It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I had an experience kind of similar to the filmmaker's: I had been told that at home, I have to be more environmentally minded - turn up the thermostat in the summer, down in the winter, take shorter showers, turn lights off whenever I can, etc. I discovered recently that animal agriculture was significantly destructive on the environment, and I wanted to find out more, so I watched this documentary. To be honest, I was a little disappointed in it.Maybe it wasn't meant specifically for me. Maybe it was meant for people who had never considered that animal agriculture was environmentally destructive. But, for someone who already agreed with the notion, it felt like much of the film was devoted to establishing the facts and knocking down people (such as organic farmers, no-meat Mondays) who were 'patting themselves on the back'. Only in the very last portion did the filmmaker indicate what can be done to fix the problem (i.e. vegan-ism). What I was hoping for was a more in-depth look at evaluation of each meat. Okay, obviously beef is the most destructive. If we cut beef would we be okay? How do pork and lamb and poultry compare? If natural fisheries are unsustainable, how about changing the water resources we use on livestock farming and do fish farming instead? Of course it would be ideal for the whole world to turn vegan overnight, but the simple fact is that solutions demand compromise.As it is, I appreciated the film. I thought it was well-made, and captured a very kairotic topic that not enough people are talking about. I think the filmmaker failed to establish proof of a 'cowspiracy,' considering the notion of livestock farming be environmentally dangerous is simply not obvious, so it hasn't been as explored. He failed to establish that this is something that is being hush-hushed or covered up. I think it's just not being talked about enough because it's not as obvious.I would recommend this film to most anyone, because it could give you valuable insight to an important topic that isn't discussed enough. However, I can't promise you that it's compelling enough to definitely change your life. Some people will watch this and maybe think twice before buying meat at the grocery store, but still buy it anyway.

This could have been a very good documentary discussing the sustainability issues in modern food production (both in livestock and crops/vegetables growing) but instead it turned into promoting vegan lifestyle using questionable statistics and creative editing of interviews.The director keeps talking about "51% of global emissions caused by animal agriculture", yet that number comes from a sketchy non peer-reviewed source. Far more credible UN report based on peer-reviewed research pegs it at about 14%. Because it doesn't fit the narrative, the latter is called "biased" and a result of a "conspiracy". You see similar use on completely made-up stats from questionable sources and dismissal of publicly available peer-reviewed data throughout the film.Several subjects of the interviews in the film have since come forward alleging the author has creatively edited and misrepresented their words. They've challenged him to release the full length interviews on a number of occasions. During one of the debates, the author vaguely promised to release "longer length interviews" (note the selective wording), but to this day... nada. That's got to tell you something.The latter part of the movie is trying to evoke emotions showing killing of an animal and promoting a vegan lifestyle as an ethical and healthy choice. There are a couple of problems here too.One -- hordes of small animals (mostly rodents) are killed off during crop/vegetable growing seasons. In fact, there's peer-reviewed research showing if one is to follow the least harm principle, their diet would not be vegan but include herbivore animal products. Though it is understandable that most people don't think beyond what is in front of their eyes and the director is taking full advantage of it.Second -- one cannot get full nutrition required by human body on a vegan diet. You need to either take supplements (such as B12) or consume large amounts of fermented food each day. While vegan diet is better than your typical average North American diet, it is by no means perfect.The author deserves some credit for bringing the issue of sustainability and animal abuse in modern factory farming, but the more I researched the material, statistics and data he's employed, the more I was disappointed. Shameful, because this is a missed opportunity, in my opinion.

I work as a researcher in the energy sector. CO2 emissions are literally a part of my job. Everybody agrees we are emitting too much emissions. The movie tells lie after lie about greenhouse gas emissions. Yes its true that methane is about 25 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas, but even taking that into account the Enteric Fermentation (Farts and burps) of cattle accounts for 3 percent of the total. While the energy sector emits 29% and the transport 27%. That is why no one is talking about it! because we have to first focus on bringing down the emissions of the sectors that emit a lot more CO2 equivalent gases. The part about destroying the forests and the environment for our animals could be true. But the part of the water is another time way over exaggerated. Yes a burger needs a lot of water to be produced, but most of that water falls right out of the sky as rain.After 20 minutes I just couldn't take the lies anymore they invent numbers like cattle accounts for 50% of all emissions...I believe in improving the environment and that we have to change a lot to combat with climate change. But what they are proposing is the same as his example of the shower. Not eating meat isn't going to help at all compared to improving the emissions of transport and improving the emissions of the energy sector, the sector that emits the most CO2. So lets invest in Carbon capture and storage for coal and CCGT plants, install more renewable generation, all buy electric cars, and that's the way to solve the problem. Not becoming vegetarian.I was so furious about the numbers they were claiming that I really had to write a review. (first review ever on IMDb by the way)

There is no doubt that an animal based diet has a greater ecological footprint than does a vegetarian diet. Of course you don't have to choose one or the other. It's a continuum, and eating fewer animal products is an improvement. My problem with this documentary is that he portrays a vegetarian diet as the fix for our environmental woes. A vegetarian United States will still be *far* from sustainable. Our consumer-oriented lifestyle is unsustainable in many ways, and food production is just one of them. That doesn't mean we should just do nothing. Less meat in our diet would be helpful, but it's foolish to simply ignore the underlying cause of most of our problems: Overpopulation. It's not a popular topic for discussion or policy. It's really not that interesting. The message never changes, and there's no emotional upside for having fewer children (or none). It's a somewhat cold reality, and not one that stirs passion, but ultimately the only lifestyle choice one can make that reduces our impact on our planet's ecosystem to the point of sustainability is to reduce our vast numbers. Follow Cowspiracy's message and alter your diet, too, but don't ignore the cause of our predicament and the real solution for it.