PHIL 28
Identify the diet that Boucher recommends and compare it to the diet endorsed in Cowspiracy. Which diet is ethically superior and why?
With the majority of the United States being meat lovers, we are substantially eating animals and their eggs and consuming their milk on levels greater than any other country. These meat and dairy diets are embedded in our culture and diets have led us to turn a blind eye to the effects the agriculture industry has on our Earth. Expert environmentalists Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn, in their film Cowspiracy, the Sustainability Secret, express the menacing truth of animal husbandry as it is one of the leading causes of climate change and produces more greenhouse gases emissions than all means of transportation combined (Resch, 1). For decades, this accountability of the livestock industry to the climate change equation has significantly been ignored and underestimated. Scientific adviser Doug Boucher and Cowspiracy producers Anderson and Kuhn utilize extensive research and statistics on the agriculture industry to emphasize two major points; we need to limit/stop overgrazing and destroying our ecosystem. Experts on both sides present diet alternatives to change the current status quo to promote central sustainability and positively impact the environment.
In this essay, I will analyze Bouchers and Cowspiracy's argument and diet solutions and acknowledge the critical differences in their perspective of the agricultural industry. Ultimately, it is notable that both pieces of work value the need to decrease and eliminate our cows' consumption as quickly and efficiently as possible. Doug Boucher coincides with a more sensible solution plan by suggesting that we heavily limit our beef consumption and transition to a plant-based diet or eat other animals that don't impact the environment as extensively as cows (such as poultry, fish, dairy). Meanwhile, Anderson and Kuhn, through their film, condone the negative effects of each animal-based product and suggest an even more extreme based diet that requires us to adopt a vegan regimen. Livestock production at the rates we consume and cultivate will be the leading cause of loss of species, oceanic dead zones, and habitat destruction (Resch now and in the future. Thus, we must seek to invest in political and societal solutions, such as, new diet regimens.
As a scientific expert in persevering the tropical forests and consultant to reducing global warming emissions, Doug Boucher has expressed his thoughts the beef industry has on the climate through his blog article Book Review: The Global Climate and a Defense of Beef. In his review, he analyzes the work of Nicolette Hahn Niman in her book Defending Beef. Through his analysis of his article he agrees that the beef industry is culpable for releasing major emissions to the climate, has a much larger impact than any other type of food, and is a key contributor to deforestation (Boucher 1). When reviewing...
