MEAT THE TRUTH
19-05-2008
World premiere of documentary ‘Meat the Truth’ in London
The climate problem lies on our plate
Go to link meatthetruth
The Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation (NGPF) today presented the very
first documentary on livestock farming’s contribution to the
emission of greenhouse gases. The premiere of Meat the Truth was
held at the Odeon West End cinema in London’s Leicester Square. The
film, presented by the Dutch Party for the Animals’ leader Marianne
Thieme, forms an addendum to earlier documentaries on climate
change, which failed to address one of the biggest causes of global
warming. Numerous reports produced by renowned scientists from the
World Watch Institute, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of
the United Nations, the Profetas project and the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), were translated by researchers at
the NGPF and the Free University Amsterdam into a concise visual
document, which explains the impact of meat consumption on climate
change, the use of natural resources and hunger in the world.
The film acts as an erratum to earlier films on climate change,
such as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, which while convincingly
drawing attention to the issue of global warming, failed to mention
one of the most important causes thereof. Meat the Truth
demonstrates that worldwide the livestock industry is a far greater
cause of global warming than all of the cars, lorries, planes and
ships added together. The issues of the impact of livestock farming
on water shortages and the unequal distribution of food resources
are also raised in this documentary.
At the end of the film, practical solutions to tackle climate
change at the level of the individual consumer are presented. The
solutions have been calculated by scientists at the VU University
Amsterdam and make it pertinently clear just how simple it could be
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in large amounts. Here is just
one example: if all people in the UK decided to eat no meat for
three days a week, then this would make as many carbon savings as
if the entire population of the UK switched to using a more
energy-efficient refrigerator and freezer, an efficient washing
machine, an efficient dishwasher, an efficient tumble-dryer,
installing double-glazing in all homes, everyone using a high
efficiency condensing boiler and the insulation of the facades of
all homes in the UK: in total 38 megatons. Even if people in the UK
ate less meat for just one day a week, that would make a huge
difference. It would be the same as taking five million cars off
the UK roads.
The NGPF is the scientific bureau of the Party for the Animals; the
worlds’ very first party to be represented in parliament. For the
documentary Meat the Truth, recordings were made in Washington DC,
Norfolk (Virginia), Seattle and Amsterdam. Many celebrities
participated in the making of the film such as Pamela Anderson,
Bill Maher, Emily Deschanel, Tony Denison, James Cromwell, Elaine
Hendrix, Kate Flannery , Debra Wilson Skelton, Joy Lauren, Esai
Morales, Wayne Pacelle, Howard Lyman, and many others. Meat the
Truth was produced by Claudine Everaert and Gertjan Zwanikken of
Alalena productions. The film will be shown in movie theatres and
art house cinemas throughout the world (Amsterdam, New York,
Washington DC, Los Angeles, Beijing, Singapore, Barcelona, Dresden,
Sao Paulo and Brussels) and will then be released on DVD.
The Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation believes that the film will make
a valuable contribution to the social discussion about a transition
to a more plant-based and thus also a more humane society. The NGPF
also hopes that the film will provide a showcase for prominent
scientific reports, which have thus far proved inaccessible to the
general public.