All information below is taken from their websites...
Mad Cowboy
HOW TO TELL THE TRUTH AND GET IN TROUBLE
I am a fourth-generation dairy farmer and cattle rancher. I grew up on a dairy farm in Montana, and I ran a feedlot operation there for twenty years. I know first hand how cattle are raised and how meat is produced in this country. Today I am president of Earth Save International, an organization promoting organic farming and the vegetarian diet. Sure, I used to enjoy my steaks as much as the next guy. But if you knew what I know about what goes into them and what they can to do you, you'd probably be a vegetarian like me. And, believe it or not, as a pure vegetarian now who consumes no animal products at all, I can tell you these days I enjoy eating more than ever. If your a meat-eater in America, you have a right to know that you have something in common with most of the cows you've eaten. They've eaten meat, too. When a cow is slaughtered, about half of it by weight is not eaten by humans: the intestines and their contents, the head, hooves, and horns, as well as bones and blood. These are dumped into giant grinders at rendering plants, as are the entire bodies of cows and other farm animals known to be diseased. Rendering is a $2.4 billion-a-year industry, processing forty billion pounds of dead animals a year. There is simply no such thing in America as an animal too ravaged by disease, too cancerous, or too putrid to be welcomed by the all-embracing arms of the renderer. Another staple of the renderers diet, in addition to farm animals, is euthanized pets - the six or seven million dogs and cats that are killed in animal shelters every year. The city of Los Angeles alone, for example, sends some two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs to a rendering plant every month. Added to the blend are the euthanized catch of animal control agencies, and road kill. (Road kill is not collected daily, and in the summer, the better road kill collection crews can generally smell it before they can see it.) When this gruesome mix is ground and steam-cooked, the lighter, fatty material floating to the top gets refined for use in such products as cosmetics, lubricants, soaps, candles, and waxes. The heavier protein material is dried and pulverized into a brown powder-about a quarter of which consists of fecal material. The power is used as an additive to almost all pet food as well as to livestock feed. Farmers call it protein concentrates. In 1995, five million tons of processed slaughterhouse leftovers were sold for animal feed in the United States. I used to feed tons of the stuff to my own livestock. It never concerned me that I was feeding cattle to cattle. Quoted from Howard Lyman's' book Mad Cowboy http://www.madcowboy.com/01_AboutPS.000.html |
The Ghosts in Our Machines
THE GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINE illuminates the lives of individual animals living within and rescued from the machine of our modern world. Through the heart and lens of acclaimed animal photographer Jo-Anne McArthur we become intimately familiar with a cast of animal subjects. Each story and photograph is a window into global animal industries: Food, Fashion, Entertainment and Research. All part of an epic photo project called We Animals, McArthur has documented the lives of animals around the world with heart-breaking empathic vividness.
THE GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINE charts McArthur’s efforts to bring wider attention to a topic that most of humankind strives hard to avoid. Are non-human animals property to be owned and used, or are they sentient beings deserving of rights?
The connection that I have to animals while I’m photographing them is one of empathy. There is a huge mistreatment and inequality between human and non-human animals, and that’s always in the forefront of my mind. – Jo-Anne McArthur
THE GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINE charts McArthur’s efforts to bring wider attention to a topic that most of humankind strives hard to avoid. Are non-human animals property to be owned and used, or are they sentient beings deserving of rights?
The connection that I have to animals while I’m photographing them is one of empathy. There is a huge mistreatment and inequality between human and non-human animals, and that’s always in the forefront of my mind. – Jo-Anne McArthur
Blackfish
Blackfish tells the story of Tilikum, a performing killer whale that killed several people while in captivity. Along the way, director-producer Gabriela Cowperthwaite compiles shocking footage and emotional interviews to explore the creature’s extraordinary nature, the species’ cruel treatment in captivity, the lives and losses of the trainers and the pressures brought to bear by the multi-billion dollar sea-park industry.
This emotionally wrenching, tautly structured story challenges us to consider our relationship to nature and reveals how little we humans have learned from these highly intelligent and enormously sentient fellow mammals.
Read the original article that inspired Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite here
This emotionally wrenching, tautly structured story challenges us to consider our relationship to nature and reveals how little we humans have learned from these highly intelligent and enormously sentient fellow mammals.
Read the original article that inspired Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite here
Lunch Hour Movie
LUNCH HOUR EXAMINES AMERICA’S NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM WHICH EXPOSES CHILDREN TO UNHEALTHY, BUT CULTURALLY ACCEPTED FOODS AT A YOUNG AGE.
IS THIS THE ROOT OF THE CHILDHOOD OBESITY CRISIS?
WHAT IS CAUSING US TO LUST FOR THESE UNHEALTHY FOODS?
HAVE WE UNCONSCIOUSLY DECIDED TO IGNORE THIS SITUATION AND ACCEPT AN UNHEALTHY DIET AS THE SOCIAL NORM?
SCHOOL OFFICIALS, POLITICIANS, DOCTORS, CELEBRITY CHEFS, AUTHORS, AND OTHERS SHARE WHAT THEY’RE DOING TO PROBLEM SOLVE THIS PREDICAMENT AND HELP SAVE THE CHILDREN OF AMERICA. ADDITIONALLY, A USA TODAY INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST SHARES FACTS BASED ON MANY IN DEPTH INVESTIGATIONS DONE BY THE NEWSPAPER, WHERE SHOCKING INFORMATION IS REVEALED ABOUT WHAT FOOD GRADE OUR NEXT GENERATION IS EATING ON A DAILY BASIS.
IS THIS THE ROOT OF THE CHILDHOOD OBESITY CRISIS?
WHAT IS CAUSING US TO LUST FOR THESE UNHEALTHY FOODS?
HAVE WE UNCONSCIOUSLY DECIDED TO IGNORE THIS SITUATION AND ACCEPT AN UNHEALTHY DIET AS THE SOCIAL NORM?
SCHOOL OFFICIALS, POLITICIANS, DOCTORS, CELEBRITY CHEFS, AUTHORS, AND OTHERS SHARE WHAT THEY’RE DOING TO PROBLEM SOLVE THIS PREDICAMENT AND HELP SAVE THE CHILDREN OF AMERICA. ADDITIONALLY, A USA TODAY INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST SHARES FACTS BASED ON MANY IN DEPTH INVESTIGATIONS DONE BY THE NEWSPAPER, WHERE SHOCKING INFORMATION IS REVEALED ABOUT WHAT FOOD GRADE OUR NEXT GENERATION IS EATING ON A DAILY BASIS.