The Cowspiracy Conference is in Berkeley, California on September 17. I encourage people to sign up and attend. (And if somehow you haven't yet seen Cowspiracy (website, trailer), by all means check out the compelling environmental documentary on Netflix, or the companion book, The Sustainability Secret (Amazon)!)
This brings up the issue that the role that film could play in promoting EA causes more generally. I'd love to have people's thoughts on any or all of the following issues, and/or similar issues:
- Existing plans to make films on EA or high-impact topics
- Existing EA or semi-EA films people should watch, screen, or promote
- EA-related films that should exist
- candidate topics
- candidate titles
- candidate pitches
- etc.
- Promotion & audience engagement
- Effectiveness issues
- cost
- cost-effectiveness
- expected impact
- room for funding
- tractability
- talent needs
The larger point---that film can be a compelling vehicle for important ideas---stands regardless whether Cowspiracy was fully accurate or unbiased in its selection of figures.
That said, I agree that we should be cautious about endorsing Cowspiracy in particular, since certain key numbers on which it rests its arguments and emphases are disputed (good discussion and links on wikipedia). That said, it's a bit unfortunate if discussion surrounding the film centers only around fact checking--e.g., 15% vs. 51%--when in most any case there is an important, oft-overlooked environmental rationale for a shift toward cutting livestock out of the world's food system.