This bright and proselytising documentary about veganism will no doubt win some new converts to the cause, with lots of sun-dappled footage of rescued farm animals restored to Edenic freedom. But it doesn’t delve seriously enough into still-debated issues to sway interested fence-sitters, let alone diehard carnivores that must be converted if animal agriculture’s carbon footprint is to be reduced to sustainable levels; this latter is surely the most universally compelling argument in the vegan arsenal.
Co-directors Dan Richardson and Giles Alderson, also appearing front of camera, initially present the film as a fanfare for veganism’s recent growth and new acceptability. But with the film skating superficially through various locations – a vegan fair in Croatia, a sanctuary farm in South Africa, vegan mecca Los Angeles, a Super Size Me-style 30-day challenge in the UK – there’s no real history of how this turnaround happened. So while the broad-brush ideas about meat-eating’s environmental and health impacts are bandied about, there’s no real examination of why underlying attitudes shifted, and how further inroads can be made.
Apparently started pre-pandemic, the film also feels slightly dated, with no reference to the reported recent slowdown in veganism’s great leap forwards, along with the headwinds currently being encountered by the alternative-meat sector. Plant protein outfit Beyond Meat appear here, but there is little digging into significant questions on which the future success of this business rests, such as the processed nature and the cost of their products.
This is typical of the film-makers’ breezy approach – designed not to alienate, but which perhaps underestimates an audience they claim is ready for the message. Two former cancer patients appear claiming to have recovered thanks to overhauling their diets. Intriguing, but it would have been good to have bolstered this scientifically. And as for the opposition, only in barbecue-loving South Africa do Alderson and Richardson touch on the cultural entrenchment that maintains meat-eating around the world – but not how to address it. As a film, this is an appetising-looking but bitty starter.
