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[text flickering]
[tense sparse music]
[upbeat acoustic folk music]
- [Tom] My name's Tom; that's me.
I was born in Yorkshire.
I was a normal child growing up, sort of.
Look at that cummerbund.
Played a lot of football.
I ran quite a lot.
[film projector whirring]
Even won myself a few medals.
[crowd cheering] [crowd applauding]
I had two dogs.
[dog barking]
Oh, yeah, and I didn't eat meat.
[record scratching]
In fact, I've never eaten meat.
Okay, so maybe my childhood wasn't that normal.
'Cause that was the 1980s.
Everybody ate meat.
But since then, things have changed.
Veganism is on the rise and it is continuing to grow.
There are countless articles
now stating the potential health
and environmental benefits a plant-based diet can fix.
But for every positive story related to veganism,
there seems to be another two that contradict it.
And I still can't go a day
without hearing from friends, colleagues, and strangers
wanting to share the many reasons they could never go vegan.
Like, "Vegans are malnourished,
Climate change doesn't exist.
Cheese, bacon.
The food is bloody disgusting.
B12, protein.
"Animals are there for us to eat."
Is it all just one big plant-based con?
Why was I even raised this way?
I need to know more.
I need to know why so many people continue to say,
"I could never go vegan."
[tense thoughtful music]
I've never eaten meat because I was raised that way.
I was curious why my parents made this decision.
So, when I was out one sunny day, walking my pooch,
I decided to give my mum a quick call.
[dog panting]
[phone line ringing]
- [Tom's Mum] Hello?
- Hi, Mum. It's Tom.
I've just got a quick question for you.
When you first told people
you weren't gonna eat meat anymore, how did they take it?
- [Tom] Of course,
I've heard this more than anything else since being vegan.
So, I decided to track down some of the UK's top doctors
and nutritionists so they could tell me all about-
- Protein.
I think everyone who's vegan has heard the question,
"Where do you get your protein?"
- The answer is so simple
that I feel completely stupid repeating it every time.
You know, every single plant food has protein in it.
Our largest land animals
and strongest land animals on this planet,
the elephants, and the great apes, and the giraffes,
are all eating plant foods.
- In the West, there really are no cases
of protein deficiency
because we are actually getting an abundance of calories,
and we know that Western vegans
get more than enough protein.
- The average person needs about 0.8 to one gram
per kilogram of body weight.
Okay, fine, if you're an athlete
or if you're bodybuilding, trying to build muscle,
if you're playing a lot of sports,
then your protein requirements do increase.
But again, only to about 1.6 grams per kilogram body weight.
So again, it's not as high as people think,
and it's all achievable with a vegan diet.
- [Tom] As it turns out, Minil knows what he's talking about
when it comes to getting enough protein.
[upbeat rock music]
[record scratches]
In fact, I quickly realized
there's a whole host of professional athletes,
past and present, benefiting from a plant-based diet.
- I think there is this big misconception
around you can't be vegan and strong.
But there's many of us
that are just living examples of that.
- [Tom] And it's not just professional athletes either.
I was finding ordinary people
benefiting from a plant-based diet, too.
Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Like Dean Maher, who's climbed Mount Everest,
which is quite high by all accounts.
- Yeah, it's like a plant-based diet
is our superpower, really.
It's just that recovery.
The last race I did was a 100-mile race.
And the next day, unless I really pushed into my quads,
my legs weren't sore at all.
- [Tom] And Mike Coppock, who I met up with in Barcelona,
as he was about to attempt yet another
ultra running world record.
- I'm about to attempt the fastest known time
on the 225-kilometer GR 5 route, near Barcelona.
- [Tom] What I found even crazier about Mike
is that he'd just done a full shift at work.
Rather than go home and rest like a normal human,
he was about to attempt the world record without any sleep.
Why would you do something like this?
- [laughs] Yeah, it's a good question.
- [Tom] Despite years and years of marketing
linking athletic performance to meat consumption,
more and more athletes are adopting a plant-based diet.
Like Lisa Eble, three times CrossFit champion in Germany
and three times medalist at the German Weightlifting Champs.
[dramatic orchestral music]
- For me, it's the right way.
It's good for the animals, it's good for the environment,
and it's good for my body.
I know I can go to an 80-kilo bar and snatch it.
That's easy. [laughs]
- [Tom] And Jeremy Reijnders,
two times CrossFit champion of Holland.
- I noticed already in the first couple of weeks
that I had more energy.
I had the same kind of training but I was less sore.
I was even able to add extra training during the week
because I could handle more volume
because I felt like I was already ready to go earlier.
- [Tom] Kate Strong,
three times static bike world record holder
and ex-triathlon world champion.
- I was able to digest it quicker,
which meant that I could recover quicker
after very heavy training sessions.
I was sleeping better;
I was waking up more alive, more refreshed.
Feeling better, having more positive thoughts.
- [Tom] Ryan Stills, powerlifting world champion.
Alex Morgan, Olympic gold medalist
and two-time World Cup winner.
Lewis Hamilton, seven-time Formula 1 champion.
Chris Smalling, ex-Premier League-winning footballer.
Cheavon Clarke, Ex-Olympic boxer.
Dotsie Bausch, cycling Olympic silver medalist.
- [Dotsie] I had no idea
I was literally ingesting rocket fuel
when I switched over to plants.
I stood on the Olympic podium
just five months shy of my 40th birthday.
- [Tom] Carl Lewis,
who ran his fastest ever times as a vegan,
and tennis superstar, Novak Djokovic.
I could keep going, but I think you get the point.
I wanted to get a sense of how impressive
these athletic feats were,
so I made the somewhat foolish mistake
of challenging Lisa to a race walking on our hands.
- Well done!
[Lisa laughs]
Yes!
- [Tom] Safe to say, I won't be doing that again.
- [laughs] Yeah! - Ah!
- [Lisa] Good job!
[hands slapping]
- You don't have to follow those stereotypical norms
of being able to achieve something
through eating animal products.
I feel like it's just been almost embedded
into the fitness industry that you must have to do it,
but we're calling bullshit. [laughing]
I don't know if I'm allowed to swear, sorry. [laughs]
- [Tom] You can swear.
[light thoughtful music]
[phone line ringing]
[door clunking]
- [Tom's Mum] Hello?
- Hi, Mum. It's Tom again.
You know before, when I asked how people reacted
when you said you didn't eat meat,
was it just protein they mentioned
or was there anything else?
- [Tom] So, basically 37 years ago,
my mum was hearing the exact same thing I hear today.
Thankfully, my new doctor friends were ready to clarify
whether they think vegans should be fearful
of nutrient deficiencies.
- What we know about a 100% plant-based or vegan diet
is that it can meet your nutritional needs
for all stages of life, and this has been endorsed
by some of the major dietetic associations around the world,
including the BDA here in Britain.
We've also got the American Dietetics Association
and the Canadians.
- [Tom] It was evident that the majority
of essential nutrients were available
in abundance in a plant-based diet,
but like any dietary pattern,
a small handful just need a little extra care and attention.
- Iodine deficiency is a global problem,
and it's one of the commonest global deficiencies
that we face.
- This trace nutrient is essential for health,
especially thyroid function,
and we only need a very small amount.
- [Tom] Best plant sources are sea vegetables
like nori, dulse, or wakame,
which I imagine for a lot of people, myself included,
sound like made-up words.
Other options of iodine include fortified plant milks,
yogurts, and breads, iodized salts, or a supplement.
Vitamin D is another nutrient
that just needs a little more care and attention.
It's also known as the "sunshine vitamin"
because over 90% of it is derived from sun exposure.
It's actually a vitamin
that more than half the global population
have insufficient levels of.
It is fortified in various plant milks and breads,
but if you live in the Northern Hemisphere,
work long hours indoors, or enjoy role-playing as a vampire,
you should probably supplement, especially in winter.
And of course, everyone's favorite nutrient
of concern for vegans: B12.
- This is a really important vitamin
that's actually made by microbes in the soil.
- A supplement is the most reliable way.
And it's important to mention that many people who eat meat
are also deficient in vitamin B12.
- [Tom] Rohini was right.
B12 wasn't just a nutrient of concern for vegans.
In the US, people above the age of 50
are told to supplement with B12
regardless of dietary pattern,
partly because B12 found in meat comes attached to protein
that requires stomach acid for removal
and proper absorption.
Many older adults
don't have enough stomach acid for this process,
so they're encouraged
to get some of their B12 from supplements
or fortified foods.
All dietary patterns take planning,
but there seems to be a much greater focus on the vegan diet
than most others,
and that's despite the fact that vegans
are at no greater risk of nutrient deficiencies
than meat eaters.
As it stands, they're actually more likely
to have a higher intake of nutrients
than both vegetarians and omnivores.
- Actually, the most prevalent diet in the UK,
you know, the typical British diet, is far from optimal.
We're so deficient in a number of nutrients.
- But the number one dietary deficiency
that you should be thinking about every day
is dietary fiber deficiency.
This is a deficiency that affects
about 90% of people in high-income countries.
And why is that?
It's because our food systems have changed so much
that we depend on meat, and dairy, and processed foods,
and junk foods for 60 to 80% of our calories.
Fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts,
and seeds in their unprocessed form
generally account for maybe 10% of our calories,
and this is a perfect recipe for a fiber-deficient diet.
- So currently, in the UK,
only one in 10 adults gets enough fiber.
- [Tom] What?
Only one in 10 adults get enough fiber?
Wow!
And it's even worse in the US,
where it's only 5% that get enough.
A similar story in Canada, too, and Europe.
And this is despite the fact
that an adequate intake of dietary fiber
is associated with good digestive health,
a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension,
certain gastrointestinal disorders,
obesity, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers,
and not to mention having a good poo.
- Fiber is only found in plant foods,
and many people are surprised to learn
that there is actually zero fiber in any animal products.
- [Tom] What's crazy
is that even a large chunk of vegetarians
don't get enough fiber.
As I continue to investigate the various reasons
people give for not going vegan,
I also ask friends and family members to help
by sending the most common reasons they've heard.
One that popped up a fair few times
is this idea that consuming meat is masculine.
But what does it actually mean to be masculine?
Does it mean the biggest?
The strongest?
The most athletic?
A protector? Provider?
A carer of those around him?
Whatever it means, a large amount of people
associate red meat with masculinity.
I've heard people argue that it's because men are hunters
and women are gatherers; therefore, we're masculine.
But that scenario played out a long time ago.
I'm not quite sure how shopping
in the frozen aisle of your supermarket for a piece of meat
screams masculinity in quite the same way.
Despite this, growing up, I vividly remember adverts
trying to sell manliness as a meal.
♪ I am man; hear me roar
♪ The number's too big to ignore ♪
♪ And I'm way too hungry to settle for chick food ♪
♪ 'Cause my stomach's starting to growl ♪
♪ And I'm going on the prowl
- [Tom] So just how big a role does advertisement play,
and why is it so effective?
- We don't notice it, because it's around us all the time,
and it's until you stop and go,
"What on earth is going on there?"
that you suddenly start going,
"Well, that's really messed up, actually."
Lying on her back in a very sexually provocative way,
legs in the air with high heels on and fishnet stockings on.
It's really quite a bizarre image.
Men like to consume the bodies of women.
Men like to consume meat as well.
So in order to establish masculinity, manliness,
you can kind of do that by engaging with the practice
of consuming these bodies in this fragmented,
objectified way.
- Sex sells; it always has.
And for years, men have been sold products
based around masculinity and sex.
I mean, the car and tobacco industries
have been doing this for a long time.
But it was perhaps the meat industry
that took it to a whole new level.
Attractive woman, reference to oral sex.
Phallic-shaped object entering woman's open mouth.
Aspirational penis size.
"Eat this sandwich, be a man, get hungry,
get horny, get fed, get laid."
But seriously, is meat masculine,
or is it just clever marketing?
If advertisements focused on women consuming meat,
then men would likely consume less meat.
And it's believed that it's actually men suffering
with masculine fragility that are more likely to eat meat.
And what of the act of sex itself?
[computer keyboard clacking]
We know from various studies
that high meat consumption can impact blood flow.
And as you can imagine,
healthy blood flow is essential for healthy erections.
Whereas high consumption of plant foods
can improve blood flow to the heart, brain, and the penis,
thanks to flavonoids
and cyanins found in various plant foods like apples,
blueberries, and citrus fruits.
Healthy blood flow, healthy erection.
So with all that being said,
is red meat really the most masculine choice?
[laptop lid clunks] [cell phone buzzing]
Now, I have no idea how my mum stumbled across this chap,
but safe to say I was impressed.
I wonder when he went vegan?
I decided to go meet him and find out.
There are a lot of people who believe,
perhaps you get to a certain age
and you think, you know, "There's no point
in me changing anything now; it won't make a difference.
You know, I've been this way all my life; what's the point?"
- [Paul] My message has always been,
it's never too late to do anything, you know?
So I challenged myself to do a million press-ups
between the age of 80 and 90.
I wanna do 100 ultramarathons before my 100th birthday.
- [Tom] Paul became vegan in his early 60s
and didn't start running until he was 82.
But has he seen any differences to his health by going vegan
over 60 years into his life and starting running so late?
- Well, I've got about 30 friends,
email friends I see regularly, play cards with
and go out walking with.
All of them, without exception,
are on some form of medication.
I'm not. No meds, nothing.
[gentle contemplative music]
- [Tom] As incredible and aspirational as this sounded,
it was also anecdotal.
In reality, I can find individuals
that champion any dietary pattern and claim to be thriving.
What does the science say about longevity
in a whole-food plant-based diet?
Well, it turns out, Paul has a point;
it really is never too late.
If a 20-year-old switches from their standard Western diet
to an optimal diet
that is predominantly whole food plant-based,
it's estimated to increase life expectancy by 13 years,
even making a halfway transition to the optimal diet,
and it's expected to add a further six years.
That's because eating extra legumes
can add over two years to life expectancy,
whole grains another two years, and nuts 1.7 years.
Of course, most people I know are older than 20,
but that's the thing.
60-year-olds making the change, just like Paul did,
could live eight years longer,
and 80-year-olds introducing these foods into their life
could be expected to live a further 3.4 years.
Paul was onto something with his claim about medication.
Vegans are up to 58% less likely
to require medication past the age of 60 than omnivores
and vegetarians.
[deep thoughtful music]
At the end of my chat, Paul asked me
if I wanted to join him on his next ultramarathon.
I didn't really, let's be honest,
but he's over 50 years older than me;
I couldn't exactly say no, could I?
- [Announcer] Three, two, one!
Go!
[crowd cheering]
Good luck, everyone! Good luck!
We'll see you when you get back.
[contestants chattering]
- [Tom] We're off, Paul.
We're off. - We're off mate. Yeah.
[contestants chattering]
Put any disease that you think of
next to a plant-based diet online and see what comes up.
And inevitably, it'll say a plant-based diet
is beneficial to any of those conditions.
- [Tom] All right, Paul, challenge accepted.
[deep thoughtful music]
- What should we eat?
What should everybody on the planet strive to eat?
- The Global Burden of Disease study
showed us that food has now overtaken other risk factors
as being the biggest thing
that drives chronic disease in the Western world.
- 74% of the British adults are carrying excess weight.
They're either overweight or obese.
- When it comes to chronic disease risk,
we know that genes only really account
for between 10 to 15% of cases,
and there is a huge amount that we can do
in terms of our lifestyle.
- Studies of populations over time
show us that the more plants we eat,
the less chances of heart disease we have in the future.
- There is only one dietary component
that consistently has been shown
to increase one's risk of developing bowel cancer,
and that's meat.
Even consuming just 200 grams of fruits
or vegetables per day can reduce your risk by 22%.
That's one apple a day to keep the oncologist away.
- Prostate cancer is the most common cancer
that is diagnosed in men.
- And hormone-dependent cancers are, in fact,
more likely to be driven
by the increased consumption of animal products,
including meat and dairy.
- So the World Cancer Research Fund states
that "A healthy diet for cancer prevention
is one that's centered around fruits, vegetables,
whole grains, and beans."
That's pretty much a whole-food, plant-based diet.
The American College of Cardiology
recommends a plant-based diet
for preventing cardiovascular disease.
So that's our two top killers taken care of there and then.
- Eight out of 10 women will suffer from hot flushes,
and we know that historically, women who have eaten
whole plant foods,
women who have soya regularly in their diet
tend to suffer less.
- The American College of Clinical Endocrinologists
recommends a plant-based diet
as a first-line prevention for type 2 diabetes.
- My own father was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes
in his 50s.
- I think the penny dropped
when I realized that I was losing my vision in both eyes.
- And he put it into remission
using a whole-food, plant-based diet.
- I felt much healthier, and I'm in remission
with regard to the diabetes.
- Irritable bowel syndrome, digestive discomfort,
bloating, gas, indigestion
affecting more than one in five people.
We have got to look at the food on our plate.
Because the science clearly tells us
that the standard Western diet,
which is a high meat, high dairy, high processed food,
high junk food diet, a plant-deficient diet,
is the perfect diet to generate terrible digestive health.
- You know, when you read the studies,
the stats tell us that 80%
of the chronic illnesses that we see in the NHS
could be pretty much wiped out
if we, as a population or citizens, adopted a healthy diet
and other healthy lifestyle behaviors.
- It's not about labeling yourself as vegan or plant-based,
or even flexitarian.
It's about choosing to build your meals
from the ingredients
that are proven to benefit human health.
- If we shifted the whole of our population
towards a plant-based diet, whether it's 85%, 90%,
or even 100% for those that can do it,
we would radically reduce our risk of illness,
and that would make my life so much easier
as a cancer doctor.
- [Tom] My nan died of a massive heart attack
a few years ago.
Since then, I've lost other relatives
to various chronic illnesses.
I never once spoke to them about the food they ate
or their lifestyle.
Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference,
but maybe it would.
The real kicker is the fact that I didn't even try.
Over in Scotland, Sophia has very kindly invited me
to watch her defend her British at the Powerlifting Champs.
Powerlifting consists of three attempts
at three different exercises:
Squat, bench, and deadlift.
In an ideal world, you make the lift,
then you increase the weight on your next attempt.
Sophia is off to a great start
with two fantastic opening lifts of 157.5 kilograms
and 165 kilograms.
On her third squat, she's going for 170 kilograms.
[upbeat techno music]
[audience cheering]
[audience applauding]
And she nails it.
But I quickly learn,
it's not gonna be plain sailing for Sophia.
She's got some strict competition
in the name of Susanna Argile.
Susanna is about to attempt the British record
with a massive 198-kilogram squat.
[upbeat techno music continues]
[audience cheering]
- [Announcer] It's a good lift!
And a new British record for Susan Argile!
- [Tom] At the end of round one, Susanna's in the lead,
with Sophia back in third place.
[upbeat techno music]
[car engine whirring]
Back in Barcelona, Mike is off to a great start,
as he tells me when we meet up with him
at the first checkpoint.
- Yeah, pretty good.
Reasonably fresh.
Just been taking it slowly. [sniffs]
Trying to go as slow as possible. [laughs]
- [Tom] You're ahead of schedule then?
- Yeah, a little bit.
- [Tom] The weather is truly awful.
Worse than in the UK, if you can believe that.
But it's not deterred Mike in the slightest.
- I'm pretty pleased that it's light now,
and now still feeling reasonably good.
The legs are still working pretty well.
So 76 kilometers.
Yeah, I'm still feeling reasonably fresh.
Yeah, avocado and bean wraps are the best.
[people chattering]
See you tomorrow. - Yep, yeah.
- Yeah. - Have a good time.
- Bye. [contestant laughing]
- [Tom] And just like that, Mike's back on his way,
and is two hours ahead of the current record.
While out on a walk with Chan,
my mum kindly sent me another argument
she's had quite a lot over the years.
[cell phone buzzing]
It was a good question because I also hear this a lot.
So, is it more expensive?
[tense thoughtful music]
- Some people really think so.
And if you go to some supermarket chains,
you might get away with that impression,
especially if you buy sort of highly processed, you know,
burger replacements.
But based on basic ingredients,
on the cost of basic ingredients,
it doesn't seem to be the case.
We wanted to really dig out some data
and look at how expensive different, healthy,
and more sustainable dietary patterns,
including a vegan dietary pattern, would actually be.
The biggest cost reduction we found
for vegan dietary patterns,
and the least for pescatarian dietary patterns.
Those could actually be more expensive
in high-income countries.
One thing to illustrate this
is if we look at the weekly cost
of a normal food basket for one person,
in the US or other high-income countries,
it would be about $50 per week.
You can cut that down to just a little bit over $30
if you were to buy the ingredients
for a vegetarian or vegan diet.
- [Tom] Clearly, there's a cheap
and expensive way to eat vegan foods,
so processed foods obviously play their part
in why people think this way.
Plant-based milks are also 60% more expensive
than their dairy counterparts.
And this is troubling when a large portion of people
are actually intolerant to dairy.
But what about fruits?
Cost of fruit is believed to be the barrier
from stopping 1/3 of people in the UK
from eating enough of it.
And somehow,
this means that four ultra-processed beef burgers
are actually often cheaper than four apples.
And upon further research,
I seem to find an explanation for this:
$540 billion has been dished out in government subsidies.
I mean, subsidies don't have to be a bad thing.
Surely, if used correctly,
they could both drive food prices down
and protect a global food system that works for all.
But when used incorrectly,
then nearly all the money pumped in
could harm people's health, the planet's health,
and drive inequality.
The biggest beneficiary of these subsidies
is animal agriculture, such as beef and dairy.
In the UK and many other countries,
livestock farmers simply wouldn't survive
without the taxpayer.
In Wales, a country where a large amount of land
is used to farm sheep, the average farmer's income
hovers around zero pound per year,
meaning almost all the money a farmer receives
comes from public subsidies.
What's worse is that the majority of subsidies
around the world don't even benefit local farmers.
In the US, 10% of farmers mop up
77% of their country's subsidies.
In the EU,
they get the money based on every hectare of land farmed.
The landowners, i.e. the rich, just get richer.
I wondered about how much money arable farmers get.
And thankfully, I had just the person to ask.
So I decided to head over to Iain Tolhurst's organic farm,
in slow motion.
Do you benefit from any subsidization?
- No, at the moment, we don't get any subsidies at all.
We have had little bits of money in the past.
It was never more than 0.3% of our turnover.
- [Tom] How can that be?
This is one of the richest countries in the world,
and yet people have clearly stated
they can't afford to eat certain fruits and veg
because of cost.
A country where only 8% of children aged between 11
and 18 are eating enough fruits and vegetables,
yet we're offering a pittance in subsidies
to arable farmers.
- So if governments wanted to make a difference,
they would subsidize the price of fruit
and vegetables at the point of sale.
- [Tom] But that isn't what governments are doing,
so it turns out that is why four apples
cost more than four processed beef burgers.
[dog panting] [deep thoughtful music]
[cell phone buzzing]
This really got me thinking,
because if animals are here for us to eat,
then which animals do we mean?
[light thoughtful music]
There are currently over 6,300 species of mammal,
and a further 10,000 species of bird.
Yet in the UK, US, and the majority of the West,
we only eat a handful.
We eat the same animals over and over and over again.
The UK's meat consumption is actually currently reducing,
but we still kill and consume 2.6 million cows and calves,
10 million pigs, 14.5 million sheep and lambs,
and over 950 million birds each year.
In the US, it's more like 34 million cows and calves,
131 million pigs,
and 9.3 billion chickens.
In one country, in one year, they eat 9.3 billion chickens.
And worryingly, in the US, meat consumption is on the rise.
If these animals really are here for us to eat,
then why do we eat so few?
There's literally thousands of species to choose from.
- In meat-eating cultures around the world,
people learn to classify a small handful of animals
as edible.
All the rest they classify as inedible
and often disgusting and even offensive to consume.
So, even though the type of animal consumed
changes from culture to culture, all cultures tend to think
of their own choices as rational
and the choices of other cultures as irrational
and often even offensive.
- [Tom] In other parts of the world,
they do eat vastly different animals
to the ones we consume in the UK, US, and most of Europe.
In Japan, they eat wasp crackers, tuna's eyeballs,
and dolphin.
In France, you can order frog risotto.
In parts of Cambodia, they fry spiders.
And in parts of Asia, they eat cats and dogs.
Animals that in the US, it's not only morally frowned upon,
but it's illegal.
- In the West, for example, we don't eat dogs,
but in the East, in some places, people do eat dogs.
But they don't eat all kinds of dogs.
They eat certain kinds of dogs.
So, it's offensive to eat certain breeds,
but eating dogs who are mixed breeds
is not offensive to many people.
So, there really is not a rational classification
for why certain animals are deemed edible
and others are not.
- [Tom] Why don't we farm and eat dogs
like they do in large parts of Asia?
It'd be quite easy to manage.
Dogs are docile.
That's why we test on thousands of them every year
in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry.
It would probably be just as easy to farm and eat them, too.
- When we look at a hamburger, we see food,
we don't see dead animals.
And we feel appetized often, anyway.
We feel appetized rather than disgusted.
Now, if somebody were to tell us that that hamburger
was made from a golden retriever,
chances are we would automatically see that hamburger now
as a dead animal rather than as food,
and we would automatically feel disgusted,
and often perhaps even sad, rather than appetized.
- [Tom] 26% of the UK population
have a dog as a companion animal, and 24% have a cat.
People the world over love their cats and dogs.
Although clearly not everywhere.
In China, anywhere between 10
and 20 million dogs are killed every year,
five million in Vietnam,
and another two million in South Korea.
Which is why so many people in the West
campaign passionately against it.
But why?
What's the point?
I mean, in India, Hindus consider cows sacred,
yet we eat over 2 1/2 million every year in the UK.
Should they protest and sign petitions?
Would we listen?
Why do these ethical double standards exist?
Why can you donate to help prevent animal cruelty
on the oldest animal charity website,
but then on their assurance scheme website
find recipes on the best ways to cook the animals?
If these animals are truly here for us to eat,
we seem to be particularly selective in which ones we mean.
The idea of chopping up my dog
and eating his flesh is a truly horrible one.
But how different is it really?
[dog faintly barking]
[cell phone buzzing]
[Tom groans]
- [Cody] Tom, it's Cody.
Quick question.
What makes people turn vegan?
I mean, we've been eating meat since cavemen times.
There's cave paintings of cavemen hunting animals.
There's no cave paintings of cavemen digging vegetables.
Also, talking of animals, animals eat other animals.
I'm an animal.
You're an animal.
You know, we've even got the same teeth as animals.
Carnivorous animals, anyway.
You know, canines and all that.
I'll send you a picture of me teeth, just to clarify.
Anyway, sorry if I've ruined your trip.
Enjoy this and-
[cell phone beeps] [Tom sighs]
[cell phone buzzing]
- [Tom] My friend's mouth
gave me a newfound respect for dentists.
But I was curious to know,
who has the biggest canines in the animal kingdom?
It's probably not what you're expecting.
The hippopotamus has the largest teeth of any land animal.
Their canines can reach up to 1.5 feet.
But they eat grass and fruit.
They don't eat meat.
And sure, some animals, like lions,
use their canines to tear away at meat,
but others use it for social signaling
and to help defend external threats.
Basically, I'm not sure the mere presence of canines
really proves anything.
I mean, have you tried tearing raw meat with your canines?
Because some people actually have, and it's not easy.
[computer keyboard clacking]
It's not what our teeth are designed for.
They're built for crushing and grinding, not for slicing.
That's why they move side to side.
But what about this argument
that we're all part of the animal kingdom
and we should follow the lead of the big cats
and other predators?
I mean, they're not vegan, right?
- And I'm just gonna say absolutely, they're not vegan.
And they'll kill each other for their survival.
But animals also don't fly planes.
They don't go to space.
They don't have Amazon delivery.
So, to compare us to the animals
doesn't really work as an argument.
- [Tom] What were our ancestors' diets like?
Was it all meat?
Did they eat plants?
What about whole grains?
Does it even matter?
- The take-home message is that these hominins,
they would eat whatever they could get in their mouth
and get some nutritional value from.
- Our ancestors ate to survive.
They ate meat and plants for that reason.
And probably more plants than most people realize.
There's also evidence to suggest
we've been eating whole grains for 100,000 years.
But even if there wasn't any evidence to suggest that,
who cares?
Our ancestors were trying to make it to the next meal
and avoid starvation.
Humans today live in a much more complex society
than our ancestors.
We ask moral and ethical questions.
We want to know what's good for the planet.
What's good for us.
What's good for our wallet.
Here in the West, we're trying to avoid the chronic diseases
that are our biggest killers,
so doesn't it make sense to eat the foods
that help them achieve that,
regardless of how many of them our ancestors ate?
I mean, there's so much evidence for eating a diet
that's rich in plants and whole grains,
so would it really matter one way or another
if our ancestors, 150,000 years ago, didn't eat them?
[cell phone buzzing]
[groans] I'm tryna sleep here.
[Tom sighs]
- [Cody] Hey up, it's Cody again.
I've just thought of a fourth one actually:
It's vegan food.
It's foul, honestly.
Anyway, I'll say that-
[light thoughtful music]
- [Tom] Is vegan food terrible then?
How come so many people are genuinely surprised
when they eat something vegan
and find they actually like it?
- "Oh, that's not bad.
This is vegan food?"
And slowly you start to see them open up
and go, "Oh, I could probably do...
What's the name of that one?
Is that recipe in this book here?
Okay, great."
And when they taste the food
and realize that it's really tasty,
then they kinda go, "And this is gonna make me healthier?"
- "It's affordable.
This is gonna make me lose weight.
This is gonna help me lower cholesterol.
This is gonna fill me up.
This is gonna make me have more money.
And it's gonna save me on healthcare costs."
And suddenly, you start realizing
how much this can affect your life in a positive way.
Suddenly, you go, "Oh, I'm gonna do more of this."
- [Tom] I was fortunate to spend some time with them,
get an idea of how they approach cooking,
and also put together a couple of delicious meals.
- Typically, you're using fresh ingredients.
You're using herbs, you're using spices,
you're using things in season.
As a society, we're very addicted to a certain type of food.
And it's not until you can wean yourself off that
that you can stand back and go, "Oh, my goodness!
Like, I was sacrificing my health.
I was sacrificing my well-being."
Now it tasted good, but this food can taste even better.
- [Tom] These meals were quick and easy,
like their Philly steak sandwich
made from lion's mane mushroom
or their famous five-minute chickpea curry.
Let me tell you, they're both delicious.
- What vegan or whole-food plant-based offers
is food that tastes amazing, leaves you feeling good,
having more energy.
- Most people have this one-dimensional view of veganism
as people who eat salads all day, which is totally wrong.
You know, you have people from different cultures
and backgrounds who eat a variety of meals
which are nutritious, healthy, filling.
- [Tom] In fact, it only takes a quick internet search,
and you'll find countless people
cooking up the most delicious vegan meals.
I also frequently hear that people could never go vegan
because it's too difficult,
that they wouldn't know what to cook at home,
and they wouldn't be able to shop or eat out.
So how hard is it?
[groovy upbeat music]
Believe it or not, I'm not a professional chef,
but to create delicious, healthy, and quick vegan meals,
you really don't need to be.
Experiment with it; start with one-pot meals.
Think of your favorite cuisines and dishes;
they will almost always be flavored with plants,
so play around with herbs and spices.
Everything I'm cooking here
can be done in 15 minutes or less,
and most can be batch-cooked to save time later.
You don't need to miss out on the foods you love either.
Put the word vegan in front of your favorite dishes
and just see how many recipes it brings up.
♪ You are
- [Tom] And what about shopping and eating out?
How hard is it?
In the UK, every major supermarket
now has a full vegan range.
There's over 14,000 vegan
or vegan-friendly restaurants in England alone.
And in the US, 48% of restaurants serve vegan dishes now.
And it isn't just the UK and the US;
veganism has gone truly global.
The top five vegan-friendly cities in the world
are now spread across four continents,
and there's over 186,000 businesses
from 180 countries on the Happy Cow platform.
It has never been easier to eat or cook vegan.
But what of the meat alternatives on the market?
How convincing are they?
Sure, we know if it's the health benefits
you're striving for,
then whole plant foods are always better.
But what if you just wanna feel like
you're tucking into your favorite burger or chicken dish?
As it happened, I had a little experiment planned.
I have to present people with three dishes,
telling them one's meat and two are vegan.
I wanna know if people can tell the difference.
Let's see how good these meat alternatives really are.
It quickly became apparent
that not only did everybody like the food,
they also kept choosing different options as the meat dish.
- Maybe the burger.
- Yeah, I'd probably say burger.
- Okay.
- I was torn between the sausage and the chicken.
- I think the chicken was meat.
- Yeah, I'd probably say a burger then.
- I'd say the sausage was the meat.
- Okay. - Yeah.
- The reason why I chose chicken as being chicken
is 'cause it looks fibrous.
- Would it surprise you if I told you
that they're all vegan? [laughs]
- It would to me, it would.
That burger was great.
Really, really.
Yeah.
- I actually preferred that chicken to chicken.
- Oh, did you? [group laughs]
- And if it wasn't meat,
it's much better than I thought it would be.
- Well, I thought the burger was fascinating
'cause it was actually a better burger
than a meat burger was. [Tom laughs]
- It was, yeah. - The sausage is my favorite.
So that's number one.
- That's what surprised me.
It was all really, really nice,
and it was a guess which wasn't the meat.
I didn't have a clue.
- Now, this was just a fun little experiment.
I really just wanted to know
if the meat alternatives on the market
were convincing enough to make people believe
they were actually eating meat.
And it seemed to work.
If nothing else, I think we can agree
these meat alternatives are pretty damn good these days.
What about baking?
I hear a lot of people tell me they could never go vegan
because they love baking too much.
Well, thankfully, my friend, Steph,
happens to run an incredible vegan bakery business.
And better yet, she invited me over to test out
some of the delicious treats she was baking.
Now, obviously, this is pretty far
from the whole food goodness I was previously talking about,
but it's good to know that on those occasions
where you wanna treat yourself to a cake or a muffin,
you won't be missing out.
[upbeat electronic pop music]
[upbeat electronic pop music continues]
Steph uses ground flax
to recreate the same effect an egg might have.
While this is clearly not a health food,
there's no denying it's delicious,
and it shows how creative vegan bakers
are becoming in the kitchen.
[upbeat electronic pop music continues]
I'm gonna make a mess.
- Okay.
- Mmm!
Oh, my word!
[Stephanie chuckles]
It's so good!
- Thank you.
- [Tom] In fact, I like Steph's baking so much
that I asked her to bake the cake for my wedding.
- Most people have so many barriers in their heads
and so many kind of resistance to it,
and it's really taking that simple step
and trying these things.
- This starts with you.
Your food choices,
you make every single meal support the world that we want.
- [Tom] Round two.
Bench.
[sparse tense music]
Susanna managed 105
and 110 kilograms on the first two lifts.
She's going for 115 kilograms on the third attempt.
[audience cheering]
[weights clanking]
[audience applauding]
Sophia's chasing, trying to close the gap.
She managed a 107.5
and 112. 5 kilograms in the first two lifts.
She's going for a personal best and a new British record
on a third attempt with a massive 118 kilograms.
[upbeat electro-pop music] [people chattering]
- [Judge] Go!
[audience yelling]
[weights clanking]
- [Announcer] Put some weights on the bar!
Three lead weights!
Good lift!
New British record!
- And she gets it, but it hardly makes a dent on the lead.
Sophia still sits in third place.
[tense techno music]
[birds chirping]
So, I'm about to go for my leg with Mike.
And in all honesty, I'm absolutely knackered.
I've not done any running, but I've just not slept.
I've not slept at all.
I can only imagine how he's feeling.
Mike's coming up to halfway through.
Yeah, he's about 100K in.
From the last checkpoint, he was now ahead of schedule.
But honestly, he's so happy, so upbeat.
He's genuinely quite inspiring
every time he comes back to the van.
I'm gonna go with him, try to keep his morale high.
Try not to ruin his pacing and ruin the entire challenge,
'cause, at the moment, he's smashing it.
I was having a great time.
And Mike was still in good spirits.
Although I can tell he was tiring,
which is to be expected given how far he was running.
He was still around one hour ahead of the record,
but the buffer he'd built up
was definitely starting to reduce.
That's stunning.
[camera rattling] [foliage rustling]
Nearly fell off the cliff!
Enjoy. See ya.
Then once again, he's off with around 100 kilometers to go.
So, no big deal then.
Back in the far south of England,
where people can't really understand my accent,
Paul and I were powering on in the 50K.
[upbeat rock music]
As if doing a 50K ultra isn't enough,
Paul insisted on doing 25 press-ups at each aid station.
Just hit the five-hour mark.
Nearly 40 miles in, and Paul's absolutely smashing it.
[upbeat rock music continues]
Halfway through, Paul?
- Halfway, mate, eh?
We made the halfway mark.
- [Tom] [chuckles] Feeling good?
- I'm feeling great, mate.
Yeah.
We made it to halfway.
- [Tom] Before I knew it, we were into the second half.
Over five hours in,
we were back climbing up a bloody big hill.
[wind whistling] [birds chirping]
[upbeat heavy rock music]
[cell phone buzzing]
[light thoughtful music]
Bacon, for over 3 1/2 centuries, people have been eating it.
In Canada, 43% of people would rather eat it than have sex.
Which begs the question:
how are those 43% of people doing sex in Canada?
I need to go back to the start.
I need to see how this becomes this.
[pan sizzling]
I need to see a typical
Red Tractor-assured pig farm in the UK,
not one, that might show up on the BBC
or Guardian for malpractice
and then discarded as a bad apple of the industry.
I know a Red Tractor represents
a world-leading food chain assurance scheme
that underpins the high standard of British food and drink,
and it's a place where animal welfare
is the number one priority for all livestock farmers.
Because I also wanted to get to the bottom
of another argument:
"We give the animals a good life."
I mean, the UK has the best
animal welfare standards in the world,
significantly better than the US, Canada, France,
Germany, and Australia.
The National Farmers Union are quite proud of this fact,
so if animals are gonna get a good life anywhere, it's here.
[bird squawks]
So I went undercover to a pig farm,
and one thing I quickly discovered
is there's three stages to the life of a pig.
[pigs snorting]
Stage one, farrowing crates.
[tense uneasy music]
[pigs snorting]
Stage two, weaner pigs.
[pigs squealing]
Stage three, fattening pens.
One of the rebuttals against veganism I hear
is that, as an individual, you won't make any impact alone.
If everyone else continues eating animals,
then what's the point?
Staring into the eyes of this individual,
I'd never felt more strongly against that sentiment.
In fact, switching to a plant-based diet
saves at least 100 animals a year,
meaning thousands of animals over the course of a lifetime.
Is that really not making a difference?
That night I couldn't sleep.
I couldn't shake the last pig from my mind.
The way they looked at me,
they were the saddest eyes I've ever seen.
I had so many other questions as well.
What happened to the mum?
Where was the enrichment I'd heard so much about?
And why was I reading about cases of tail docking,
teeth clipping, castration, and thumping in the country
with the highest welfare standards in the world?
What even is thumping?
I decided to call it a night,
reminding myself that these are indoor pigs.
I know there's such a thing as outdoor-bred pigs
with better welfare standards,
and that's what people frequently tell me they buy
to avoid supporting factory farms.
But the more I read, the more shocked I was.
98.3% of pigs in the US are factory-farmed.
In the EU, over 75% are in large commercial holdings.
What confused me even more
was the definition of "outdoor bred."
It simply means the pigs are born outdoors
and can then be brought indoors after four weeks.
It also doesn't necessarily mean
they have access to grass to graze on,
as apparently, a concrete yard would suffice.
Do people know this?
If so, why even bother buying outdoor-bred animals?
But when a journalist asked the then CEO of Red Tractor,
he answered the question with,
"The advantages are some people
are prepared to pay more for it
because they think it's better welfare."
Are you seriously telling me
this is the best quality of animal welfare in the world?
I'm not sure I'm convinced.
[pigs squealing]
The next morning, my alarm clock woke me to take Chan out.
Only in my day's slumber, it sounded different.
It sounded like pigs screaming out,
the same pigs I'd seen the night before,
and they didn't sound happy.
And that stuck with me.
The thing is, I know when Chan sounds happy
and when he doesn't.
I'm sure most people with companion animals
wish they could talk to them at some point
just for confirmation.
As it happens, I stumbled across an article
talking about how researchers in Copenhagen
were doing exactly this,
and it was fascinating.
So what sort of situations deliver these positive
and negative responses?
- So, the situations we used in our study
that were positive:
So we had enrichment, for example.
So pigs together in a family arena, where they had toys,
and food, and water, and could just explore.
So, the negative emotions we had
were, for example, obvious ones in the life of a pig,
so castration,
eventually at the end of the life, slaughterhouse.
In piglets, we had when piglets
are being crushed by their mother,
when they miss nursing, when they fight.
- [Tom] I'll be honest,
I wasn't overly surprised by any of this.
So what did the negative emotional responses sound like?
- Then we have examples of more negative sounds,
like piglet castration.
[piglet screeching]
That's very high pitch and very long.
- [Tom] Versus a positive emotional response.
- And then we have reunion with littermates,
so piglets being reunited.
[piglet grunts]
So, that's very short; that's just a simple short grunt.
- [Tom] There really is a clear difference in their sounds.
But what about how they behave?
I had to see pigs in a different environment
to see how they compared to what I'd seen undercover,
so I reached out to an animal sanctuary.
[light thoughtful music]
These pigs clearly look different;
they smell different, they act different,
they sound different to the ones at the farm.
In fact, they sound much closer
to the short grunts shown to me by Elodie
when pigs were demonstrating positive emotions.
And while I was at the sanctuary,
I got to see various other animals
living out their best lives.
And Katherine, who runs the sanctuary,
also showed me some chickens they'd rescued
from a nearby battery farm.
At least, I thought they were from battery farms.
I know chickens have it rough.
They are the most abused land animal
with 180 million dying every day.
I'd done my research on chickens long ago.
I knew that 95% of broiler chickens
were factory-farmed in the UK
and a staggering 99.9% were in the US.
I knew that caged hens only had the space equivalent
to the size of an iPad.
But because I knew that, I never bought caged eggs.
I bought free-range.
Caged equals bad, free-range equals good, right?
They don't suffer; they're free.
- All of these chickens,
whether they're coming from a caged farm,
which we have rescued from,
whether they're coming from a barn,
where they just don't go outside but they're kept in a barn,
or whether they're coming from free-range farms
and sometimes organic free-range farms,
that people think is the highest welfare imaginable,
they all come with a lot of medical issues.
A lot of them featherless, being pecked on by each other,
redraw.
They will have a lot of issues
with their reproductive systems.
They will have a lot that are egg-bound,
which means the eggs get stuck.
They will have egg peritonitis, have a lot of prolapses.
We have a lot of leg problems.
So a lot of them will come in limping,
a lot of broken legs, a lot of pulled muscles.
Of course, I don't know if people know this,
but the way that is accepted that you pick chickens up
is by the legs.
So when you are collecting hens, they will bring out,
like, four or five hens, sometimes, in one hand,
held by their legs.
And the Defra standard
is that you're supposed to hold both legs.
- [Tom] Free-range birds bread for meat
are kept alive for a meager
two to three weeks longer in the UK than caged chickens.
They only have to be kept outdoors for half their life
but when they're indoors,
they're allowed to house 13 birds per square meter.
That's only four less than the 17 limit for a caged chicken.
Real kicker for the animal-loving vegetarian I grew up as
was that free-range eggs
meant that the hence could still be crammed
with up to nine chickens per square meter
when indoors on a night.
And that most egg-laying hens that don't die on farms
are killed for meat at 72 weeks
when they're not fit to lay anymore.
It would seem to me that the egg industry
is the meat industry.
- No.
I mean, we didn't know.
People think that free-range equals high welfare.
It depends what your definition of high welfare is.
- [Tom] Pondering over what I'd learned
and witnessed myself at the factory farm,
I met up with Dr. Alice Brough, a former pig vet,
to discuss the footage I'd captured.
- It's what you'd describe as a typical farrowing house.
What we see here is the length of the sow
is obviously, like, as long,
if not slightly too large for the crate.
There are stereotypical signs of stress behaviors,
and that's because the only thing she has to do is eat.
It's really sad.
I mean, farrowing houses are probably the saddest
places on farm, in my opinion.
She's obviously got, like, a little bit of sawdust there,
which the law specifies that you have to provide
some sort of nesting substrate,
which can literally be a handful of paper,
and that will sort of-
- That will tick the box. - Yes, so exactly.
That's what it is.
But I mean, that's better
than a lot of places I've seen, to be honest, in providing
some substrate for them. - Oh, really?
- [Alice] Yeah.
[somber thoughtful music]
- We also visited Pear Tree Farm Animal Sanctuary.
- [Alice] So, immediately, we see them rooting in the ground
with their snouts, which is such a strongly motivated,
like, natural behavior for pigs.
That's their thing.
Long tails, lovely to see.
- [Tom] This pig is having the time of its life.
- [Alice] Having a great time.
- [Tom] Getting a bit of a belly rub, and bloody loves it.
- Yeah. [Tom laughs]
Oh, they're so like dogs, aren't they?
Like, they do love a belly rub.
They have so many vocalizations.
If you spend time, particularly with pigs on sanctuaries,
they do almost, like, converse with you.
- So, this is a second phase, as it was described to me,
'cause there's three phases.
So, do you wanna tell us what's happening here then?
- [Alice] This is like a typical
sort of weaner accommodation unit.
That thing there is meant to be a toy.
The flies are absolutely typical.
That's such a standard thing to see.
Feces all over the walls, all over the floor.
Again, this looks like relatively decent
compared to, like, quite a lot of units that I've seen.
Most of these pigs have sort of wounds on their flanks,
which is from fighting.
You're cramming them into these tiny little barren cells.
And generally, this looks like a typical,
sort of Red Tractor finishing unit.
No wonder they're fighting.
They've got nowhere to go.
- That ball there- - Yeah.
- [Tom] Is part of their enrichment then, I guess?
- [Alice] Yeah.
So, we can see, on this one shot,
we've got a really filthy ball
and a completely filthy plastic tube hanging up.
Their tails are docked,
so that's a mutilation done without anesthetic.
- [Tom] And how do the piglets react?
- [Alice] Oh, they scream.
- [Tom] I've seen the term "thumping" thrown about
as something done to pigs, but what is it?
- [Alice] Picking the piglet up by the back legs,
swinging them over your shoulder,
and sort of just cracking their skull on the-
- Oh, my. - Concrete wall,
or on the side of something.
- [Tom] And that's legal then?
- That's legal.
That's something I've done myself a lot.
[tense uneasy music] [pigs snorting]
- [Tom] I think this is like maybe the sick bay,
the sick pen. - Yeah, like a hospital pen,
if you can say that with a straight face.
There's no evidence that these pigs are being treated.
I'll talk about this little fella now,
with the huge mass under the throat there.
That's not something that's gonna get better
before slaughter.
So, what they're doing here is just leaving him to linger.
Like, there have been times where I've gone onto farms
and had to go around and shoot, like, 20 pigs in a row,
just because they've had these joint swellings
and been left on the slats
and obviously not been checked properly or treated.
- [Tom] What I don't understand
is that the Animal Protection Index
rank us top for animal welfare.
The National Farmers Union boast about it on their website.
- The NFU have put this up as sort of a proud moment
of doing well with farm animal welfare.
But what they haven't done is separate out
our ranking for actual farm animals.
So, what we got for farm animals was a D,
which ranks us in line with South Korea,
Mexico, Brazil, Italy,
various other countries
which are not known for their high welfare standards.
So, you know, the fact that they're putting this out
as something, which is great,
and we celebrate our world-leading welfare,
but actually, the animals that they're in charge of,
the farm animals, are scoring incredibly poorly.
- What the hell?
Surely, that can't be right?
But it is.
While the Animal Protection Index
scored the UK overall with a B
for our animal welfare standards,
largely because of our laws on protecting companion animals
and those in captivity,
for animals used in farming, we did score a D.
The lowest grade of any area scored.
Although globally, I was having a hard time finding
a country that did score higher than a D for farmed animals.
The US and Australia scored an E.
What are they doing to their farmed animals there?
I've read and heard a lot about antibiotic use in farming,
but in the UK, it's dropping, right?
- The NFU puts out this big boast
that we've reduced our usage by 53%
over, you know, 2014 to 2018.
And it kind of went down really quickly
when we started monitoring what we were doing,
and then it plateaued because we've reached a point
where we couldn't physically use fewer antibiotics
without all the animals just dying.
They did a huge analysis on 139 different studies,
and 72% of them said there was a confirmed clear link
between use in livestock and resistance in humans.
- When we go to hospital,
we want the antibiotics that we're given to work.
We want our loved ones to survive a sepsis.
But as things are going,
that's becoming increasingly unlikely,
because not only of the overuse of antibiotics in general
but specifically the overuse of them
when we give them to animals for us to eat.
- There was a previous figure quoted
in the last of round of studies into this
that it would be 10 million deaths,
a predicted 10 million deaths a year,
from antibiotic-resistant infection by 2050.
And the fact that we've intensified our agriculture
and we're pumping over 70% of the world's antibiotics
into livestock in very inappropriate ways
just means that it's skyrocketing
much quicker than we were sort of planning for.
- [Tom] Now, that really pissed me off.
There's someone very close to me
that requires antibiotics on a daily basis to survive.
20 of the 27 antibiotics prescribed to animals
are vital for humans to be treated with.
But I couldn't stop.
There was so much more to learn.
Next stop, the slaughterhouse.
I've never been to a slaughterhouse.
I couldn't tell you where the nearest one is to me,
despite the fact that there are over 150 in the UK
and 2,700 in the US.
- [Investigator] Slaughterhouses are so hidden from society.
Many have got 24-hour security high perimeter fences.
You could be mistaken; they were prisons.
- [Tom] So what's it like inside?
- The sounds and smells, I still get, they stick with you.
- The number of animals that need to be killed for a start
just negates any, like, kindness and, like, gentle handling.
- [Tom] But how are they killed?
What are the common practices?
[fence rattles]
[cow thudding]
[gate clanking]
What makes it humane?
[fence rattles]
Cows are stunned using a captive bolt or electricity.
[gentle somber music]
Poultry are hung upside down
and dipped into an electrified water bath to stun them
before their throats are slit.
Sheep are stunned and killed with electricity,
but just like this one here,
it's not always a quick process.
Fish are exposed to carbon dioxide,
bled out without stunning, gutted alive,
or suffocated out of water.
And what about pigs?
How do we get bacon?
It's either the CO2 gas chamber
[pigs snarling]
[gentle somber music continues]
or electrical stunning, followed by sanguination,
then transported to a scalding tank.
- [Alice] Yeah, I mean,
I've seen pigs swimming around in that,
like, bleeding to death.
[gentle somber music continues]
- I often ask myself, "Would this be okay
if I was doing this to a human?"
- [Tom] I've asked everyone I've spoken to
whether they think humane slaughter is possible
in today's global farming system.
I've asked activists, the RSPCA,
vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores.
I could go through every answer one by one,
but I think you already know it.
And what of the human toll,
working in these surroundings with these animals?
What are the physical and psychological effects?
- Colleagues there who'd get frustrated with the animals
and take it out on them, take it out on each other.
- Going home, absolutely traumatized,
like calling my mum, sobbing on the phone,
saying, "I've had to shoot another 20 pigs
because of these welfare issues."
- I'd go out,
it got to a stage where if someone looked at me,
I'd probably go over and headbutt them.
- [Tom] As the UK and other nations
struggle to fill this sector,
it's perhaps unsurprising that the meat industry
is heavily reliant on migrant workers
willing to work for far more money
than they could ever earn in their country of birth,
creating two-tier working conditions
with migrants being paid less and expected to work more
to ensure that the meat could be kept cheap
and to supply the demand.
- I think I've found peace with myself over the years
through how I've changed and what I've done,
but I still have two, three nights a week
where I can't sleep at all,
and I still get those nightmares, and I still get moments
where you just think, "What's the point?"
Or "You're worthless."
Or, you know, "Whatever I do,
can it ever make up for what I've done?"
- [Tom] After the animals have been killed,
what's the meat line like?
- For starters, there's a lot of diseases
that we can pick up from pigs and other animals anyway.
Like, you can't see pathogens.
- [Tom] 48 million people get sick in the US each year
with foodborne illnesses.
Nearly 3/4 of all chicken sold in UK supermarkets
have previously been found to be contaminated
with campylobacter.
And in the US, 60% of pork, 70% of beef,
and 80% of chicken is contaminated with E. coli.
It's not just pathogens either.
When the UN published its list of the seven causes
driving the risk of zoonotic diseases,
six of them were linked to animal agriculture.
[pigs snorting]
After the cows, and sheep, and pigs,
and all the other farmed animals are slaughtered,
we have our beef, our lamb, our bacon,
but is it actually any good for us?
If we were to take alcohol, something which most people
wouldn't constitute to be healthy,
but manage to add the likes
of some branched-chain amino acids and iron to it,
would that suddenly make it healthy?
So why does a food that the World Health Organization
categorizes as a carcinogen, or probable carcinogen,
suddenly become healthy
because it contains the likes of protein and iron
when these are readily available
from non-carcinogenic foods?
- Again, it comes back to thinking about the healthy food
rather than the individual nutrients.
- [Tom] I'm a bit nervous, I'm not gonna lie.
Susanna's combined lifts put her on 313 kilograms,
while Sophia's combined lifts total just 288 kilograms.
[tense suspenseful music]
That means Sophia needs to lift
25 kilograms more on the deadlift
just to draw even with Susanna.
Her deadlift's impressive, really impressive;
she's not the British record holder for nothing,
but she needs to hit that weight here
and hope that Susanna doesn't lift a PB;
otherwise, she's in trouble.
And so we're on to round three.
Over the three attempts,
Susanna lifts a very impressive 197.5 kilograms.
Sophia has got her work cut out for her.
Back in Barcelona, and we've lost Mike.
Or at least, we'd not had contact for a few hours
and were starting to fear
something terrible might have happened.
But then, finally, after almost seven hours,
Mike showed up at the checkpoint.
Although it was clear
he'd had an extremely challenging night on the mountains.
- I was tripping my face off all night.
- Oh, dear. - Oh, imagine.
- It was mental.
I was pretty hungry, actually.
At some points, I just didn't know what was going on.
Like, full-on, like, forgot what I was doing there.
I was sort of thinking at the time,
"This may be a bit irresponsible."
[group laughing]
- [Tom] Mike sets off for the final 43K.
- [Mike] Beats working.
- [Tom] It's clear how unbelievably exhausted he is.
And I can't help but wonder
if he's actually gonna make it to the finish,
let alone break the record.
But back in Taunton, Paul's still in high spirits.
[footsteps crunching]
So Paul, what would you say is the key to a happy life?
- Well, I would say giving.
Giving of yourself, giving of your time,
giving of your energy, whatever you're good at.
Helping people, helping other fellow creatures.
Yeah, giving.
- [Tom] But there was no denying
it was starting to feel tough, and the ridiculous hills
and baking heat certainly weren't helping.
It's a big hill.
- [Paul] Yeah.
- [Tom] And we are on
21.65 miles.
But at the final checkpoint,
Paul still insisted on doing his press-ups.
- 37K.
- [Tom] Before we knew it,
we were into the final leg with eight miles to go.
- Feeling good.
- Feeling good? - Yeah, feeling great.
[bell dings]
- [Tom] I've made a terrible omission from this process.
We're gonna have to go back to the start.
Earth, a mesh of verdant greens and cerulean waters.
A magnificent sight.
A planet full of wonder.
But almost everything we do on this wondrous planet
has an effect.
From brushing our teeth and flushing the toilet
to the way we travel and the food we eat.
The industries and sectors around the world
have an even bigger impact.
Some more than others.
And right now, billionaires,
who may or may not be living in lairs,
the type seen housing villains in Bond movies,
are concocting ways to get to Mars.
It's unclear if we're invited.
But compared to Earth, let's be honest, Mars looks shit.
Earth should be priority.
And for a few, it is, and it has been for some time.
Ever since the Industrial Revolution,
people have discussed the effects humans have on the planet.
In 1970, we had the first Earth Day.
By 1979, the World Climate Research Programme was launched.
And by 1990, the IPCC warned that the world had been warming
and future warming is likely.
Subsequent IPCC reports were worded firmer,
causing global leaders in 2015
to sign the Paris Climate Agreement
with a plan to prevent global heating
of 1.5 degrees above industrial levels
while saying things like:
- [Tom] In 2018, the IPCC told them to stand as one faster.
And by 2023, the world was getting hot.
Really hot.
And as people from the UK can attest,
that's not all we're known for.
In fact, around the globe,
all sorts of disastrous weather-related events
were occurring.
- I don't think many people grasp just how serious this is.
This is the greatest catastrophe humanity has ever faced.
The collapse of our life support systems.
We're just sort of staggering towards the precipice.
Almost as if we're saying to ourselves,
"If it were really so bad, someone would stop us,
wouldn't they?"
- [Tom] So why don't they?
Why aren't governments doing more?
- It's the issue above all others
that they don't wanna talk about.
Because even when, for instance, Joe Biden said something
very tentative about meat,
suddenly there was this massive pile on:
"They wanna steal our burgers!
They're trying to destroy the American dream!"
The lobbyists are unbelievably powerful,
partly because it's extremely concentrated.
There are just a handful of firms
who control almost all the beef,
and another handful controlling almost all the pork,
almost all the poultry.
So, those companies become extremely powerful,
more powerful than many governments.
Nothing is as visceral, literally and metaphorically,
as what we eat.
- [Tom] You might be wondering what all of this has to do
with the climate crisis.
So, in 2018, a team of researchers from Oxford University
carried out the largest-ever study
on the effects of our global food system.
They assessed nearly 40,000 farms across the globe
and 40 different agricultural products,
focusing on the use of land, greenhouse gas emissions,
water usage, acidification, and eutrophication.
[tense thoughtful music]
They concluded that the single biggest thing
we as individuals can do to lower our environmental impact
is to reduce or eliminate animal products from our diets.
And then in 2023,
another ground-breaking study from Oxford University
assessed the dietary patterns of 55,000 people,
highlighting further just how much more destructive
high and low-meat diets are for the planet's health
compared to a vegan diet.
Yet despite this, I'm forever hearing people tell me
they only buy local, grass-fed beef.
And on the surface, that statement sounds logical.
I mean, transporting goods has an environmental impact,
but as it turns out, probably not as much as you'd think.
I was shocked to learn that transportation of beef
only accounts for 0.5% of its total emissions.
We shouldn't disregard the impact of travel,
but to imply switching to local beef as the solution
to a climate emergency rather than to plant-based protein
would only really make sense if the plant-based protein
and the beef had the same environmental impact
before that transportation was taken into account.
And it's not even close in any of the areas measured.
I was also having a hard time with the term "grass-fed."
Grass-fed simply means animals only have to spend
part of their life out grazing in fields.
Grass-finished beef,
whereby the animals eat nothing but grass or forage,
is far less common.
In the US, less than 1% of beef is farmed this way.
Despite that figure being so low,
if everyone globally ate the average US citizen's diet,
we'd need to use the entire planet's habitable land
for agriculture, and we'd still be 38% short.
The country with the largest dietary land requirement
is New Zealand.
That's a country where grass-fed beef
and lamb contributes enormously to people's diets.
If every one of us
suddenly started eating like a New Zealander,
we'd need another planet almost the size of Earth
just to sustain us all.
In a world where we're trying to figure out
how to feed in excess of eight billion people,
it's not really the definition of sustainable
if only a handful can eat this way.
- We're constantly being told
the problem is intensive farming.
And so people then say,
"Well, the answer is extensive farming.
Let's have free-range grazing
and the animals outdoors and stuff."
But that has massive problems of its own.
I really try to hammer this home
because people don't get it.
But the more land that humans take for their activities,
the less land there is for nature,
the less land there is for fully functioning ecosystems.
Grazing is a fantastically inefficient way
of producing food.
- [Tom] So, what about this idea
that we'd need even more land
to grow plants for people to eat if the world went vegan?
- But, actually, the figures show very clearly
that not only do you retire
all that land used for livestock grazing
and allow the trees to come back,
allow the wild ecosystems to come back,
you also would retire 19% of all the arable land.
We'd be using less arable land than we are today.
- [Tom] The stats around the sheer amount of land
required for animal agriculture were mind-blowing.
Over 1/3 of the entire world's landmass is used for farming.
Over 40% of the US, and almost 70% of land in England,
and a massive 83% of the land used globally for farming
is for animal agriculture.
Yet, it provides only 18% of calories.
Now, that really is fantastically inefficient.
Almost 1/2 of all the world's habitable land
is used for farming.
Just to pull that into perspective,
only 1% is defined as urban sprawl.
The land used for farming dwarfs
that used for towns and cities.
Amazingly, if the world was somehow to move
to a plant-based diet, we'd require 76% less farmland.
But let's be real, that can't include soya.
Because if there's one plant that I keep hearing about
over and over, how it's destroying the planet,
unbalancing women's hormones,
and giving men massive breasts, it's soya.
- I think people, again,
are not so used to eating minimally processed soya foods
like tofu, and tempeh, and miso, and soya milks,
but they're so healthy.
They've been associated with so many good health properties,
such as lowering your cholesterol,
reducing your chance of breast cancer and prostate cancer,
reducing your risk of heart disease.
And they probably can't think of another food
that's been so well established in the medical literature
at being good for us as humans.
- [Tom] Okay, so it's healthy, but what about the land?
Are vegans part of the problem by eating soya?
- So, people say, "Oh, you tofu eaters,
you know, you're the ones who are causing the deforestation
of the Amazon because of all the soya
being grown to feed you."
No, almost all that soya is being used to feed farm animals.
There's more soya in a piece of chicken breast
than there is in the same weight of tofu.
- [Tom] Well, bugger me.
If only 7% of soya grown is eaten by humans,
and 73% of it goes to feed animals,
why the hell do people say it's vegans
causing deforestation?
It turns out humans don't just say silly things;
we do silly things, too.
Humans make up a mere 0.01% of all biomass,
yet somehow we've collectively wiped out
83% of all wild mammals.
But where you could forgive our ancestors
for their blissful ignorance
in the effect they had during their hunter-gatherer days,
the move to farming,
and in particular, what occurred before our very eyes
during the great acceleration of the 20th century,
is becoming harder to forgive.
Between 1900 and the year 2000,
humans farmed as much land as we had
over the previous 10,000 years,
causing further species extinction around the globe.
This century, it's accelerated further still,
as 10,000 acres of rainforest fall every day.
And in 2019, the Bramble Cay melomys
became the first documented extinction
attributed to human-induced climate change.
They certainly won't be the last.
We're facing the sixth great mass extinction;
only this time we have the indignity
of having to accept that this one is caused by us.
But it's worth pointing out that, as a species,
we're also capable of great things.
Certain humans are doing their best to try
and fix this crisis.
Rather than take land, they're giving it back to nature.
And I was curious to see just how quickly
we can start to see a difference in the land's biodiversity
if we rewild it.
- In the first year,
I started seeing massive amounts of insects.
Those insects brought back rarer birds.
Your stonechats, your warblers.
Then came the buzzards, then the red kites,
then the peregrine falcon appeared.
Then we had the woodpeckers.
That's in two years of rewilding, my style.
Who knows what we could do in 20 years?
- [Tom] It was incredible to see firsthand,
and I found countless other examples around the globe
where rewilding projects were yielding similar results.
It gave me some hope.
But unfortunately, it wasn't just the land usage
causing problems in our global farming system,
it was also water usage.
Even almond milk, which undoubtedly
has a higher environmental impact than oat or soya milk,
still uses far less water than dairy.
It's the same with eutrophication,
which occurs when the environment
becomes enriched with nutrients such as nitrate
and phosphorus, increasing the amount of algae growth,
something I hear very little about in mainstream media.
- For years, I've been visiting the River Wye.
It's meant to be protected by law.
And over the past 10 years, I've seen it go
from being a thriving ecosystem to an open sewer.
What the hell has happened to this river?
What's gone on?
It's the chicken farms in the catchment,
some of which have got many tens of thousands
of chickens in, being bred for either meat or for eggs.
And it's a huge amount of excrement,
which those chickens are producing,
which is being spread on the fields,
which then washes straight into the river
because the fields can't absorb it.
But of course, it doesn't stop there,
because the rivers go somewhere; they go into the sea.
And what we're seeing around the world
is the growth of what biologists call "dead zones."
And they're called "dead zones" for a reason
because, at certain depths in the sea,
there's just nothing living there anymore.
And so even hundreds of miles downstream
from where the animal agriculture is happening,
you'll see these devastating
ecological effects taking place.
- There is basically hardly any functioning life
in that water because the water has become either so toxic
or has become devoid of any oxygen that no life can exist.
The term "dead zone" is a very appropriate term.
- [Tom] The numbers are staggering.
Right now, in this catchment alone,
there are 16 million chickens
on a never-ending conveyor belt.
I quickly learned this was a global issue, too.
Rivers the world over, full of shit.
If you live in a developed nation,
chances are your waterways are heavily polluted
because of animal agriculture.
What about this idea that vegans kill way more insects
because of eating plants?
Is there any truth to that?
Arable farming does have some issues.
It can be destructive
if farmers rely too heavily on the likes of pesticides
and fertilizers, but it doesn't need to be that way.
[birds chirping]
- [Iain] Here on the farm,
we grow around 100 different types of vegetables.
A lot of our soil has been badly damaged,
but soils can be recovered.
What we grow on the farm is biodiversity.
So, the biodiversity comes first, vegetables come second.
[deep thoughtful music]
- [Tom] Iain was defying everything I'd heard
about traditional organic farming methods.
He didn't use manure; he didn't use pesticides;
the land was considered unsuitable for arable farming,
and yet somehow, it was working.
Iain Tolhurst is proof there is another way.
But my main issue with this argument against the vegan diet
is that the majority of plants grown are feeding animals.
I'd already learned that if we shifted
towards a plant-based diet,
that we'd actually free up 19% of arable land.
Therefore, less land would be used to grow crops,
and less insects would die.
And what about greenhouse gas emissions?
First sector I think of
with regards to greenhouse gas emissions
is the fossil fuel industry.
So, I was surprised to learn
that even if we eliminate fossil fuels completely,
the emissions from animal agriculture alone
make it impossible to prevent the planet warming
to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
And that's because the agricultural industry
emits more greenhouse gas emissions
than the entire transport sector.
Yet despite this,
I keep finding claims that animal agriculture,
and more specifically regenerative grazing,
is one of, if not the solution.
- So now we talk about regenerative grazing,
formerly known as grazing, and it tries to spin
what they're doing as something completely different.
"Oh, we're restoring the ecosystem.
We're restoring soil carbon by grazing the land."
No, you're not.
In fact, there is a study;
it was a meta-analysis of 300 studies from around the world
which looked into this question
and found there wasn't a single instance
of grazing storing more carbon
than the greenhouse gases which the animals were producing.
It's what's called the "carbon opportunity cost"
and the "ecological opportunity cost."
Because it's not just that livestock farming
is a massive contributor to greenhouse gas emissions,
it's also the biggest cause of ecological destruction.
- [Tom] I thought the main benefit of rewilding
was the increased biodiversity.
And while it's undoubtedly incredible to see
the thriving ecosystems at Dunsany Castle,
it seems the greatest gain in rewilding of forests
and wetlands across our continent and beyond
is the opportunity it provides
in drawing carbon from our atmosphere and sequestering it.
It was starting to become clear why the science says
that plant-based diets can reduce emissions by up to 73%.
Today's global farming model
is a Neolithic production system
that simply wasn't designed to feed
in excess of eight billion people.
It just isn't sustainable.
There was so much to digest.
I felt like I hadn't scratched the surface.
One thing really bugging me
was the level of emissions created from farmed fishing.
[tense thoughtful music]
For years, oily fish has been regarded as a health food,
in part because it contains
the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA.
But is it possible to get omega-3 fatty acids
from plant foods?
- I recommend that it's wise for plant-based eaters
to have a couple of servings of omega-3-rich plant foods
such as walnuts or a couple of tablespoons of ground flax
or chia seeds.
- [Tom] It turns out that a number of plant-based foods
contain a short-chain omega-3 fatty acid called ALA,
which the body then converts into EPA
and DHA when readily available.
But what about people who worry about the price
of ALA-rich foods or that perhaps they couldn't eat enough
to meet the conversion rate?
Are there EPA and DHA sources for vegans?
- A lot of people don't realize
that actually omega-3 is made by algae,
and it comes from the algae, not from the fish.
So you could actually cut out the middleman
and go straight to the algae.
Just take a good-quality DHA
and EPA supplement if you're concerned.
- [Tom] With the pescatarian diet
being the most expensive dietary pattern,
this is an instance where supplementing
or using the ALA sources would actually be cheaper.
- I would say that fish isn't necessarily
the health food that it used to be
because we are polluting the oceans
with environmental plastics and heavy metals, dioxins,
and PCBs, which then bioaccumulate in the fish.
And of course, when we eat them, we are also bioaccumulating
those toxins within our own bodies.
- Pregnant people are required not to have more
than two servings of oily fish a week
because of the levels of mercury
and other heavy metals present.
So, with a food that comes with a health warning,
why take the risk?
- [Tom] I was curious about the current state of our oceans.
How were the fish levels?
After all, it absorbs around 30% of all global emissions.
The number of fish killed each year
dwarfs that of land animals.
Anywhere from 0.8
to 2.3 trillion wild fish are killed each year.
So why are fish offered such little protection
under law compared to land animals?
Especially when we know fish are sentient beings,
they feel pain.
- With fishes, I feel like, and aquatic animals,
you know, that they seem so unfamiliar to us.
And so, I think that perhaps it's harder
to bridge that disconnection
than it might be, for, you know,
the connection between humans and dogs and cats.
- [Tom] One method used in the fishing industry,
to me, at least, seems particularly reckless.
Bottom trawling involves dragging huge nets
along the ocean floor and damaging it in the process,
and it scoops up anything in its path.
Every year, 300,000 dolphins
and whales are killed as bycatch,
wiping out species with huge carbon capture potential.
And it's not just what we're taking from oceans,
but what we're adding.
- Fish stocks have depleted 90%.
And the biggest source of ocean plastic
is fishing nets that have been discarded.
- Global wild marine catch for fish peaked 20 years ago.
Since it's been declined.
But meanwhile, we have invented a thing
called aquaculture.
That's why there is fish still in the supermarkets.
- [Tom] The overfishing and destruction of our oceans
has forced us into creating a farmed fishing system.
And just like pasture-fed beef,
farmed fish is also incredibly environmentally destructive.
For every 10 calories farmed fish provide,
they're given 100 calories themselves.
And what about the environmental impacts of cheese?
Cheese is the single biggest reason I ever hear
as to why vegetarians could never go vegan.
And I get it.
I mean, I've tried some vegan cheese
that tasted like it was created by the devil
in the deepest, darkest pits of hell.
But I've also eaten absolutely amazing vegan cheese.
And environmentally, vegan cheese has a significantly lower
climate impact to that of dairy cheese.
But aside from the environmental impacts,
I know very little about the cheese and dairy industry,
despite eating copious amounts of it as a youngster.
The only thing I do know is that cows would explode
if we didn't milk them,
because nine people have actually said this to me
during my journey.
Turns out those nine people were misinformed.
Much like humans, cats, and dogs,
cows also produce milk after giving birth.
So, what else does the dairy industry not tell us?
[cow mooing] [gentle somber music]
[cow mooing continues]
[cow mooing]
- [Tom] I was shocked to learn that 1/2 of all beef
comes from the dairy industry.
[cow mooing]
But if the mothers need to give birth to produce cow milk,
what happens to their babies?
- [Tom] Hypothetically, let's pretend we stop this.
That cheese isn't a thing anymore.
Neither are slaughter dealers,
rounding up baby calves for a few quid.
And that the majority of land used
for cheese production is rewilded.
What would happen to the farmers?
I think there's a misconception that vegans hate farmers.
From my experience, that couldn't be further from the truth.
My uncle was a farmer, and I liked him a lot.
He was incredibly hard-working,
and frankly, he had very little to show for the long
and enduring work he undertook,
like most farmers I've spoken to.
So, what could a shift to a plant-based diet
and the mass rewilding of land mean for farmers right now?
- I see opportunities here to bring people into farming,
not drive them out.
We don't wanna see livestock farmers driven out of farming.
We wanna see them thrive and develop.
And change their systems to suit,
they're gonna needs, help, and support.
There's potentially a whole lot of new jobs
waiting to be had here as the economy changes.
Livestock doesn't produce any jobs,
hardly at all, certainly not on the farm.
- [Tom] Of course, we wouldn't need all the land
freed up from animal agriculture for arable farming,
so if it isn't suitable,
this is where the work of people like Randal comes in.
We pay trillions a year in taxpayers' money
to prop up a broken food and farming system
when that money could instead be used
to work with the local farmers, communities,
and Indigenous people to work together with their land
to help fight the climate emergency on the ground.
If more of us move towards a plant-based diet
and the land no longer needed for farming
is returned back to nature, we'll be able to remove billions
of metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
And from an employment perspective,
one study found that rewilding projects
have resulted in a 54% increase
in full-time equivalent jobs.
Simply put, removing farmland and giving it back to nature
doesn't lose jobs; it creates them.
Then there's completely new sectors opening up.
Innovations that are creating more jobs, more opportunities,
like cultivated meats or fermented proteins.
Solar Foods in Finland is creating what they call solein,
a protein out of thin air.
It's not from a plant or an animal;
it originates from a single-cell organism
that's put through a fermentation process.
- What we're trying to achieve as a company
is to disconnect food production from agriculture
and go really to the root cause of problems
in what comes to food production on this planet.
The environmental impact of solein compared to meat
is about 1% and about 1/10 compared to that of plants.
- [Tom] I do wonder how people will react
to this sort of innovation.
- Ultimately, it's the taste and texture, convenience,
experience that is a decisive factor.
- I'm not gonna lie, that's exactly what I wanted to know.
Mm!
That's good.
I felt like I was in a science-fiction movie.
Mm, that's really good.
But there was no denying it looked and tasted amazing.
The climate benefits are undeniable,
and along with the transition for livestock farmers
to a more environmentally friendly form of arable farming
or to land managers paid to rewild,
this alternative fat and protein sector
could create an endless possibility of foods and jobs.
Climate change, the environmental crisis,
the sixth mass extinction,
the collapse of our planet's life support systems,
however, you wanna phrase it,
it's a complex issue that cannot be fixed
by dealing with industries in isolation.
If a middle-aged man has a heart attack
and he smokes, drinks excessively, is stressed,
doesn't exercise, and eats poorly, then what caused it?
We should think of the chronic disease
our planet has right now in the same way.
But where we have little say in how we currently heat
or power our homes,
we do have much more control over the foods we eat
and the environmental impact that comes with it.
Which is why the single biggest thing we can do
to reduce our environmental impact
is to reduce or remove animal-based products from our diet.
So, let me get this straight: we forcibly impregnate a sow.
When she gives birth, we barely allow her to move,
whilst we fan her piglets up for a few weeks
until they're taken away and the process for her repeats.
Once removed,
we spend a few more weeks fattening the piglets up.
And it's a similar process for other farm animals,
one which requires huge amounts of water and feed,
which a large chunk is grown in parts of the world
using deforested land,
thus increasing our risk of zoonotic diseases
and releasing carbon into the atmosphere.
All around the world,
these animals are pumped with antibiotics,
a large chunk of which are vital for human health,
creating a greater risk of death from antibiotic resistance,
which is already killing millions of people.
The manure from the animals damages the soil,
runs off into the rivers, polluting our water,
and affects human health.
When it makes it into the sea, it forms dead zones,
killing further planet aquatic life.
Parts of the ocean not affected are frequently overfished,
resulting in millions of additional sea life killed
accidentally as bycatch
while simultaneously damaging the ocean floor
and releasing even more greenhouse gas emissions.
While all that's going on,
billions of land animals around the world
are sent to slaughter,
in units hidden away from the public's view,
in countries where not a single one
has been awarded an A rating for its farming practices.
These animals are killed in ways
that are deemed humane by governments.
The meat is then sold to the public,
of which a huge percentage
has been proven to be infected with different bacteria,
increasing the risk of foodborne illness.
When it finally reaches our plate,
and in a world where one in four people
now die from a poor diet, we get to eat a number of foods
that are classified as type one or two carcinogens.
And even the foods that aren't
are proven to have a far higher environmental impact
than their plant-based alternatives,
thus contributing enormously
to the destruction of a planet we,
and our loved ones,
call home.
[deep contemplative music]
What the actual fuck?
[footsteps tapping]
[door clunking]
[door slams] [intense dramatic music]
Sophia's turn to deadlift.
On her third attempt, she's going for a lift
that will not only give her the title if she gets it,
but she'll also smash
her own British deadlift record in the process,
with an enormous lift of 237.5 kilograms.
- [Announcer] If she gets this,
this will be the biggest deadlift
in British powerlifting history for a woman, okay?
So, no big thing, no big stakes,
but this is where it goes down.
237.5 kilos
on the bar for Sophia Ellis!
[rousing orchestral music]
[rousing orchestral music continues]
[audience yelling]
[audience cheering]
[announcer drowned out by audience applauding and cheering]
[Sophia screams] [audience cheering]
You have just won this in three!
[rousing orchestral music continues]
[crowd cheering] [crowd applauding]
- [Bystander] Whoo-hoo!
Whoo!
[group cheering]
- [Tom] Thank you.
- It was her who signed him up.
- 84 years old, he's done this race today.
[crowd cheering]
Doing press-ups at the age of 84.
- [Announcer] Sophia Ellis!
[audience cheering] [audience applauding]
[group laughing]
- Hey! - Yeah, mate.
- Cheers.
- Well done, mate. - Thanks, man.
- It was a pleasure doing that with you. [laughs]
- Yeah.
Oh, oh!
Yeah, Chan. Hello!
[phone line ringing]
[light uplifting music]
- [Tom's Mum] Hello?
- Hey, Mum. It's Tom again.
Really, I just wanted to call and say thank you.
Thank you for everything.
[light uplifting music continues]
- Well, this is up to us.
Whether we turn it around or not is up to us.
It's up to our commitment;
it's up to the numbers we can mobilize.
It's up to whether we can make sure our voices become louder
than the lobbyists for the old legacy industries.
And whether we can promote
and press for the new industries and new change
and new ways of producing food,
which are essential to protecting the living world.
- [Tom] So, can we turn this around?
- [George] We can turn this around.