By Karli Vezina
If you’ve made a conscious effort to have less meat, fish, dairy and eggs in your diet, you can call yourself a reducetarian. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue but it’s a food movement that’s been gaining traction since Brian Kateman started it in 2014.
His new documentary, “Meat Me Halfway,” looks into the environmental impact of factory farming and how we can help by reducing the amount of meat, chicken and dairy we consume. It’s a lot easier than convincing the world to go vegan and Kateman feels, it’s a more effective way to fight against climate change while protecting our health and the well-being of animals too.
Kateman begins his story asking why it’s so hard for people to eat less meat despite the mounting evidence that animal agriculture is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. He ventures to learn more about the animal agriculture industry, the progress of “ethical” meat, animals rights movements, and the future of factory farms. It’s an emotional, powerful, and often disturbing look at how we get our meat and dairy.
In the film you can follow Kateman to his first pig-save with other animal rights activists, see what an ethical farm looks like, learn about the animal agriculture industry, the medical industry, and what we thought we knew about nutrition.
“Meat Me Halfway” also dives into the issue of food deserts, where low-income areas or neighbourhoods have little to no access to healthy, affordable food. Kateman told GreenMatters.com that the solution is not just education on the importance of eating less meat. He said, “The food environment also has to be designed in such a way that better options are less expensive, more available, and just as delicious.”
Kateman also visits a laboratory where he tries a lab-grown chicken nugget, another substitute for traditional meat. Many are waiting to try this new cell-based alternative and activists hope the lab-grown meat will be more appealing than current plant-based meats are. Would you try a lab-grown chicken nugget?
“Meat Me Halfway” is now available in Canada on iTunes for $11.99 to buy and $6.99 to rent. It’s also on Amazon Prime if you have an American account.