Earthlings

I’ve watched Earthlings more than a year ago and a lot of the scenes still pop up in my head sometimes, especially when I pass the meat section in the food store and when I attend Christmas at my parents’ house. I think it’s the movie that had the most impact on me, even though I’ve been a vegetarian (well, almost vegan) for many years. I only recommended it to one person and he is now almost a vegetarian. 
I don’t think that someone who is a hardcore meat eater could ever watch this movie. I also don’t believe in convincing people to change their way of life. That’s why I didn’t tell many people about this movie. I think that there is a lot of information out there and that if someone is interested, they’ll just do the research themselves. The most I can ever dream to do is make some of those who come my way question their ideas.    

That said, I think Earthlings backs up an argument I’ve had in my mind for a long time - we are going out of our way to get these animals and use them for different stuff when we don’t really need them at all. We can live a comfortable life without all this stuff we get from them. Is that so? Well, I know that other people would argue otherwise. My parents, for example, don’t go at all out of their way to get meat. On the contrary, I am the one who has to go out of her way to avoid meat. Meat and animal products have become part of our lives and it’s very hard to remember where all these things come from. As a reductionist, however, I think that the origin of things is very important. If you have reductionist tendencies or you’re just wondering what’s behind that beef tenderloin you had last night, Earthlings will show you. And much more.

I found a very nice review and comments on the movie here, on VeganDad’s blog, including a comment by Shaun Monson, the director of Earthlings in the comments section.