Can you imagine a world without cows? Well, that is the question two award-winning journalists posed to various academics, experts, advocates, specialists, farmers and food producers around the world over three years, to produce the documentary, A world without cows.

Why would we want to live in a world without cows?

There are 1,5 billion cows on earth. That works out to one cow for every five people. Michelle Michaela and Brandon Whitworth found that, while cows are responsible for 5% of the greenhouse gases that lead to global warming, they
also help with plant growth, remove carbon from the air and put it back into the soil, improve biodiversity on pastures, and convert food that cannot be consumed by humans into food that contains the nutrients we need. A world without cows also shows the economic and cultural impact that cows have around the world. So, the question really is, how do we save the earth? By getting rid of cows or by farming cows in a sustainable way, which might just save the earth too.

What do cows contribute?

According to A world without cows, one in ten people on earth, about 800 million people, depend on cows for a living, with India having the largest concentration of livestock and being the largest producer of milk in the world. Brazil now has the largest herd of commercial cattle with just over 200 million cattle in the country.

The market value of cows worldwide is estimated to be around $1 trillion. Livestock, which includes cows, accounts for 40% of the total value of agricultural output worldwide. This makes cows a very important part of our future food security. Just one glass of milk can provide a child between four and eight years old with 40% of the protein it needs daily. It also provides between 50 and 60% of its daily calcium needs and 10% of its potassium needs – all while one in four (2 billion) people is malnourished. One of the experts in the documentary determined that about 318 kg of grain would be needed to provide three children with the protein they need to grow for a year. However, when you feed that 318 kg of grain to a cow, it can produce enough meat to provide 17 children with protein for a year.

The food security problem and the future

The world population is increasing by more than 1 billion people every 11 to 12 years. This means that within the next four decades we will be left with more than 10 billion hungry stomachs. These numbers will put incredible pressure on the world’s food producers and will result in us having to produce the same amount of food in the next 40 years as we have produced in the past 10 000 years. The problem, however, is that only one third of the world’s agricultural land can be used to grow crops. The other two thirds are not fertile enough and are used as pasture for animals.

What do the experts say?

Following the first South African screening of A world without cows at the Centurion Theatre, Dewald Olivier, CEO of Red Meat Industry Services, agricultural writer Lindi Bothma, and Charles Moore, an agricultural consultant, held a panel discussion about the documentary.

“It is everybody’s responsibility to tell this story. Thanks to this documentary and activists, the information is now available to everyone,” Lindi replied when asked how she would convey this message.

Charles said that one thing that stood out to him about the documentary was how cows are used for upcycling. The animals eat the remnants of plants that would otherwise be discarded, and from that we get healthy nutrients through beef.

Dewald said red meat producers need to start driving their own “narrative” and tell their side of the story. He compared this to vegetarians who are openly talking about their choices and the benefits thereof, adding that red meat producers need to use this conversation to tell how cows can help the food shortage and the environment.

“For the past few years, we have been slaughtering the same amount of meat. We have not produced less meat; we have only started applying more sustainable methods to produce meat. In South Africa, we have already moved towards competitive farming and one of our biggest assets is our small-scale farms. The question is how we also help them to farm more sustainably,” Dewald asked.

Lindi believes that South African farmers are already implementing and benefiting from sustainable farming.

“The more farmers tell their side of the story and share their methods, the more others can learn from them,” she said.

Start the conversation

A world without cows is an informative documentary that does not necessarily answer the question, but makes people wonder what our lives would be like without cows. The idea behind the documentary was never to promote only one point of view, but to start a conversation; a conversation that can lead to alternative sustainable ideas that can solve the global warming problem and food shortage.

Together, we can make a real difference, and the question can be answered: Are we better off in a world without cows?

If you want to be part of the conversation or find out where you can watch the documentary, please visit their website at www.worldwithoutcows.com