The cow-troversial documentary feature COWSPIRACY: THE SUSTAINABILITY SECRET screens for free at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House in Lincroft, as a Sunday presentation of NJ Farm Animal Save.
It’s been called “the most destructive industry facing the planet today” — and unlike many things that might come to mind, it sits snugly on a sesame seed bun. Large-scale factory farming — particularly the production and process that brings BEEF to the take-out bag or table — is the bogeyman and bugaboo in COWSPIRACY: The Sustainability Secret, the feature-length documentary by Frisco-based filmmaker Kip Andersen that’s been credited with everything from “saving the planet,” to “regurgitating common myths” (this last from Beef Magazine).
Making the case that livestock production is accelerating environmental and public health crises through water and grain consumption, deforestation, soil depletion, methane emissions and obesity rates, the “shocking yet humorous” doc positions Andersen and co-producer Keegan Kuhn as figures caught up in a web of cover-ups and threatened reprisals — not just from Big Cattle, but from trusted “leaders in the environmental movement” as well. The 2014 film, which has been made available to community groups for free screenings nationwide, comes to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County Meeting House on West Front Street this Sunday, January 11, as part of the ongoing Social Action Film Series.
Scheduled for 5 pm, the presentation is hosted by NJ Farm Animal Save, a grassroots animal activism group founded last March by Red Bank resident (and gallery-exhibited photographer) Lorelle Shea with New Brunswick’s Amy Zeidman Horowitz to “promote awareness of animal welfare issues in New Jersey, and promote a compassionate plant-based diet.” The two women were instrumental in organizing a protest outside Shrewsbury’s Catelli Brothers veal slaughterhouse this past October.
Representatives from the group will conduct a brief post-screening discussion, and will furnish complimentary vegan refreshments for attendees. There’s no advance registration required to take part in Sunday’s all-welcome, free-of-charge event.
