The goal of the documentary Cowspiricy is to raise awareness about the effects of

animal agriculture on the planet. The film does this by organizing interviews with various
representatives from environmental conservation groups, displaying statistics and showing
graphic videos. Altogether the film does an excellent job at getting views to think about the
impacts of animal agriculture, however the film as a whole comes across very armature and
by hyper focusing on the one issue they completely down play major issues when it comes
to climate change.

Cowspiricy starts out by introducing Kip Anderson, one of the films makers, who had
an “environmental awakening” after watching Algor’s An Inconvenient Truth. He shares his
efforts in sustainability such as recycling, conserving water, riding a bike in stead of a car,
composting and turning off the lights and then implies that even if everybody adopted
these habits, it still might not be enough. He then states that the beef industry contributes
more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere than the entire transportation sector
worldwide, stating that methane from cows is eighty six percent more destructive the
carbon dioxide. While it may be true that methane is more destructive than carbon dioxide,
it is incredibly misleading to present these facts in this way. According to the EPA
(Enviornmental Protection Agency) they display that transportation is responsible for
twenty eight percent of greenhouse gases, while agriculture as a whole only contribute 9%.
A chart displayed on NASA’s website shows that in the year 2020 they expect
transportation to be the leading cause of climate change, while animal husbandry is
number three. Kip completely down plays the impacts of transportation and makes it seem
trivial in comparison. A quote taken directly from the Cowspiricy website states: “Livestock
and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or
fifty one percent of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.” At first, it is easy to read this quote
as saying that live stock is a cause of fifty one percent of worldwide greenhouse gases, except
that is not true. Kip is not wrong by pointing out carbon dioxide is 51% of greenhouse gases, but
he presenting this data in a way that makes it seem as if cows are the 51% cause. According to
The Sustainable World Sourcebook, the burning of fossil fuels is responsible for 80% of all
greenhouse gases, which would leave live stock responsible for a fraction of the remaining
twenty percent.
When talking about conservation of the oceans, the film talks about Oceana being the
worlds biggest ocean conservation organization, Kip points out that he can not believe they are
telling people to “eat fish” as means to help conserve our ocean. Then he continues to compare
Oceana’s suggestion to eating endangered pandas by saying “telling people to eat fish to save
fish is like eating endangered pandas to save pandas”. This is not a compelling comparison
because all pandas are endangered, but not all fish are endangered. Also, the website is not
advising people to go out and eat fish, instead they are suggesting people only eat sustainable
seafood as opposed to non-sustainable. Not only does Kip not mention that, but the website
also shares many more suggestions for conserving the oceans such as using reusable plastic,
voting in elections, using less fertilizer, picking up garbage and many more. This is valuable
information the Oceana is spreading to help people be more accountable. Kip does not let the
audience know that these suggestions are also on the organization’s website, giving the
impression that he is not concerned with sharing valuable information, but was only concerned
with making his documentary more interesting by introducing controversy. While the state of
the ocean is a huge issue, people might not take Kip seriously because of his poor choice of
words.

The film then goes on to say that animal agriculture is the leading source of water
consumption, stating that it takes six hundred and sixty gallons of water to produce one
fourth pound hamburger and comparing that to six hundred and sixty gallons of water
running out of a hose. This is not a good comparison because when water is just running
out of a hose it is not going anywhere. According to the USDA (United States Department
of Agriculture) cooked meat contains more than 50% water, so that water is being recycled
back into whoever eats it. The water also gets recycled back into manure which gets turned
into fertilizer to be reused. It is true that agriculture is the leading cause o f water
consumption, but animal agriculture is only a percentage of all agriculture.

In conclusion the documentary does shed a light on a serious issue, however their means
of doing so seem mediocre. The main character in the film, Kip, appears to be much more
emotionally driven than factually. Animal agriculture is a big problem, however I do not believe
that this documentary is going to help. The film does a lot of down playing of other global
warming causes and does not paint the whole picture of living sustainably. Although it presents a
lot of accuracy, its credibility is could be seriously questioned because the facts are not all
presented properly.

Denchak, Melissa. “Water Pollution: Everything You Need to Know.” NRDC, 24 Aug. 2018,
www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know#common.

Water in Meat and Poultry, USDA, May 2011, www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/42a903e2-

451d-40ea-897a-22dc74ef6e1c/Water_in_Meats.pdf?MOD=AJPERES.

“Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 11 Apr. 2018,
www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions.
 “Facts and Sources.” COWSPIRACY, www.cowspiracy.com/facts/.

Dunbar, Brian. “Road Transportation Emerges as Key Driver of Warming in New Analysis from
NASA.” NASA, NASA, www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/road-transportation.html.

“Living Blue.” Oceana, oceana.org/living-blue