Watch The End Of Meat - A Hard-Hitting Documentary That Reveals The Real Impact Of Meat Consumption

The End Of Meat is a documentary that focuses on the impact of the billion dollar meat industry on our health and the planet. From the appalling conditions of farm animals to breakthroughs in cellular agriculture, the film asks the question: what would happen if we all stopped eating meat? We caught up with the director of the film, Marc Pierschel and spoke to him ahead of the release of the film.

What can viewers expect from the film?

The End of Meat asks the question of how our world would look like if we stopped eating meat and animal products. It covers a lot of different aspects such as ethics, health, ecology as well as questions around future foods such as 'cultured meat' and how we can coexist with animals in the future. I think its a new perspective as other documentaries on the human-animal relationship focus mostly on the negative aspects of animal agriculture while The End of Meat looks at the possible benefits of a vegan diet.

How many different countries have you filmed in?

We've shot in a total of eight countries for The End of Meat: Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, UK, Canada, the US and India.

What was the lightbulb moment that prompted you to embark on making this film?

When I made my last documentary, Live and Let Live, one of my interview questions was how the human-animal relationship will look like in 20 years from now. I got some really interesting answers, which got me thinking about a future perspective in the first place. When the vegan movement suddenly entered the mainstream in Germany around 6 years ago, I got the idea to explore the idea further in the form of a documentary.

Did you face any difficulty or opposition during the filing in terms of gaining access to areas (like factory farms) and information?

We decided not to shoot in factory farms or slaughterhouses for the film because that kind of footage is already out there and we didn't want to further traumatize our viewers. It is tough for people (especially vegans) to sit through this kind of footage and we instead wanted to focus on the stories from people who have worked in the industry or see it through their own eyes. I think these stories are even more powerful.

Some parts were shot in India - what do you hope the Indian audience takes away from this film?

We decided to shoot in India to explore how society looks like with such a high percentage of vegetarians and a different perspective on animals in general. It was definitely very interesting but it was also shocking to see how fast animal agriculture is growing in India and to see that the number of vegetarians is declining. On the other hand, it is inspiring to see that the vegan movement is growing as well in India and I hope that this trend will continue.

The End Of Meat is available for download and streaming on Vimeo. And guess what? Marc and his team are giving 15 Vegan First readers a 50% discount off the download price. Use the code VEGANFIRST50 to get 50% off the cover price. Download and watch HERE. 

Read: What is Animal Farming and How does it Affect us?

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