The groundbreaking 2014 documentary Cowspiracy presents shocking truths about the effects of industrial animal agriculture on the planet. The leading cause of deforestation, rainforest destruction, greenhouse gas production, water consumption and pollution, habitat loss, species extinction, ocean dead-zones, topsoil erosion, and a host of other environmental ills, animal agriculture is the biggest issue facing the planet today and one of the most controversial environmental secrets in the world of conservation.
Filled with anecdotes, statistics, research, interviews with the filmmakers and contributors, and unabridged transcripts from the film, this companion book supplements and expands upon the documentary in every way. With all this and more, The Sustainability Secret reveals the absolutely devastating environmental impact large-scale factory farming has on our planet and offers a path to global sustainability for a growing population.
Kip Andersen’s environmental awakening came as a result of An Inconvenient Truth. After seeing the film, he began to recycle religiously, turn off lights constantly, shower infrequently, and ride a bike instead of driving. Andersen believed he was doing everything he could to help the planet by following the guidelines of national and international environmental organizations, but his life took a different direction when he found out animal agriculture is the leading cause of environmental destruction. He is the founder of Animals United Movement, a pending 501(c)3 focused on creating films and media promoting sustainability, compassion, and peace for all of Earth’s inhabitants. Also a serial entrepreneur, he has built more than a dozen businesses. He is a graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo school of business and has called San Francisco home for more than a decade.
Keegan Kuhn is a videographer, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and professional musician living in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. He has worked with nonprofit organizations and been involved in social justice movements for virtually his entire life. As a filmmaker, he helps organizations reach an ever-greater community of supporters with the highest possible quality films and videos. His film career has taken him as far as the remote interior of Alaska to document modern homesteaders, to the high deserts of the American West, filming the nation’s remaining wild horses, to rural agricultural communities and dirty urban streets. He is motivated by a deep desire to shed light on untold stories of the most downtrodden in our society, and to raise to awareness through greater visibility of social justice issues.
Introduction
Prologue—Waking Up
Chapter One—A Journey Toward Truth
Chapter Two—Water: An Infinite Resource
Chapter Three—Happy Farms: ”I Love Animals—That’s Why I’m in the Meat Business“
Chapter Four—Factory Farms: Standard Industry Practice
Chapter Five—Oceans: The Circulatory System of Our Planet
Chapter Six—Rain Forests and Biodiversity: Sawing off the Branch We Stand On
Chapter Seven—Activists, Governments, and Corporations: Shutting Down a Movement
Chapter Eight—Ethics, Dairy, and Eggs: Choosing Life Over Death
Chapter Nine—Health: Skip the Middle Animal
Chapter Ten—Veganic (Stockfree) Agriculture: Feeding a Growing World
Chapter Eleven—Transforming the World, One Meal at a Time
Recommended Reading and Viewing List
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
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