Meat the Truth

Meat the Truth

2008, Environment  -   173 Comments
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Ratings: 7.86/10 from 121 users.

Meat the TruthFrom the author: Climate Change and Global Warming - yes I know, it's a hoax, it's a scam and designed to keep us in fear and implement a Carbon Tax, as if we aren't already taxed to death.

This video discusses an issue that is almost always overlooked when officials and science discuss climate.
What about the 90 BILLION animals raised for food production. The energy to grow their food, to feed them, to transport them, to slaughter and finally to your local grocer in the form of packaged flesh OR prepared / frozen meals and various by-products.

Let's not forget these billions of beings produce massive amounts of feces and urine and it has to go somewhere. Negative health issues aside, this practice most certainly contributes to wide scale pollution and contamination of our air, water and land. The comparison in this film to cars and C02 emissions is to point out what is not being discussed.

The documentary Meat the Truth is the first major project undertaken by the Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation. Meat the Truth is a high-profile documentary, presented by Marianne Thieme (leader of the Party for the Animals), which forms an addendum to earlier films that have been made about climate change.

Although such films have convincingly succeeded in drawing public attention to the issue of global warming, they have repeatedly ignored one of the most important causes of climate change, namely: intensive livestock production. Meat the Truth has drawn attention to this by demonstrating that livestock farming generates more greenhouse gas emissions worldwide than all cars, lorries, trains, boats and planes added together.

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7 years ago

If AGW is a scam then what difference does animal agriculture make?

Belinda
Belinda
8 years ago

Great documentary, one of the best on this subject!

Rob
Rob
8 years ago

To rear cattle you need land lots of it, to graze on. You get many times more meat free, food from that land whilst improving the environment. Win win

Rosean
Rosean
8 years ago

Everyone should know this information.. Thank you for the selfless and caring individuals who worked together to create this eye-opening film.

lilly
lilly
9 years ago

I don't buy this idea the cows are a large reason for carbon emission causing global warming. hundreds of years ago there were thousands of thousands of wild buffalo and deer, elk wild pig and other grass fed animals roaming Canada and north America was the climate changing then ?

anthony
anthony
9 years ago

I must admit I'm as much a part of the problem if not more than the average person. When I say I love, I mean I absolutely love steakhouses. I love the smell the minute I enter the door. I love beautiful delicious cuts of prime dry age beef that just melt in your mouth and taste like no other. When going out for a special occasion, they are my first choice in dining options. It's just a shame such a good thing has to be so bad. Maybe I'll just strictly stick to chicken, fish and vegetable protein and only consume beef when eating out. I can't see myself cutting out steakhouses all together.

hajiaru
hajiaru
9 years ago

The same
people that fund this propaganda fly private jets, plan wars that
involve depleted uranium, build nuclear power plants, inject toxic metal
particles into the ionosphere called "geo engineering" that poison or
air supply and also heavily fund organisations like Monsanto, GMO
crops... like Bill Gates.

Hyungnam
Hyungnam
9 years ago

Agriculture (9% of 2012 greenhouse gas emissions) - Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture come from livestock such as cows, agricultural soils, and rice production.

Jenneen Alshalaldeh
Jenneen Alshalaldeh
10 years ago

I
think as human beings we are equipped with the innate ability to filter out
things that aren’t facts from facts. For the most this documentary is stating
some truths that are completely understandable. With just a bit of back
knowledge about pharmaceutical companies, and the banking systems behind them
we can see the corruption that can happen. In college I just researched some of
the more common over the counter medications such as Bayer and Tylenol and some
of these companies have had huge losses in the past due to the settlements that
had to be paid out to thousands of deaths caused by their formulas. The FDA
will stand behind any company that funds it capital, and every prescription
drug contains over 500 negative side effects. The majority of society has
become asleep, they have forgotten what the balance of life feels like. Since
the industrial revolution the world has begun a free fall to a life that is no
longer natural. We are so blinded and conditioned to believe everything we see
and read we need to start doing our own research. When you watch a movie or
read a book research the author, what did he study? What is his background? We
are relying on humans who are biased, to get the "truth" we each must
uncover the truth for ourselves. This is why we have such developed brains, we
have this muscle for a reason, and the reason is that we are the only species
that can uncover the truths by using it. We are eating too much meat as a population.
Our agricultural abilities are so developed we can get access to many
vegetarian proteins. Too much animal fat IS bad for the human body, it’s been scientifically
proven that our body reuses the protein in it over and over again. Meat and the
way we destructively engage in the mass production and consumption of it is
destroying the balance of life. We are not doing enough to help the environment
and putting loads of stress on the world. We are also the country that allows
our companies to go over sees and mass produce with factories and unfairly pay
the people of the land. As well as destroy cultures and other countries economic
structure. We all need to open our eyes and see how corrupt everything around
us is. Humans can make mistakes, can’t you all see that everything is just a
rule some humans thought up one day. With technological advances and changes in
the world sometimes these rules become something destructive, or traits that
were never thought of long term begin to appear. We can’t continue this way
forever. We are committing a huge crime to earth by not being balanced, to its
plants, to its animals (including other humans), to its oceans, and to its eco
systems. We have to start believing in balance and with that we all hold in
ourselves the key to the truth.

tawster
tawster
10 years ago

Animals that... supplanted other animals. Ie. We replaced one methane producer with another methane producer (no net new).

The net new methane producer we really need to be talking about are the billions of a different variety of animal: Billions of human animals.

anastasius
anastasius
10 years ago

Three minutes in and I watching bunko nonsense.What an alarming sight....folks who have no real understanding of scientific methods are clinging to a blha blah blah..what else is on?

herbicat
herbicat
10 years ago

"Meat the Truth" conjoined with liars! Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

Serbia
Serbia
10 years ago

Americans and British kill more people in one year then whole gas from caw asses! Everyone wil get what they deserve, America first! :D

jackmax
jackmax
11 years ago

At around 10.30 David Davis introduces himself, and a brief summary on where he works and what he studies. At the 12.39 to 12.52 David Davis compares the rate of methane gas produced by a dairy cow is equivilent to a big 4X4 vehicle driving 35 kms per day. Later at around the 19.12 the presenter then tells us that in a year a cow will produce the same amount of green house emissions as a car doing 70000 klms per year and then wittingly add that a medium car. Now from my calculations 35 X 365 = 12775 so if I'm correct with maths the presenter is only 57225 klms over in her statement and it was also big 4X4s not medium cars like she state off the cuff.
Although I agree that global warming and our enviroment are off utmost importance. Misleading people with half truths and dishonesty in presentation can lead to contempt of a extremely important issue that need accurate information so we can tackle the whole problem collectively.

Kenneth Hauge
Kenneth Hauge
11 years ago

I wonder, its proved that there is a global warming, the question is how big effect it has on the climate, no question about that. So wheres the proof that this done to make people live in fear, no proof at all that this is the case. And a funny thing, are you people really taxed to death, not really, bussines owners grab most of the money today, not the employees.
Everybody is allowed to have an oppinion, but i find most of this stupid, why take the chance on ruening the climate, there way more proof that we have a human made problem then the opposite.

Give me a proof that this is a hoax!

John C. Tripp
John C. Tripp
11 years ago

Yes, we should learn from the Dutch. Founders of capitalism, slavery and the corporation!

Ingeborg Jacobsen
Ingeborg Jacobsen
11 years ago

You need only to watch Food.Inc and read the books Fast Food Nation and Omnivore's Dilemma (and for sure the books of Joel Salatin - I still have these books to look forward to reading) to see how sustainable farming is adding to the solution and not the problem. If farmers, who would like to run their farms like Polyface f.i., would be subsidised as heavily as the companies controlling CAFO's, chicken-growers and GM-corn and GM-Soybeans; a lot of the problems with greenhousegasses from livestock (and water pollution from the manure) would be all but eliminated. Let's not even begin to talk about the animal-abuse going on. Enough to make you hopping mad.

Mandy
Mandy
11 years ago

While I agree that factory farming is an environmental disaster, the fact that this film completely ignored sustainable farming is doing the same thing that they were calling out the Inconvenient truth for doing (ie. leaving out the impact of CAFOS) Sustainable farming is good for the environment and focuses on reusing all forms of waste. Vegetarianism is not the only solution to factory farming. Yes, we should cut back on our meat consumption but we don't have to stop. Humans were made to eat meat. Eat local, Eat from sustainable farms.

realitygirl
realitygirl
11 years ago

I have seen a number of videos on this topic and never have I see one that addressed why the cows might be putting out so much gas. They seem to just accept it as a fact of nature. I grew up in the midwest. I was occasionally around cows and their poop was never green as in seen in this video. Could part of the problem be that the cows are getting all these shots and garbage added to their feed - like powered meat? Cows are vegetarians - not meat eaters. Sad to say but if you really want people to stop eating meat then you will have to show them the garbage they are eating. Meat today has a lot more visible fat & grissle in it today than decades ago - and the taste is often not as full and robust as back then. The recommended amount is 6oz per day - most people, especially Americans, eat way more than that at each setting. Most restaurants don't even have a cut that small on their steak list.

I am not against cutting back - have already done so - but the numbers dont work for me. If cows are 18% of the problem how can you say that is the worse of the problem when there is still another 82% coming from other sources.

And, if we all stopped eating cows then they would have to stop the cows from breeding or the problem would still exist.

Matt van den Ham
Matt van den Ham
11 years ago

I thought it was a thought-provoking video, but I absolutely hated a few parts...just brutal and childish to watch. My question is: if gases released from the cattle is so bad for the environment, then why is it that the country side has much cleaner air than the city? Obviously there's many more trees and plants in the country to clean the air, but if you were to go by the logic shown in the video, then cities would have the cleanest air and that's far from true. Clearly the more densely populated the (industrialized) city and areas is, the worse the pollution.

It's not cows, it's a combination of cars, heating and air conditioning, restaurants that deep fry oil and use grills, incinerators, etc. This is such vegan/peta type hysteria or propaganda...their gross-out tactics and giving decent farmers a bad name. In my area (Ottawa, Canada), the farmers grow the food they themselves feed their children and they take pride in raising cattle that have plenty of land and space to graze-on.

The narrator should have focused more on the ENTIRE cost to the planet to create the meat we consume, rather than dance around that topic and only touch upon it for a few minutes. Talk about the logistics and how much fuel they burn in the air/sea to ship the meat. Give us statistics on electrical usage from farms, show us more raw-data, like how specific meat preservatives or hormone injections cause cancers or disease. She's just using the current global warming hysteria to fuel the peta agenda. We should stop killing animals because we are killing ourselves is the message.

I don't care that animals suffer on farms, that angle is not going to work on me or most people I know. You might think I'm cruel or brutal to think in such terms, but if cows or chickens weren't grown the way they are, we'd still have to kill them one way or another. Just because it's a more-industrialized process, doesn't mean it's any more cruel than nature is. Lions will eat its prey alive, Eagles will throw goats off cliffs, Sharks, well you know... Animals are our food source, just as we are a food source to the shark or lion.

To think that humans aren't predatory animals is to deny common sense. We have teeth that are designed for tearing, our bodies will easily break-down meat and extract its nutrients, meat is a widely available source of protein, b12, omega3 an iron.

If you were in the wild you wouldn't be able to just go for a walk and grab a sufficient amount of beans/veggies to feed a family. I don't know what world these vegans are living in...

This video points-out the problems of eating meat but doesn't offer any practical and logical-solutions or alternatives to eating meat. In my area I can get fresh: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, mushrooms, onions, potatoes and green beans...I'd have to eat canned-veggies to supplement meat-protein, and that's not a great-idea. And what if you're allergic to peanuts, beans and soy? That's very common. You rarely hear of anyone being allergic to meats like fish, cow, chicken, pork, turkey. Although I don't think that dairy is very good for the body.

Sieben Stern
Sieben Stern
11 years ago

how about overpopulation being the issue?

bud oracle
bud oracle
11 years ago

There is something else to consider concerning the consumption of so much meat, as well. The increases in human global/local conflict based on an increase in human AGGRESSION, may also have its roots in this perverted diet. Have you ever noticed a calmness, an ability to think critically, in societies which consume less meat of the varieties which are mass produced, and less meat proportionally overall?

Lumixian
Lumixian
11 years ago

"Climate Change and Global Warming – yes I know, it’s a hoax, it’s a scam and designed to keep us in fear and implement a Carbon Tax, as if we aren’t already taxed to death."

This video was made in 2008, so I understand why he wrote this but it's absolutely wrong. There is undeniable evidence for man-made climate change.

Garrett Christensen
Garrett Christensen
11 years ago

My dad used to be a meat cutter before joining the fire department and he told me that the workers in a slaughter house who were the 1st in the diss-assembly line would have to be rotated out every 4 - 5 days beacuase they would start to loose their minds from being ankle deep in blood and guts 8-10 hours a days. How many farmers have you heard of that go nuts from pulling carrots out of the ground for 4-5 straight days? Hmm. .

Humans beings are'nt even designed to eat flesh and consume animal secretions. Dont believe me? Does your dog have a jaw that moves side to side? No he/she does not. Know carnivores do. Only herbivores jaws work like that. If we're designed to eat meat, . Why dont humans have fangs, claws, or physical strength-speed & power?

Carnivores all have very short digestional tracts. Humans and all herbivores have very long tracks. Carnivores have extremly large stomachs in comparison to their gut area. Humans and all herbivores have small stomachs. We're grazers, not gorgers. Read the book, "The China Study" for the most extensive study ever conducted on the human diet for all the scientific proof.

Jacquie Stoutenburg
Jacquie Stoutenburg
11 years ago

Yeah, I think there should be some focus on an improvement of the animal farming industry. Just becoming vegan seems kind of passive. Baby animals would still be castrated without painkillers, chickens would still be debeaked, and drugging and crowding would still happen. We have a right to eat healthy animals. The animals have a right not to be tortured. That's what I think.

Chris Tibb Miller
Chris Tibb Miller
11 years ago

Methane hmmmm its a fuel, I know lets use that gas to power cars, create energy for the farms, Oh their already doing that why was that not mentioned?

Jenny Brantlee
Jenny Brantlee
11 years ago

does this film contain any graphic footage of animals being slaughtered?

JJ.
JJ.
11 years ago

Great documentary, but if 18% of greenhouse gases come from livestock and 12% comes from cars/trucks/planes. There where is the other 70% coming from? I'd like to see evidence of these numbers. But the purpose of this video is to get people to become vegetarian, at least vegetarian for one day of the week.

Ultimately what needs to happen is that people need to stop having so many children. This is a topic not discussed in the documentary, but think if there are fewer people then there is less demand for meat, cars, and EVERYTHING else. Not sure why this is a taboo topic when it is actually the root of our issues now and will be a bigger issue as the world population grows.

Shannon Green
Shannon Green
11 years ago

Ok i get it Al Gore missed out livestock - but he did SOMETHING, jeese look at the people who don't give a **** at all.

Shannon Green
Shannon Green
11 years ago

i'm sorry this animation is winding me up

kyle w
kyle w
11 years ago

This documentary was presented really well, in my opinion. The format was somewhat informal, but engaging. I hope more people view this and similar documentaries in the future, as the information is relevant not only to our environment, but our livestock handling practices and health. Reducing or eliminating meat and dairy in our diets provides only benefits.

Darren Edwards
Darren Edwards
12 years ago

Permaculture is the natural answer to corporate farming practices. We will have to relearn ag 101 as fossil fuels become scarce and soil degradation adds to diminishing food supplies. Animals are an integral part of the permaculture approach. My family are weekday vegetarians and it is so easy to do its ridiculous... and way way cheaper.

David Foster
David Foster
12 years ago

Just one more cog in a machine whose complexity is beyond most people's comprehension. See commentary for details.

awful_truth
awful_truth
12 years ago

While there is no doubt that de-forestation is impacting the biosphere's ability to self regulate, all this other nonsense regarding green house gases is a joke. The poles on Mars are melting and I feel safe in saying that we are not to blame for that. Since the sun has by far the greatest impact on all the planets, look to changes in this source for explanations, not wanna be experts who talk about things (meterology) they no little about because the science is in it's infancy, and there are to many variables to even comprehend the implications. Beef and pork production are the greatest cause for climate change???? Talk about not being able to see the forest for the trees!

Benjamin Clarkson
Benjamin Clarkson
12 years ago

Climate change is real. The climate is getting warmer. The temperature has ALWAYS been relational to CO2 levels in the atmosphere and we are releasing massive amounts into the atmosphere.
Also, if we don't raise meat we'll have to raise beans to synthesize protein. So we'll need fertilizer. Which requires POWER and chemicals, both of which produce CO2 to generate. It's a little bit better from a CO2 standpoint to be a vegetarian, but humans do alot better nutritionally with meat usually. I used to be a vegetarian but I needed to stop so I could continue my track training.
Anyone who tells you climate change is not real is a liar and a fool. Closing our eyes isn't going to save lives. Wake up.

blahblahbob
blahblahbob
12 years ago

this is boring.. out.

blahblahbob
blahblahbob
12 years ago

the first scientist, the specialist on the dairy farm, looks like a fat Tom Green. funny to see him hanging out with a cow...

blahblahbob
blahblahbob
12 years ago

i like to watch this doc while eating a really rare, bloody steak... ummmm... delicious!

Travis Stuart
Travis Stuart
12 years ago

The animals we eat will be the only ones left in the end, stop eating cow, then cows will go extinct. >_<

Yusiley S
Yusiley S
12 years ago

Lady, I know more than your holy-than-thou mind could muster. I know that even with a vegan diet we still produce pollutions into the air and cause so much harm to the planet. Where do you think the plant based foods you eat come from? Most fruits aren't native to your Euro-trash nation that's for sure. It still takes thousands upon millions of green house gases to produce and transport veggies and fruits to your stupid high estate neighborhood. >_>

Seriously. Going vegan isn't going to change *beep*! You're only replacing one form of pollution with another... one form of slavery with another. You'll drain water from hidden water wells to water the produce and still need fossil fuels to run the trucks to feed you and your arrogant vegan buddies. Yea. I think I'd stick to eating my BK Chefs' choice burger. The energy to make that is the same as the kiwi fruits I ate last week (gases were used to transport kiwis from other countries via planes). There is also the labor force... err, slave force... whose going to produce all those fruits and veggies for your rich spoil sorry butt? Yea that's right migrant labor children from Chile... dumb b!tch. I think there isn't any simple solution to this problem.

Also since when climate change is a bad thing? The Earth has always changed for millions upon billions of years. Who the *beep* are we to think we are the controllers of this world and are capable of truly destroying it. Goes to show how arrogant and idiotic our species has become. To think that we could really destroy something that had been adapting, evolving and surviving for over 4 billion years. The audacity. We would die out WAY before the planet and all of its species. ...and to tell you the truth good riddance. Our species is an embarrassment to this planet.

To the individual who posted this video, thank you so much for posting this. Videos like this one makes me feel better about eating my huge, juicy burger. :)

Amos Bradley
Amos Bradley
12 years ago

them buffalo are looking awful tasty right now.

Filip Anton
Filip Anton
12 years ago

Maybe you don't understand how postmodern capitalism works. It feeds of your insecurities and worries. Its not that the world is not really f***** and its a hoax to make us pay more but rather the world is f***** and we worry but luckily we have all these green products to help us out. Postmodernism fights against and continues modernism in absurd ways. It's not the world ,its us. We gotta chill out stop consuming, stop waisting, work harder become better people. Like the old days.

Karmiccontrail
Karmiccontrail
12 years ago

My guess is the fist size pill to help reduce the wind goes inside the port hole and the lid as he called it which appeared to have a window is put back on so you can keep an eye on things .
Future factory farming has been covered in a book and it looks like there working on making it come about .It is so grotesque .

It is all explained in the Bhagavad Gita (as it is)that if you Kill an animal ,if you prepare the meat for profit or just profit from meat or eat meat, the blame is equal .
The suffering inflicted to the animals is returned to the people in equal measures and the responsible people take inumerous lower births which will most likely include a cow with a lid and a cow with the rest of the grotesque future plans upon her.
Krishna is the well wisher of the cows and all the living entities .
Chant the holy names of the Lord.

HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

David Foster
David Foster
12 years ago

"Why not invent a machine that produces dairy or meat?"

Good idea! And while you're at it, I'd like one that produces beer and LSD!

harwinder singh
harwinder singh
12 years ago

Don't eat for 1 day a week is even better.

KennethJohnTaylor
KennethJohnTaylor
12 years ago

Global warming, ozone holes, pollution, deforestation, resource depletion, factory farming and any other global evil you can think of are all seen as current problems. People are very concerned about these problems, but they are not problems -- they are symptoms. The problem really is overpopulation and we need to get that under control and, ideally, reduce it to about half of what it is right now. If we can't do that then everything else we try will only delay the inevitable. Our population doubles about every 50 years so if we reduce pollution, resource utilization, energy consumption, etc. per person to 1/2 of what it is today (which probably isn't doable) over the next 50 years the net effect on the planet will be zero.

Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
12 years ago

According to this documentary, those men who murdered vast herds of American bison that numbered in the millions should be hailed as heroes. Just think of all the methane those things were producing and the vegetation they were stripping from the land. Thank God for Buffalo Bill and other like him!

KsDevil
KsDevil
12 years ago

The solution is simple. Move all animal farms to Mars. Mars needs the methane and carbon much more than Earth. No need to stop eating meat.
The Meatrix part was fun, but the cow scat scene was a bit too much. Them Dutch are an interestng society.
BTW, fixated environmental activists are as bad as fixated religious acrtivists. I want to scrape them off of me when they are close.

Manu Hashidate
Manu Hashidate
12 years ago

Great documentary! I've read since that the UN estimates were way-off the mark and in truth, it's nowhere near 18% of greenhouse emissions coming from flatulent animals bred for meat - it's way, way higher - more like 52% Just imagine the ramifications of that - especially for the future!

Luyang Han
Luyang Han
12 years ago

I would agree with her point but how she did it is quite ugly. She just tried to make a very negative impression without really explaining the details, the why and the how. Also vegetarian is just hypocrisy of the rich western society. The expert in the doc actually never says that animal protein should be completely eliminated from the diet, but just reduce by half.