The End of Meat

“It’s absolutely imperative that people recognize one of the worst practices ever developed on the planet was the consumption of other animals for food, and using animals for resources. We’re never going to get our societies back on track unless we step back from that practice, first of all, by changing the way we eat.”

“This is the social justice movement of our times, it affects the most number of beings.”

What is the future of food? Imagine a world where meat consumption belongs to the past? In the ground-breaking documentary, The End of Meat, filmmaker Marc Pierschel embarks on a journey to discover what effect a post-meat world would have on the environment, the animals and on ourselves.

What would the world look like if we no longer ate animals? What would cities and communities look like if we no longer saw animals as commodities to use, exploit, abuse and consume? In the film, Pierschel connects with the pioneers of the vegan revolution in Germany; meets with researchers and scientists examining the effects of a plant-based diet; learns about the lives of rescued farm animals; talks to scientists developing meat-free food; travels to the first vegetarian city in the world in India; speaks with philosophers and lawyers who are working to have animals’ interests considered in the legal system, and examines the origins of meat and our treatment of farmed animals.

The End of Meat reveals the hidden impact of our meat and animal-product consumption, explores options and benefits of shifting to a more compassionate diet, and raises critical questions about the future role of animals in our society.

Film Premier: 2018

Film Length: 95 Minutes

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Awards Won

• Official Selection, Santa Barbara International Film Festival
• Official Selection, Raindance Film Festival
• International Human Rights, One World Documentary Film Festival
• Official Selection, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
• Official Selection, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
• Official Selection, CROSSROADS Documentary Film Festival
• Nominee 2018, Cosmic Cine Film Festival

Quotes from the Film

“Meat has become problematic for our planet and for ourselves. We have become more and more disconnected about where our meat is coming from.”

“The “Domesticration of Animals” = Domestication + Desecration of Animals. Animals were captured, enslaved and desecrated. Men used horses as instruments of warfare and violence, raiding countries, killing and enslaving people. Animals were used as labor and for food. The oppression of animals in deeply connected to the destruction of indigenous and native people. Large slaughterhouses were created; marketing was developed; feed firms developed; fast-food chains cropped up; then bank loans supported it all; the ‘animal-industrial complex’ was created – all pushing humans to increase their consumption of animals, to garner profits for these businesses and industries. It’s time to change the course of world history.”

“It took me so long to question ‘whom’ I was eating, not ‘what’ I was eating.”

“I got to come and go, photograph and witness the animals, and experience their horror and their pain. But I got to leave the factory farms and slaughterhouses—and they don’t get to leave. This is all the animals get to experience—it’s unbelievable. It all happens behind walls, in dark, horrible and stinky places, where no one is allowed to enter, and we get put in jail if we enter these places. There’s a reason—it’s to protect the business, because the business would fail if we knew what was going on.”

“Slaughterhouses are located far out of urban areas—so the vast majority of urban consumers will never have to confront what happens inside these places; the animals are hidden socially, we delegate the work of killing to people who have few rights themselves; we hide the animals linguistically, by calling them appetizing names; we hide places of violence, places of ugliness, so we can continue to live as if these places don’t exist, while still relying on and eating their products.”

“Toronto Pig Save is about bearing witness to animals who are about to be slaughtered. If more and more people bear witness first-hand, it will change them, these people would not participate in violence against these animals if they saw. They would stop.”

“Berlin has become the vegan capital of Europe.”

“Until 1990, tofu was banned in Germany. The only country on the planet that this was the case. And today, tofu can be found in every single shop in Germany. In 2011-2014 tofu exploded. In 2017, the largest meat companies have entered the tofu market.”

“We’re seeing a shift, where consumers used to eat 5, 6 or 7 days meat-based products; but now it is 2, 3 or 4 days of eating meat and animal products.”

“The vegan market is growing faster in German-speaking countries, but it is also growing all over Europe.”

“Our goal is to reduce the consumption of eating animal products by 2040 by 50 percent.”

“Our impact on the planet has become so destructive, humanity has become a global geophysical force in itself. Scientists call this period the Anthropocene—the age of humans.”

“Each year we breed, raise and kill 56 billion farmed animals. This system is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions; uses 1/3 of all fresh water; occupies 45 percent of Earth’s total land; has destroyed 70 percent of the Amazon rainforest, and has become the greatest threat to biodiversity. While 11 percent of the world’s population is malnourished—we feed half of the world’s grain to animals who are slaughtered.”

“We will see dangerous levels of climate change, if we don’t tackle reducing meat consumption.”

“The first global study that estimates what would happen if we stopped eating meat and animal products altogether, have four key scenarios: 1) If we continue to eat meat and animal products to 2050, it would mean a huge increase in GHG emissions—projected increase is about 50 percent, 2) If we change to Global Dietary Guidelines, then GHG emissions would be reduced by 1/3, and 3) If people adopt a Vegetarian Diet—GHG emissions would decrease by 2/3, and 4) If people adopt a Vegan Diet, GHG emissions would decrease by more than 70%. A move to a more plant-based diet could result in reduced climate damage, reduced health-care services, and significantly reduced GHG emissions.”

“Governments have a major role to play by shaping the food environment, by mandating food labeling including GHG emissions.”

“The strongest force driving extinction around the world is animal-product consumption. It is responsible for the destruction of more habitats around the world than any other human activity.”

“The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world. Over 70 percent of all deforested land in the Amazon has been cut down to produce livestock or to produce soy and corn, which is then fed to livestock. The destruction of the Amazon has been driven by animal consumption.”

“If the growing world went vegan by 2050, we would require less crop land allowing us to re-forest the size of the Amazon Rainforest.”

“Hart Mountain documents when cattle are removed from the land, how the land heals, wildlife returns, natural grasses return, birds come back, and trees grow.”

“Hindus embrace non-violence to all animals, and eat a vegetarian diet only. The slaughter of cows is banned in most places of India.”

“The Jain religion believes in non-violence. No animals and no human beings should be harmed. Every being has the right to live. You cannot kill any living being. You cannot harm them. We will sacrifice our lives for the animals. If you want flesh, we will donate our own meat—our human meat—you can eat the flesh of our body if you need to eat meat.”

“Ahimsa is the center of Jain philosophy. It supports that those people who disrespect and disregard life on Earth, and all its life forms—then disrespects his own existence, because all life is intertwined. Animals are not commodities.”

“Think about the question: Where do animals belong? Where do they belong now in our society?”

“Zoopolis = where humans and animals not only co-exist, but thrive alongside each other. Animals needs, wants and desires become part of the conversation and are supported.”

“We need to learn to coexist with animals, so long as we’re committed to the idea that we will be living together with non-domesticated and domesticated animals, we want a way of framing that relationship in a way that imposes on us an obligation of being responsive to them, it’s called co-citizenship.”

“I often say, ‘the sheep don’t have to serve a purpose here. They have a right to life simply by being alive, just like we do—it’s no different.’”

“We cannot kill someone who wants to live.”

“Farm sanctuaries provide a safe haven for animals that were rescued or escaped from factory farms or slaughterhouses. Here they are cared for and given the opportunity to behave as natural as possible, in a protective environment for them.”

“The idea for animal sanctuaries is just to let animals be themselves.”

“Ultimately all of us want to live a good long life, and farm animals are not given that opportunity.”

“I firmly believed that I had to eat meat. But I went to this animal sanctuary, I was very defensive, because I ate so many farmed animals. But when you start meeting these animals it brings out our softer human side, and you have to be really brutal to suddenly meet these animals then carry on eating them. It affected me big time, not only did I become vegan, but I decided to stay on the sanctuary and marry the sanctuary owner, and have lived here for the last 15 years.”

“Sanctuaries really provide an aspiration to the kind of world we could create. Where the animals live with us, we live with them, and they don’t need to fear us – because we’re not killing and eating them.”

“Human beings DO have a choice, we can thrive and live eating plants—not animals. We are not carnivores.”

“Non-Human Rights Projects is trying to change the law that says “animals are things.” Farm animals are not protected by federal law. All the non-human animals on the “thing” side, and all human beings are on the “person” side. We are trying to break through that wall, and trying to bring “things” to the “person side. Two hundred years ago, women, children and slaves were all “things.” Slaves are “things” and “things” are slaves. When humans were slaves they were treated horrendously. And “animals” have been treated horrendously. It’s not right that we can be cruel and kill animals, just because we want to.”

“Society has made tremendous strides in understanding that animals are deserving of our compassion and respect. One meaningful legal change we could make for animals, is to give them the right where humans could speak for them in court and represent their interests, and make sure they are protected.”

“Cultured meat is getting a cell and dividing a cell without killing animals, using cells from a cow. The three major concerns we are addressing is: less impact on the environment, less animal welfare issues, and better food security.”

“There are start-ups are working on replacing animal products. The mission of New Harvest is to accelerate the post animal bio-economy. So they are trying to build a whole new economy where animal products are made without animals.”

“We think we can use biology to replace animals, so instead of domesticating animals we are domesticating cells. Without the ethical and environmental aspects of using animals.”

“We’re a company that is making cheese without using animals, through yeast making the exact same proteins as animals produce. It’s a natural product that is not genetically modified.”

“Food Innovation Center has found an algae that when fried tastes just like bacon called dulce. It is nutritionally much better for you without the high fat and cholesterol content.”

“We are trying to create cultured beef by taking a small sample from a cow—its stem cells, so our product is not completely animal free. It will still reduce the total number of cows killed tremendously. But we are not as animal-free as vegetarians and vegans. Our target is the person who is eating meat, making it taste like meat, offered at a competitive price. I think it will eradicate livestock meat production.”

“The end of meat as we know it might just be the best solution we have to save ourselves, the animals, and the planet.”

“There is a vision of the future that doesn’t include the exploitation of animals. What we do to animals is just insane.”

“Twenty years from now, we will look back with a completely different perspective, our kids will say that their parents killed animals for their food supply, and they will look at us as barbarians.”

Film Credits

Director, Producer & Editor:  Marc Pierschel

Producers: March Pierschel, Lee Cash, Arabella Gais, Holger Recktenwald, and Mindjazz Pictures

Director of Photography: Jeff Wirth

Associate Producer: Hendrik Hassel