Mostly plant-based Oscars signal growing American concern over cruel factory farms
More Americans than ever before are eating plant-based foods. Photo by Anna Pustynnikova/iStock.com
One of the Oscars’ most memorable moments this year came with Joaquin Phoenix’s heartfelt plea about the suffering of animals raised for food. The speech, which drew concern for animals into a broader framework of social injustice, followed an A-list nod to plant-based eating from the awards function itself: the Oscars this year served mostly vegan food in an acknowledgement of climate change and one of its biggest contributors, meat production on factory farms.
Hollywood has, in fact, made multiple statements on plant-based eating this year, most notably at awards functions: besides the Oscars, the Golden Globes in January served stars a plant-based menu, and so did the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
The plant-based trend in Hollywood is also sweeping the country.
More Americans than ever before are eating plant-based foods. At supermarkets today, plant-based ice creams and meats sit in freezers alongside their traditional counterparts, giving consumers healthier and more humane options. More than half the fast food chains in the country now offer plant-based options, including Burger King, Carl’s Jr., White Castle, Qdoba, Del Taco, or family dining restaurants like TGI Fridays and Denny’s. Even KFC, long synonymous with fried chicken, is testing a plant-based chicken in select markets.
Part of the reason for this switch is that for years, organizations like ours have worked hard to educate consumers about factory farms and the problems they create, for the animals, for people and for the planet. In addition to emitting an extremely high amount of greenhouse gases, exacerbating climate change, these largescale industrialized operations systematically mistreat the animals in their care. Egg-laying hens are packed into battery cages where they can’t even spread their wings; baby calves are taken from their mothers and confined in pens so small they can barely move; and mother pigs are locked in gestation crates only slightly bigger than the width and length of their bodies, unable to even turn around.
The list of problems with factory farming is long and far-reaching, from immense animal suffering to poor labor conditions, as well as water, soil and air pollution, and increasingly, consumers are looking for alternatives. The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International have been working with the largest food service companies in the world to offer more plant-based meals and have persuaded hundreds of individual colleges, K-12 schools and hospitals to reduce their meat consumption. People who work in the food industry are more open than ever now to making changes that appeal to their consumers and clientele.
In his remarks, Joaquin said that being in the movies allows him to give a voice to the voiceless. We’re grateful that he does, and it is important to remember that as consumers, we all have that power. With our culture changing rapidly and plant-based food becoming more mainstream, it’s easier than ever before to make better choices for the health of our planet, for our own health, and for the animals.
Thank you, Hollywood. We who love and take care of animals and, if they could hazard an opinion, the animals who have landed in hell on earth, a.k.a., the entire factory farm, CAFO world would take the support of Joaquin Phoenix, Hollywood, heck they would surely accept support from the not-a-dog-lover in chief, President Classy.
Thanks a lot to Joaquin Phoenix, who is nutty and off the slightly deep end, for you powerful words upon receiving the Oscar. Maybe the peeps are starting to figure out how much of a horror story factory farming really is.
Sadly, the statistics do not support claims that AR efforts are reducing meat consumption nor egg consumption despite “Hollywood” catering plant-based meals at awards time. By way of example, egg laying flocks are the largest they have ever been in the United States. Egg consumption is on the rise and prices remain low due to an over supply and despite moves to cage-free housing. The largest egg farm in the world is in Iowa and have built a barn around a multi-aviary system on two floors. This barn houses 540,000 hens! Future “cage-free” housing will not drive the cost of eggs and consumption down, contrary to claims made by many AR organizations – the industry will adapt and simply increase more birds on the same footprint as caged barns are now by building up, not out. Furthermore, once McDonald’s and WalMart (the world’s two largest egg buyers) convert their entire supply chain over to cage-free, the industry expects the cost to stabilize to pretty much the same as caged eggs are now. The AR movement needs to start promoting the care tradition instead of chasing “corporate commitments” and re-frame a “win” as being a reduction in egg consumption and flock sizes not more “cage-free” birds.