests. 559 00:31:45,940 --> 00:31:48,855 It's seen instead as being part 560 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:50,080 of the culture and the history... 561 00:31:50,220 --> 00:31:52,940 and the heritage of a country. 562 00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:55,195 And that these people are going out... 563 00:31:55,220 --> 00:31:57,700 and they're resting a living from the sea. 564 00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:00,379 They're bringing back good quality food for people to eat. 565 00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:04,680 And we celebrate that without understanding the impacts... 566 00:32:04,700 --> 00:32:05,739 that it's causing. 567 00:32:14,660 --> 00:32:16,142 Most people imagine that the meat 568 00:32:16,154 --> 00:32:17,779 and the milk and the egg they eat... 569 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:20,680 come from these little farms with a few cattle... 570 00:32:20,700 --> 00:32:24,700 a few chickens, maybe growing a few vegetables at the same time. 571 00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:26,855 And all the marketing suggests that. 572 00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:28,800 The advertisements, the packaging... 573 00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:32,239 yeah, look, a few chickens scratching outside. 574 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:36,960 If people knew the reality, they would be absolutely horrified. 575 00:32:37,180 --> 00:32:39,453 these enormous steel factories... 576 00:32:39,846 --> 00:32:41,975 which might have tens of thousands 577 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:43,440 of chickens crammed into them... 578 00:32:44,099 --> 00:32:46,373 thousands of pigs, hundreds of dairy cattle... 579 00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:49,600 all in one huge great steel factory, 580 00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:51,880 living in horrendous conditions. 581 00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:54,660 It's totally different to the public image. 582 00:32:55,273 --> 00:32:58,220 So for instance, Tesco, one of our big supermarkets... 583 00:32:58,539 --> 00:33:01,180 here in the UK, has got a brand called Willow Farms. 584 00:33:02,059 --> 00:33:06,019 And if you buy the eggs, you'll see Willow Farms and these... 585 00:33:06,140 --> 00:33:08,140 chickens scratching about outdoors. 586 00:33:08,380 --> 00:33:11,019 And there might be flowers and butterflies and stuff like that. 587 00:33:11,299 --> 00:33:12,860 There's no such place as Willow Farms. 588 00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:14,240 Willow Farms does not exist. 589 00:33:15,153 --> 00:33:18,120 The eggs come from these huge factories. 590 00:33:18,705 --> 00:33:20,146 Willow Farms is just a brand. 591 00:33:20,900 --> 00:33:24,420 Those drawings aren't based on reality at all. 592 00:33:24,700 --> 00:33:28,980 It's the story they tell because it's the story we want to hear. 593 00:33:29,779 --> 00:33:32,980 And if someone like me is rude enough to say... 594 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:34,440 actually, it's not like that. 595 00:33:34,579 --> 00:33:35,819 That's not the reality. 596 00:33:36,339 --> 00:33:39,660 It's not just the farmers and the supermarkets that hate you. 597 00:33:40,140 --> 00:33:41,539 It's the consumers as well. 598 00:33:42,059 --> 00:33:43,860 People don't want to hear that story. 599 00:33:43,980 --> 00:33:45,980 They don't want to be told the reality. 600 00:33:46,220 --> 00:33:50,526 The food industry has followed the tobacco industry playbook... 601 00:33:50,739 --> 00:33:54,033 to the letter, cast doubt on the research... 602 00:33:54,106 --> 00:33:58,100 blame personal responsibility, fund your own research... 603 00:33:58,180 --> 00:34:00,700 so you get the kinds of results you want... 604 00:34:02,700 --> 00:34:08,046 fund groups that will support you, fund nutrition societies... 605 00:34:08,579 --> 00:34:11,260 so they won't say anything bad about your product... 606 00:34:11,659 --> 00:34:14,539 insist on being at the policy table... 607 00:34:14,780 --> 00:34:18,633 and when all of that fails, lobby and litigate. 608 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:22,160 That's the tobacco industry playbook. 609 00:34:22,333 --> 00:34:24,493 It's staved off concerns about 610 00:34:24,505 --> 00:34:27,219 cigarette smoking for 50 years... 611 00:34:27,340 --> 00:34:30,099 and the food industry is doing much the same. 612 00:34:40,860 --> 00:34:42,411 So, Chris, bringing up the date for 613 00:34:42,423 --> 00:34:43,900 the litigation of the court case. 614 00:34:44,659 --> 00:34:46,539 Well, we won the first round... 615 00:34:46,900 --> 00:34:49,613 but there's no injunction granted on the footage. 616 00:34:50,420 --> 00:34:52,846 They had a 28-day period... 617 00:34:52,940 --> 00:34:55,099 and unfortunately they didn't decide to appeal. 618 00:34:55,219 --> 00:34:56,847 It seems like they want to drag this 619 00:34:56,859 --> 00:34:58,640 whole thing out as long as possible. 620 00:34:59,659 --> 00:35:02,220 And by the time we're able to release the footage... 621 00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:05,000 if ever, it's going to be old... 622 00:35:05,420 --> 00:35:07,579 and they'll be able to say that it's not relevant anymore. 623 00:35:09,179 --> 00:35:10,529 So it's a difficult position, but I 624 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:12,193 don't think we have a choice, but... 625 00:35:13,059 --> 00:35:16,059 That's a rather cynical abuse of power and money, isn't it? 626 00:35:16,179 --> 00:35:17,179 Very much so, yeah. 627 00:35:17,300 --> 00:35:20,300 I mean, they're a massive multi-million-dollar company. 628 00:35:21,059 --> 00:35:22,506 And at least we know one thing. 629 00:35:22,780 --> 00:35:26,659 What you do is on the right side of history... 630 00:35:27,420 --> 00:35:30,493 and I often say that one day... 631 00:35:31,059 --> 00:35:36,100 when animal rights is enshrined not just in the human heart... 632 00:35:36,740 --> 00:35:41,520 but also in legislation and our behaviour... 633 00:35:42,460 --> 00:35:44,640 your fingerprints are going to be on every page... 634 00:35:45,860 --> 00:35:48,093 and I can't wait for that beautiful day to dawn. 635 00:35:51,659 --> 00:35:55,059 It is such an enormous empire that we're up against... 636 00:35:55,179 --> 00:35:58,179 that has many billions of dollars at their disposal. 637 00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:00,573 They have the status quo at their disposal. 638 00:36:00,820 --> 00:36:03,059 You know, it's considered normal to eat animals... 639 00:36:03,539 --> 00:36:06,059 and extreme to not eat animals... 640 00:36:06,179 --> 00:36:08,539 to not pay for animals to be abused and killed. 641 00:36:09,139 --> 00:36:11,213 So we're up against all these social norms... 642 00:36:11,820 --> 00:36:14,913 and an industry that is able to spend billions of dollars... 643 00:36:14,980 --> 00:36:16,659 upholding those social norms. 644 00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:20,220 When I walk inside an intensive farm... 645 00:36:21,019 --> 00:36:22,699 I think that I'm going to get used to it... 646 00:36:22,980 --> 00:36:24,940 because I've been doing this for many years. 647 00:36:25,420 --> 00:36:27,780 And I use the camera to protect myself really... 648 00:36:27,900 --> 00:36:29,179 to try and distance myself. 649 00:36:30,019 --> 00:36:31,240 And then you just can't. 650 00:36:31,573 --> 00:36:33,420 You know, you'll see an animal who's in pain... 651 00:36:33,539 --> 00:36:34,693 who's lying on the floor. 652 00:36:36,179 --> 00:36:37,300 Not a rare sight. 653 00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:41,440 And this animal is clearly in the last throes of life. 654 00:36:41,740 --> 00:36:43,860 Whether that be a chicken who's collapsed... 655 00:36:43,980 --> 00:36:45,940 because they're forced to grow far too fast... 656 00:36:46,699 --> 00:36:50,340 or whether that's a pig who's writhing around in agony... 657 00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:51,413 whoever it is... 658 00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:55,000 I just feel their pain... 659 00:36:55,100 --> 00:36:57,380 because how can you not, they're right there in front of you? 660 00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:01,080 and you feel an obligation to do something about it... 661 00:37:01,780 --> 00:37:04,435 and so you times that by the number of animals... 662 00:37:04,460 --> 00:37:06,380 who are being factory farmed across the planet. 663 00:37:06,405 --> 00:37:08,533 And wherever you look, whether that camera's in Italy... 664 00:37:08,820 --> 00:37:11,993 whether it's in Australia, whether it's in Saudi Arabia... 665 00:37:12,386 --> 00:37:14,219 wherever that camera's pointed... 666 00:37:14,240 --> 00:37:17,053 it's the same over and over and over again. 667 00:37:17,340 --> 00:37:19,099 It is that it's kept so secret... 668 00:37:19,460 --> 00:37:23,300 and the industry relies entirely on this secret-ness... 669 00:37:23,980 --> 00:37:26,099 on keeping consumers in the dark. 670 00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:29,360 I think that most people are opposed to animal cruelty. 671 00:37:29,499 --> 00:37:31,059 They just don't know that they're paying for it 672 00:37:31,179 --> 00:37:33,059 when they're buying meat, dairy, eggs, 673 00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:34,660 and other animal products. 674 00:37:36,579 --> 00:37:39,179 A lot of the time we were going into farms... 675 00:37:39,231 --> 00:37:40,267 and slaughterhouses... 676 00:37:40,340 --> 00:37:41,353 middle of the night... 677 00:37:41,646 --> 00:37:44,106 knowing that we could be caught, we could be charged. 678 00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:47,466 And we would put in hidden cameras... 679 00:37:47,820 --> 00:37:51,626 and try and capture what was going on. 680 00:37:52,940 --> 00:37:53,946 You good? 681 00:37:56,380 --> 00:37:58,539 I've been to a number of turkey farms... 682 00:37:58,564 --> 00:37:59,885 egg farms, chicken farms... 683 00:38:00,219 --> 00:38:02,780 which are bad enough, as it is... 684 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:04,634 but there's something about pig farms... 685 00:38:04,659 --> 00:38:07,420 that are a whole other level of hell. 686 00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:19,254 The moment you step into these places, you smell... 687 00:38:20,619 --> 00:38:22,659 I mean, it's a smell that just never leaves you. 688 00:38:22,780 --> 00:38:25,193 It never leaves your clothes, it never leaves your skin. 689 00:38:25,246 --> 00:38:29,340 It is the smell of death, it's the smell of fear... 690 00:38:29,460 --> 00:38:30,820 it's the smell of waste... 691 00:38:30,940 --> 00:38:32,960 because these animals are living in their own faeces... 692 00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:35,926 and urine, they are packed tightly together... 693 00:38:35,980 --> 00:38:37,980 in small barren concrete pens. 694 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:03,399 And I came out of that place on fire... 695 00:39:03,619 --> 00:39:06,380 I'd never seen anything like that in my life... 696 00:39:07,099 --> 00:39:09,499 and it just changed me. 697 00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:12,486 You know, I wanted to go to all of these places... 698 00:39:12,539 --> 00:39:14,780 and just show people what the hell was going on. 699 00:39:15,380 --> 00:39:17,539 We were going to pig farm after pig farm... 700 00:39:18,240 --> 00:39:20,755 dozens of them, and showing the exact same kinds... 701 00:39:20,780 --> 00:39:23,380 of conditions in all of these farms across the country. 702 00:39:25,179 --> 00:39:27,740 Something else that we captured as part of that film... 703 00:39:28,420 --> 00:39:31,553 was the largest slaughterhouse for pigs. 704 00:39:31,780 --> 00:39:34,179 We'd heard that they were gassing pigs... 705 00:39:34,204 --> 00:39:36,764 that was their method of stunning them before slaughter. 706 00:39:36,980 --> 00:39:39,786 They would send them into these carbon dioxide gas chambers. 707 00:39:40,699 --> 00:39:42,594 There was no footage anywhere in the world... 708 00:39:42,619 --> 00:39:43,626 that I could find. 709 00:39:44,179 --> 00:39:45,820 The only information I could find about it... 710 00:39:45,940 --> 00:39:47,740 was the industry saying that it was 711 00:39:47,765 --> 00:39:50,433 the most humane method of killing pigs. 712 00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:54,960 I am currently inside the top of the gas chamber. 713 00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:22,760 How this could possibly be legal, 714 00:40:22,780 --> 00:40:24,753 how this could be the standard... 715 00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:28,560 how the industry can turn around and say to... 716 00:40:28,604 --> 00:40:31,126 people that they care about their animals... 717 00:40:31,619 --> 00:40:33,780 that they treat their animals well. 718 00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:40,194 It goes so deep, everything from what's sprayed... 719 00:40:40,219 --> 00:40:43,920 on the crops that are grown for feed for animals... 720 00:40:44,380 --> 00:40:47,695 the preventative use of antibiotics on factory farms... 721 00:40:47,720 --> 00:40:49,968 because of the terrible conditions animals are in... 722 00:40:49,993 --> 00:40:52,135 the way the pharmaceutical industry is 723 00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:54,233 involved providing those antibiotics... 724 00:40:54,380 --> 00:40:56,935 which is then having huge downstream 725 00:40:56,960 --> 00:40:58,800 effects as possibly antibiotic resistance... 726 00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:01,360 meaning...we won't be able to take antibiotics 727 00:41:01,379 --> 00:41:03,420 if we have an infection in the future... 728 00:41:03,659 --> 00:41:06,659 which would have huge and dire consequences of course. 729 00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:10,680 Antibiotics have two purposes in intensive farming. 730 00:41:10,724 --> 00:41:13,813 First, they prevent the spread of diseases... 731 00:41:14,046 --> 00:41:16,636 this is because we have many animals 732 00:41:16,648 --> 00:41:19,099 in cramped spaces next to each other... 733 00:41:19,219 --> 00:41:21,499 while sharing the same genetics, by the way... 734 00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:26,560 Second, the antibiotic is facilitating growth... 735 00:41:26,720 --> 00:41:29,753 because the body is able to spend less energies to 736 00:41:29,882 --> 00:41:32,919 protect itself, since it's supported by medications. 737 00:41:34,380 --> 00:41:36,486 You might think you're getting seafood... 738 00:41:36,720 --> 00:41:42,533 from a wonderful pure water fjord in Norway... 739 00:41:42,820 --> 00:41:48,760 but actually that salmon might be dosed with antibiotics... 740 00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:53,615 it might be being treated with various 741 00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:56,160 kinds of anti-fungal compounds. 742 00:41:56,760 --> 00:41:58,680 The kind of chemicals that go into the... 743 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:02,740 aquaculture industry would make your hair stand on end. 744 00:42:03,740 --> 00:42:08,095 In Scotland, for example, huge oil drum 745 00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:11,766 sized quantities of formaldehyde... 746 00:42:11,900 --> 00:42:13,760 are being added to salmon pens 747 00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:16,309 to control sea lice infestations. 748 00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:21,420 And that formaldehyde is a known carcinogen. 749 00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:03,626 People are actually eating the meat from those... 750 00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:06,146 animals, their bacon, their ham, their sausages... 751 00:43:06,300 --> 00:43:08,780 is coming from these typical factory farms... 752 00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:12,260 where animals are in such diseased and ill states... 753 00:43:12,699 --> 00:43:16,139 and you'd think that Covid would have woken us up, wouldn't you? 754 00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:19,113 Three in four infectious diseases 755 00:43:19,260 --> 00:43:21,253 cross from animals to people. 756 00:43:21,619 --> 00:43:24,095 So that is the majority of new infectious 757 00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:25,920 diseases that are coming across that way. 758 00:43:26,139 --> 00:43:29,260 Among the most dangerous things that we are doing... 759 00:43:31,099 --> 00:43:35,579 is raising livestock for food on these... 760 00:43:35,699 --> 00:43:40,420 industrial scale poultry, pig and cattle operations. 761 00:43:41,260 --> 00:43:48,306 As one point of extreme jeopardy to emerging diseases... 762 00:43:48,420 --> 00:43:52,573 I graduated from veterinary science in 1984... 763 00:43:52,720 --> 00:43:56,059 and avian Influenza was considered a very rare disease. 764 00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:59,580 However, as human population has increased... 765 00:43:59,960 --> 00:44:02,780 the population of intensively raised chickens... 766 00:44:03,139 --> 00:44:04,300 has also increased. 767 00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:07,120 And that's facilitated the amplification of... 768 00:44:07,187 --> 00:44:09,500 avian influenza, causing extremely 769 00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:11,213 high mortality in chickens... 770 00:44:11,406 --> 00:44:13,695 but the concern there is it can also 771 00:44:13,720 --> 00:44:16,320 mutate, cause illness in people... 772 00:44:16,579 --> 00:44:21,575 and now we're seeing the expansion and spread of H5N1... 773 00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:24,634 that it's mutated such that it's now causing... 774 00:44:24,659 --> 00:44:26,655 deaths in wildlife, and it's 775 00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:28,480 entered the dairy herd in the US. 776 00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:31,686 New CDC report on the first severe 777 00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:34,360 human case of bird flu in the US. 778 00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:36,440 New cases of the bird flu are raising 779 00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:38,026 alarms among health officials. 780 00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:40,495 53 confirmed human cases across seven 781 00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:42,040 states this year alone...but this week... 782 00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:45,875 the first person has died from bird flu in this... 783 00:44:45,900 --> 00:44:48,255 country in that state. The question then comes up... 784 00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:49,895 okay...given that this happened, 785 00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:51,360 what is the risk for everybody else? 786 00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:54,973 The spillover of a virus from a wild animal into a human... 787 00:44:56,539 --> 00:44:58,313 happens because of opportunity. 788 00:44:58,806 --> 00:45:01,380 It doesn't happen because the virus seeks us out. 789 00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:04,474 A virus can't walk, it can't run, it can't swim... 790 00:45:04,499 --> 00:45:05,506 it can't fly. 791 00:45:05,980 --> 00:45:06,994 it rides inside 792 00:45:07,019 --> 00:45:09,260 the cells of a cellular host, meaning an animal. 793 00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:11,860 And how does spillover occur? It occurs because... 794 00:45:12,860 --> 00:45:14,886 usually because human activity... 795 00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:16,099 brings humans... 796 00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:19,235 into contact with wild animals that carry that... 797 00:45:19,260 --> 00:45:23,046 particular virus. We hunt them, we trap them... 798 00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:26,680 we kill them, we butcher them, we eat them... 799 00:45:26,980 --> 00:45:30,033 or we take them alive and we ship them around... 800 00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:33,514 and in doing that, the virus has an opportunity... 801 00:45:34,099 --> 00:45:37,460 to spill, to tumble into the human host... 802 00:45:37,659 --> 00:45:41,973 and then if the virus is lucky or it's very adaptable... 803 00:45:42,940 --> 00:45:45,860 it can take hold in a new host, a new kind of host... 804 00:45:46,380 --> 00:45:49,114 and when a virus does that and succeeds... 805 00:45:49,139 --> 00:45:51,480 in transmitting from human to human and... 806 00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:57,226 passes all around the world the way SARS-CoV-2 has... 807 00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:01,633 that virus has achieved extraordinary... 808 00:46:01,720 --> 00:46:03,180 evolutionary success. 809 00:46:03,573 --> 00:46:05,946 It has won the Darwinian sweepstakes. 810 00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:09,435 It has gone from a virus that had only a little... 811 00:46:09,460 --> 00:46:13,453 bit of habitat hiding in these relatively rare animals... 812 00:46:13,646 --> 00:46:17,980 into a virus that is infecting humans all over the world. 813 00:46:27,579 --> 00:46:30,275 Do we feed ourselves in a sustainable and... 814 00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:33,746 healthy way today in the developed nations? 815 00:46:34,360 --> 00:46:38,160 No, absolutely not. It is clear that there is... 816 00:46:38,260 --> 00:46:43,755 a huge proliferation of degenerative diseases... 817 00:46:43,780 --> 00:46:47,474 essentially people choosing implicitly by... 818 00:46:47,499 --> 00:46:50,034 the way they choose to eat. They choose to have... 819 00:46:50,059 --> 00:46:52,895 degenerative diseases. From the environmental... 820 00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:55,360 standpoint, it is very similar... 821 00:46:55,385 --> 00:46:58,460 no, we are very much not sustainable. 822 00:46:58,699 --> 00:47:01,940 You just asked a question about whether... 823 00:47:02,019 --> 00:47:03,499 dietary advice is... 824 00:47:03,579 --> 00:47:05,619 influenced by food corporations. 825 00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:08,706 The simple answer is yes, of course. 826 00:47:09,340 --> 00:47:12,600 The best example is the meat industry... 827 00:47:12,720 --> 00:47:17,120 which for decades has fought against any... 828 00:47:17,139 --> 00:47:20,499 suggestion that eating less meat would be... 829 00:47:20,579 --> 00:47:22,940 better for health or the environment... 830 00:47:23,013 --> 00:47:24,920 and has done that quite successfully. 831 00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:26,580 Is meat consumption going up? 832 00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:29,240 It absolutely is and it's set to go up... 833 00:47:29,260 --> 00:47:32,246 even further if you look at the targets around... 834 00:47:32,271 --> 00:47:33,911 the meat industry... 835 00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:38,646 and if you look at the tactics amongst the meat industry... 836 00:47:38,780 --> 00:47:43,993 they are working with retailers to target consumers... 837 00:47:44,260 --> 00:47:45,460 with precision... 838 00:47:45,485 --> 00:47:46,955 going after consumers who are... 839 00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:50,480 actively reducing their meat intake so there is... 840 00:47:50,499 --> 00:47:56,415 no mandate at the moment within the meat industry... 841 00:47:56,440 --> 00:48:00,594 to actively reduce meat intake and switch across... 842 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:05,460 to more of a plant-based horticultural strategy... 843 00:48:49,699 --> 00:48:51,179 High meat consumption is... 844 00:48:51,200 --> 00:48:53,680 an environmental problem without question. 845 00:48:53,980 --> 00:48:58,260 It's a health problem only in countries where people... 846 00:48:58,380 --> 00:49:00,380 have enough money to buy a lot of it. 847 00:49:00,720 --> 00:49:02,795 Whether people choose to eat meat... 848 00:49:02,820 --> 00:49:07,499 is another question entirely and you don't have to eat meat. 849 00:49:07,699 --> 00:49:10,300 You can eat a perfectly healthy diet without it. 850 00:49:14,340 --> 00:49:16,194 With all the problems in the world, it's so easy... 851 00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:18,720 to get overwhelmed like what can I do as one person... 852 00:49:18,740 --> 00:49:20,380 to make a difference in... 853 00:49:20,659 --> 00:49:23,226 in global warming, and hunger... 854 00:49:23,240 --> 00:49:24,920 and deforestation, in the Amazon... 855 00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:26,906 and what people need to know... 856 00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:29,560 is that what we put in our mouths every day... 857 00:49:29,699 --> 00:49:31,332 can make an important and a meaningful 858 00:49:31,344 --> 00:49:32,820 difference in all of these things. 859 00:49:33,240 --> 00:49:35,880 It's why Vice President Al Gore... 860 00:49:35,893 --> 00:49:37,355 who owned a cattle ranch became a vegan... 861 00:49:37,380 --> 00:49:39,055 because he realised that's where you can really... 862 00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:40,133 make a difference. 863 00:49:40,157 --> 00:49:41,980 That it takes 14 times more... 864 00:49:42,094 --> 00:49:44,895 resources to make a pound of meat-based protein... 865 00:49:44,920 --> 00:49:46,008 than plant-based protein. 866 00:49:46,032 --> 00:49:47,235 That's 14 times more... 867 00:49:47,640 --> 00:49:50,499 people that can be fed for the same amount of resources. 868 00:49:52,940 --> 00:49:54,994 I've been doing research now for almost 50 years... 869 00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:57,275 and we were able to show that when people... 870 00:49:57,300 --> 00:49:58,980 change their diet, when they eat primarily... 871 00:49:58,980 --> 00:50:01,940 a plant-based diet, fruits, vegetables, whole grains... 872 00:50:02,059 --> 00:50:04,219 legumes, soy products, and so on... 873 00:50:04,340 --> 00:50:06,426 as close as possible to how they come in nature... 874 00:50:06,900 --> 00:50:09,380 low in fat, low in sugar, low in refined carbs... 875 00:50:10,019 --> 00:50:12,034 that our bodies have this remarkable capacity... 876 00:50:12,059 --> 00:50:14,415 in many cases to begin healing if we 877 00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:16,080 stop doing what's causing the problem. 878 00:50:16,179 --> 00:50:20,375 If you are going to have a predominantly whole food... 879 00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:23,600 plant-based diet we're going to shift the... 880 00:50:23,619 --> 00:50:26,860 dial in terms of our health and that of the planet... 881 00:50:27,260 --> 00:50:31,619 and that really means at least 80% of our diet... 882 00:50:31,699 --> 00:50:34,820 needs to be whole foods plant-based... 883 00:50:34,820 --> 00:50:38,499 and there's no limit to how you can push that. 884 00:50:38,720 --> 00:50:41,835 So being vegan is the ultimate and... 885 00:50:42,133 --> 00:50:45,360 organisations all around the world dietetic organisations... 886 00:50:45,499 --> 00:50:48,379 nutrition organisations, medical organisations... 887 00:50:48,860 --> 00:50:50,940 the WHO it's all acknowledged... 888 00:50:50,940 --> 00:50:53,395 that for all stages of life you can... 889 00:50:53,420 --> 00:50:55,619 achieve on your nutrition. 890 00:50:55,619 --> 00:50:57,213 A lot of athletes are finding that... 891 00:50:57,260 --> 00:50:58,474 when they go to a plant-based diet... 892 00:50:58,499 --> 00:50:59,699 that they perform at a higher level. 893 00:50:59,900 --> 00:51:02,780 So it's a complete myth that you need meat to be strong. 894 00:51:02,900 --> 00:51:04,193 In fact, it may be the opposite. 895 00:51:04,579 --> 00:51:06,900 I think healthy diets are really simple... 896 00:51:06,980 --> 00:51:08,340 so simple that... 897 00:51:08,420 --> 00:51:10,975 the journalist Michael Pollan can... 898 00:51:11,000 --> 00:51:13,306 explain them in seven words. 899 00:51:13,340 --> 00:51:15,579 Eat food not too much, mostly plants. 900 00:51:16,179 --> 00:51:17,780 That's really all you need to know. 901 00:51:18,175 --> 00:51:19,535 A plant-based diet provides all... 902 00:51:19,560 --> 00:51:22,000 the nutrition that you need, with the exception if you're... 903 00:51:22,025 --> 00:51:23,779 on a strict vegan diet that you need 904 00:51:23,791 --> 00:51:25,300 to supplement that with a B12... 905 00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:29,553 but, other than that, it provides all the protein... 906 00:51:29,760 --> 00:51:33,448 all the nutritional value, and also it's low... 907 00:51:33,473 --> 00:51:35,381 in the things that cause disease and high... 908 00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:36,786 in the things that are actually protected. 909 00:51:37,139 --> 00:51:38,660 What's good for you is good for the planet. 910 00:51:39,019 --> 00:51:41,166 What's personally sustainable is globally sustainable. 911 00:51:41,499 --> 00:51:43,659 People have to be taught what to eat. 912 00:51:44,040 --> 00:51:47,695 The ancestral humans ate whatever 913 00:51:47,720 --> 00:51:49,395 was available, but we're... 914 00:51:49,420 --> 00:51:51,120 not hunter gatherers anymore. 915 00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:53,626 We're supermarket gatherers... 916 00:51:53,820 --> 00:51:55,915 and if you're in a supermarket where there are... 917 00:51:55,940 --> 00:51:58,615 50,000 products available, you have to be... 918 00:51:58,640 --> 00:52:00,720 taught which ones to choose... 919 00:52:01,219 --> 00:52:03,815 and people who are not taught eat junk 920 00:52:03,840 --> 00:52:05,440 food because it tastes better to them. 921 00:52:05,980 --> 00:52:08,034 Eighty-six percent of the four trillion... 922 00:52:08,059 --> 00:52:11,194 dollars that we spent in the U.S. last year were for... 923 00:52:11,219 --> 00:52:12,233 chronic diseases. 924 00:52:12,820 --> 00:52:14,159 Half of the American population 925 00:52:14,171 --> 00:52:15,740 today is diabetic or pre-diabetic. 926 00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:18,840 Big multinational corporations spend billions of dollars... 927 00:52:18,860 --> 00:52:20,780 to try to find the right combination... 928 00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:22,839 of fat and salt and sugar that are really 929 00:52:22,871 --> 00:52:25,099 going to activate all those taste buds. 930 00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:29,315 Statistically speaking, eating plants is far better... 931 00:52:29,340 --> 00:52:33,866 for the human body certainly than eating beef... 932 00:52:34,106 --> 00:52:36,794 eating meat, and eating animal products 933 00:52:36,806 --> 00:52:39,699 in descending order of emphasis. 934 00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:42,320 Red meat, especially processed meat... 935 00:52:42,365 --> 00:52:45,619 has been linked with a significant increased risk of... 936 00:52:45,740 --> 00:52:48,735 prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer... 937 00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:52,406 heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. 938 00:52:53,059 --> 00:52:55,066 So if there's one area that people can make... 939 00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:56,960 the most difference in, it's cutting 940 00:52:57,000 --> 00:52:58,428 out red meat from their diet. 941 00:53:36,019 --> 00:53:37,725 You know, these biological mechanisms 942 00:53:37,737 --> 00:53:39,139 that cause chronic diseases... 943 00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:41,920 are common to all these different chronic diseases... 944 00:53:42,059 --> 00:53:44,539 so, the dietary recommendations are not like... 945 00:53:44,606 --> 00:53:46,579 here's your diet for heart disease... 946 00:53:46,579 --> 00:53:47,906 here's your diet for prostate cancer... 947 00:53:47,940 --> 00:53:49,300 here's your diet for type 2 diabetes... 948 00:53:49,420 --> 00:53:50,539 here's your diet for Alzheimer's. 949 00:53:50,740 --> 00:53:52,460 It's the same diet and lifestyle program... 950 00:53:52,619 --> 00:53:54,060 because they all share the same... 951 00:53:54,420 --> 00:53:56,099 underlying biological mechanisms. 952 00:53:56,340 --> 00:53:58,513 Things like chronic inflammation, 953 00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:01,080 oxidative stress... changes in the microbiome. 954 00:54:01,099 --> 00:54:02,860 You know, we have 100 trillion cells in our gut... 955 00:54:02,900 --> 00:54:05,300 that can cause a healthy gut or a harmful gut... 956 00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:06,873 and we're learning more and more about... 957 00:54:07,219 --> 00:54:08,740 how this is part of the underlying cause... 958 00:54:08,760 --> 00:54:10,193 of so many chronic diseases. 959 00:54:10,740 --> 00:54:12,219 So when we change all of these... 960 00:54:12,740 --> 00:54:14,380 diet and lifestyle factors... 961 00:54:14,699 --> 00:54:16,110 it affects all of these underlying 962 00:54:16,122 --> 00:54:17,139 biological mechanisms... 963 00:54:17,260 --> 00:54:19,060 in ways that allow our body to heal... 964 00:54:19,619 --> 00:54:21,975 and because these biological mechanisms are... 965 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:23,873 much more dynamic than we once realised... 966 00:54:24,179 --> 00:54:26,380 you can get better quickly and you can get worse quickly... 967 00:54:26,520 --> 00:54:28,001 depending on what you eat and how you live. 968 00:54:28,933 --> 00:54:32,539 When you are transitioning from having a meat-based diet... 969 00:54:32,880 --> 00:54:36,435 it can feel overwhelming but... 970 00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:40,400 actually it's about how we learn to fall in love... 971 00:54:40,420 --> 00:54:42,539 with food again and I think everybody really needs... 972 00:54:42,659 --> 00:54:45,553 to be doing that and once you do that you realise... 973 00:54:46,160 --> 00:54:48,440 you put a bit more effort into the planning... 974 00:54:48,460 --> 00:54:53,386 of it and give it time to become second nature... 975 00:54:53,800 --> 00:54:56,715 A plant-based diet is the way that, people have been eating... 976 00:54:56,740 --> 00:54:59,780 for thousands of years before they had refrigerators... 977 00:54:59,900 --> 00:55:01,179 before they had factory farms... 978 00:55:01,280 --> 00:55:02,460 before they had the prosperity... 979 00:55:02,820 --> 00:55:04,740 to be able to eat meat several times a day. 980 00:55:05,179 --> 00:55:08,460 So the paradox is that, when people are starting... 981 00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:10,114 to eat like us and live like us... 982 00:55:10,139 --> 00:55:11,420 they're starting to die like us. 983 00:55:11,720 --> 00:55:14,053 If they go back to their older patterns of eating... 984 00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:16,474 they're gonna be much healthier... 985 00:55:16,499 --> 00:55:18,380 and it's a much more affordable way to eat as well. 986 00:55:18,579 --> 00:55:21,473 Oh, the single most important problem... 987 00:55:21,606 --> 00:55:23,045 is that people eat too much of it. 988 00:55:23,539 --> 00:55:24,706 It's calories. 989 00:55:25,499 --> 00:55:27,019 Calories from everything. 990 00:55:28,380 --> 00:55:31,420 I mean, 75% of American adults... 991 00:55:31,499 --> 00:55:32,955 are overweight or obese... 992 00:55:32,980 --> 00:55:35,573 20-30% of American children. 993 00:55:35,780 --> 00:55:37,059 That's a calorie problem. 994 00:55:37,659 --> 00:55:40,255 You know, when you switch from a typical American diet... 995 00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:43,200 or a typical European diet, to a whole foods plant-based diet... 996 00:55:43,219 --> 00:55:44,653 you're actually getting a double benefit. 997 00:55:45,099 --> 00:55:47,674 You're not only reducing the intake of foods... 998 00:55:47,699 --> 00:55:49,940 that are harmful, but you're also getting... 999 00:55:50,280 --> 00:55:52,634 thousands of other substances that are protective... 1000 00:55:52,659 --> 00:55:54,846 that have anti-cancer, anti-heart disease... 1001 00:55:55,019 --> 00:55:56,460 and even anti-aging properties. 1002 00:55:56,619 --> 00:55:59,420 So for a long time, public health... 1003 00:55:59,499 --> 00:56:02,820 advocates have advised against eating... 1004 00:56:02,900 --> 00:56:05,553 a lot of meat, the advice is not to stop... 1005 00:56:05,560 --> 00:56:08,080 eating meat, but just to eat less of it... 1006 00:56:08,219 --> 00:56:10,306 and the meat industry opposes that quite... 1007 00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:12,641 forcefully and effectively. 1008 00:56:13,992 --> 00:56:15,696 Theoretically, we do have a chance 1009 00:56:16,120 --> 00:56:18,613 to mitigate the impact of climate change... 1010 00:56:18,972 --> 00:56:20,735 but we have to act soon. 1011 00:56:20,760 --> 00:56:24,000 We can't wait too much longer because we're starting to... 1012 00:56:24,033 --> 00:56:26,760 set changes in systems that it's going to be... 1013 00:56:26,800 --> 00:56:29,480 impossible to reverse unless we act quickly... 1014 00:56:29,505 --> 00:56:33,093 and...we really need our politicians and our... 1015 00:56:33,219 --> 00:56:36,699 very big corporate entities to work together... 1016 00:56:36,780 --> 00:56:40,300 for the benefit of all of us, including the environment. 1017 00:56:46,313 --> 00:56:50,673 There's no way we would have a liveable future. 1018 00:56:51,179 --> 00:56:52,740 We would have a sustainable planet. 1019 00:56:53,420 --> 00:56:57,113 We would have met our climate goals 1020 00:56:57,920 --> 00:57:01,000 without reducing our meat, dairy, and eggs. 1021 00:57:01,600 --> 00:57:02,614 There's no way. 1022 00:57:03,013 --> 00:57:05,433 That is very clear scientifically. 1023 00:57:05,579 --> 00:57:11,160 The question is how do we make this happen... 1024 00:57:11,520 --> 00:57:15,080 culturally and politically and economically... 1025 00:57:15,860 --> 00:57:17,659 that is the challenge. 1026 00:57:18,380 --> 00:57:21,539 Changes have to mostly begin from the bottom up. 1027 00:57:21,980 --> 00:57:23,460 You have to persuade people. 1028 00:57:23,760 --> 00:57:25,395 Anybody who does anything that involves... 1029 00:57:25,746 --> 00:57:28,875 persuasion or talking about the world has to think about... 1030 00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:31,440 these things and help people be persuaded 1031 00:57:31,460 --> 00:57:33,186 to make choices for themselves.... 1032 00:57:33,360 --> 00:57:36,520 And I think it's like throwing a pebble into a lake. 1033 00:57:37,300 --> 00:57:39,780 You don't realise where the waves are... 1034 00:57:39,900 --> 00:57:41,900 going to end or what impact it's going to have. 1035 00:57:43,820 --> 00:57:47,255 In the 70s, for example, my friend Peter Singer... 1036 00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:49,440 wrote a book called Animal Liberation... 1037 00:57:50,260 --> 00:57:55,619 and that book didn't make a big impact immediately... 1038 00:57:56,740 --> 00:57:57,820 but now... 1039 00:57:58,460 --> 00:58:00,615 I can't think of anybody in the activist 1040 00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:01,920 movement who hadn't read the book... 1041 00:58:02,179 --> 00:58:04,460 or hadn't been profoundly affected by it. 1042 00:58:08,200 --> 00:58:10,760 I spend most of my life either studying or... 1043 00:58:10,760 --> 00:58:14,120 teaching or writing about philosophy and more... 1044 00:58:14,139 --> 00:58:15,726 specifically ethics. 1045 00:58:17,380 --> 00:58:21,273 I'm probably best known for my book Animal Liberation... 1046 00:58:21,579 --> 00:58:25,099 which was first published in 1975. 1047 00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:27,800 There was almost nothing that was ever published, 1048 00:58:28,640 --> 00:58:30,958 up to 1970, about factory farming. 1049 00:58:32,900 --> 00:58:34,327 I know that there were people who 1050 00:58:34,339 --> 00:58:35,820 read it and were influenced by it. 1051 00:58:35,940 --> 00:58:38,699 For example, Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder... 1052 00:58:38,724 --> 00:58:40,600 of people for the Ethical Treatment of Animals... 1053 00:58:40,660 --> 00:58:45,379 the largest radical animal organisation in the world. 1054 00:58:47,706 --> 00:58:51,175 When you're in a community that doesn't do... 1055 00:58:51,200 --> 00:58:53,726 anything much for animals, it's hard to break. 1056 00:58:54,680 --> 00:58:56,113 I think it's important now that there... 1057 00:58:56,140 --> 00:58:58,780 are communities of people who are vegans and... 1058 00:58:58,900 --> 00:59:00,855 who are...effective altruists. 1059 00:59:00,880 --> 00:59:03,099 That is another movement that is important here... 1060 00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:05,399 and that makes it easier for any individual... 1061 00:59:05,747 --> 00:59:09,066 to be vegan or animal activist or effective altruist... 1062 00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:13,800 We have changed people's attitudes about what... 1063 00:59:13,820 --> 00:59:16,219 they wear, what they eat, what they buy, and how... 1064 00:59:16,340 --> 00:59:17,940 they entertain themselves. 1065 00:59:17,940 --> 00:59:19,740 We've stopped all car crash... 1066 00:59:19,860 --> 00:59:21,895 tests internationally on animals. 1067 00:59:21,920 --> 00:59:23,852 We used to slam... them into walls. 1068 00:59:24,280 --> 00:59:25,908 We've stopped NASA sending... 1069 00:59:25,933 --> 00:59:29,500 live animals into space. We have introduced... 1070 00:59:29,780 --> 00:59:32,980 all sorts of vegan products into the marketplace... 1071 00:59:33,520 --> 00:59:36,960 and we have stopped a lot of experiments that... 1072 00:59:37,086 --> 00:59:39,699 were absolutely pointless, fruitless... 1073 00:59:39,720 --> 00:59:40,720 but have a lot to go. 1074 00:59:41,180 --> 00:59:42,979 But I do think everyone is on that journey. 1075 00:59:43,740 --> 00:59:45,013 Whether they want to be or not... 1076 00:59:45,040 --> 00:59:47,000 everyone's kind of on that journey. And I think certain... 1077 00:59:47,019 --> 00:59:50,179 things like environmental crisis will push us... 1078 00:59:50,420 --> 00:59:53,960 will push more people to thinking, "What can I do?" 1079 00:59:54,139 --> 00:59:55,695 and there's not that many things you can do 1080 00:59:55,775 --> 00:59:57,975 as an individual that have a very big impact. 1081 01:00:00,940 --> 01:00:02,619 We've been around 80 years... 1082 01:00:03,019 --> 01:00:04,495 our founder, Donald Watson, 1083 01:00:04,520 --> 01:00:05,760 actually coined the term vegan... 1084 01:00:06,260 --> 01:00:08,335 and since that point, obviously... 1085 01:00:08,360 --> 01:00:11,420 we've kind of done a lot of work to build veganism as a concept. 1086 01:00:15,380 --> 01:00:17,099 We also do a lot of political lobbying... 1087 01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:18,806 and talking to policymakers... 1088 01:00:19,019 --> 01:00:22,135 trying to encourage them to choose vegan, 1089 01:00:22,160 --> 01:00:23,640 as a kind of compassionate solution. 1090 01:00:27,380 --> 01:00:29,780 In 2021, on the Earth Day... 1091 01:00:30,560 --> 01:00:33,268 we launched in Yunnan Province in 1092 01:00:33,293 --> 01:00:35,659 China, the China Vegan Society. 1093 01:00:38,380 --> 01:00:42,355 One important thing we did was to try to come... 1094 01:00:42,380 --> 01:00:46,440 up, with the Chinese word for veganism... 1095 01:00:46,560 --> 01:00:48,206 and this character has been around 1096 01:00:48,218 --> 01:00:49,594 for centuries and centuries... 1097 01:00:49,619 --> 01:00:50,860 but nobody uses it anymore. 1098 01:00:51,106 --> 01:00:53,626 This actually means, thriving plants... 1099 01:00:54,219 --> 01:00:58,380 so we used this as the departing point... 1100 01:00:58,600 --> 01:01:03,040 for us, to promote, an entirely new narrative... 1101 01:01:03,260 --> 01:01:05,860 on veganism in the 21st century. 1102 01:01:08,619 --> 01:01:11,940 Going from 25 members to say 2 million people... 1103 01:01:12,059 --> 01:01:14,420 in the UK is big growth, and I think it will... 1104 01:01:14,445 --> 01:01:16,085 always be hardest at the beginning... 1105 01:01:16,420 --> 01:01:19,139 while it's a fringe idea and a fringe philosophy... 1106 01:01:19,300 --> 01:01:21,395 many people go "Oh, I don't want to be difficult... 1107 01:01:21,420 --> 01:01:25,099 I don't want to be strange or unusual" on the sidelines... 1108 01:01:25,539 --> 01:01:26,780 and the more people that do it... 1109 01:01:27,219 --> 01:01:29,179 the easier it should be. So I would hope that... 1110 01:01:29,420 --> 01:01:33,074 when we get to the kind of 5%, 10% mark, we'll see... 1111 01:01:33,099 --> 01:01:35,446 quicker change because it will become more normal. 1112 01:01:35,600 --> 01:01:39,099 That's my optimistic, idealistic vision. 1113 01:01:39,260 --> 01:01:41,800 We need to keep fighting for the better world... 1114 01:01:41,920 --> 01:01:43,920 which we know is possible. And there are... 1115 01:01:44,019 --> 01:01:46,659 just so many people in the world who want that... 1116 01:01:47,080 --> 01:01:52,873 and who need it, that I'm not assuming that...we're powerless. 1117 01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:55,453 I think that's wrong. I think that... 1118 01:01:55,820 --> 01:01:58,420 individually we can each make a small contribution... 1119 01:01:58,440 --> 01:02:01,040 and collectively that can be... 1120 01:02:01,539 --> 01:02:04,201 extremely important and can really turn 1121 01:02:04,213 --> 01:02:06,619 things around over the next decade. 1122 01:03:53,320 --> 01:03:55,607 I would sincerely hope that this film 1123 01:03:55,632 --> 01:03:58,052 achieves as many viewers as possible... 1124 01:03:58,460 --> 01:04:03,260 who are willing to change their diet into a plant-based one... 1125 01:04:03,659 --> 01:04:07,380 and the reason being so that as an individual... 1126 01:04:07,900 --> 01:04:10,860 they improve their health and medical condition. 1127 01:04:11,099 --> 01:04:13,647 Secondly, so that as a global citizen 1128 01:04:13,659 --> 01:04:16,219 they contribute to the environment... 1129 01:04:16,340 --> 01:04:19,699 and stave off the threat of severe global warming... 1130 01:04:20,699 --> 01:04:24,460 leading to so many natural calamities. 1131 01:04:24,720 --> 01:04:28,320 And thirdly, so that as a person of conscience... 1132 01:04:28,699 --> 01:04:31,260 they alleviate the horrible suffering... 1133 01:04:31,380 --> 01:04:33,619 and cruelty to millions of animals... 1134 01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:36,160 that are slaughtered every day... 1135 01:04:36,579 --> 01:04:42,380 to satisfy the desire of human beings for meat and fish.