Meat the Truth
The documentary Meat the Truth is the first major project undertaken by the Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation. Meat the Truth is a high-profile documentary, presented by Marianne Thieme (leader of the Party for the Animals), which forms an addendum to earlier films that have been made about climate change. Although such films have convincingly succeeded in drawing public attention to the issue of global warming, they have repeatedly ignored one of the most important causes of climate change, namely: intensive livestock production. Meat the Truth has drawn attention to this by demonstrating that livestock farming generates more greenhouse gas emissions worldwide than all cars, lorries, trains, boats and planes added together.
Carbon savings tables
Meat the Truth is not just a critical analysis of the relationship between the greenhouse gas effect and the intensive livestock farming industry. It also offers practical solutions, which can help to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Consumers are confronted with thought-provoking, personal dilemmas: would they be better off giving up their cars, or their steak?
The film demonstrates that even if everyone in the Netherlands was to abstain from eating meat for just one day a week, this would make a huge difference to Dutch climate policy. All of the Dutch government’s climate goals for private households would be achieved in one fell swoop.
Naturally, these solutions have not simply been pulled out of thin air. They are the result of the expert calculations, which have been made by scientists at the Institute for Environmental Studies, Free University Amsterdam. This table presents their calculations for the carbon savings that could be achieved as a result of the reduction in meat consumption.
