Last night Teresa and I watched the new documentary SACRED COW produced and directed by Sustainable Dish maven Diana Rodgers.  Bear in mind that I watch about 2 documentaries a year and perhaps half a dozen movies.  I'm a book and word guy, not a video guy.  Still don't have a TV.

             The documentary is a companion to the book, SACRED COW, co-authored by Rodgers and Robb Wolf, author of NYT bestseller The Paleo Solution.  It came out in July and is a fabulous rebuttal to all the anti-animal, but especially anti-cow, propaganda out there.

             The video is available globally for free beginning the week of Thanksgiving at www.sacredcow.info.   Additional roll out and screening opportunities are coming throughout the end of the year.

             Of course, I liked the book better than the video, but I appreciate the power of video to bring beauty and heart to the issue.  Whenever I have a group touring our farm and we're with the cows, everybody is mesmerized by these docile beasts and their audible forage pruning.  That they can take this cellulose and turn it into nutrient-dense meat and dairy is truly miraculous.  I often turn to the group and ask "can you believe people hate these animals?"

             Rodgers' SACRED COW documentary captures the mystery and majesty of the working herbivore extremely well, juxtaposing wildlife pictures with domestic pictures to help viewer see the bio-mimicry.  The opening salvo sets the theme for the movie:  "what if you're asking the wrong question?"  The next 100 minutes drill down on that idea, that it's "not the cow, it's the how."

             Former vegan Lierre Keith, who wrote The Vegetarian Myth after physically falling apart and mentally wrestling with the notion of killing things features strongly in the film with her powerful story.  She wanted to eat without killing anything and began growing lettuce in a backyard garden.  But the slugs kept eating the plants.  She replanted and again the slugs ate them.  How, show wondered, could she stop the slugs? 

             In her research, she discovered that the slugs liked beer.  She instituted a common organic gardening practice of setting out a pan of beer.  But at 2 a.m. she awoke with a terrible spiritual headache, realizing she was killing slugs (they crawl into the pans of beer and drown--what a way to go).  She crawled out of bed and went to her garden, pulling out the slugs to save their lives.  Relieved that she had not committed murder, she returned to bed but the next morning had no lettuce.  So she went to the store to buy lettuce.  As she picked up a head, she realized the inevitable:  somebody killed slugs to provide her a head of lettuce.

              That moment changed her life; she understood, finally and fully, that life requires death.  Rodgers captures the story perfectly and anyone suffering under the delusion that we can eat without killing will be touched by this segment.  I'm glad Diana captured that story in such poignant detail; it's powerful.

             You can buy the book right now and it's chock full of science, logic, and emotion.  Unlike the film, you can have the charts from Britisher Zoe Harcomb, one of the most eloquent global apologists debunking the anti-meat narrative and offering the positive alternative.   Her nutrient density charts comparing meat to plants, by themselves, are worth the film and the book.  Yes, Rodgers captures the charts in the film, but you have to hit "pause" to get their full import.  I can't recommend both the book and now the film more highly.  Thank you, Diana, for pushing through on both projects and adding such powerful tools to our explanatory arsenal in the fight for healing and nutritional sanity.

             Do you think eating meat bankrupts us spiritually and physically?