Our headlining speaker in the 2016 lineup at our Inspirational Speaker Series tent was Keegan Kuhn, the co-Director of the award-winning documentary, Cowspiracy. In our Press Release to local journalists, we boldly claimed that VegFest Oahu was a place to learn about diet’s link to climate change, and Keegan’s talk was one of the ways we delivered. In this live recording on September 24, 2016, Keegan summarizes the impact that animal agriculture has on climate change and presents well-researched statistics.
Here are some of our favorite quotes from Keegan Kuhn’s talk at VegFest Oahu 2016:
Commenting on the University of Illinois study examining all the world’s grasslands that are now used for cattle that were formerly forests and analyzing what would happen if they allowed the forest to grow back, he says: “So just that alone – literally removing grass fed beef from what was once forest and allowing the forest to come back we would be able to halt climate change… Why aren’t we hearing from this from the United Nations? Why isn’t this being implemented?” (Starts at Timecode: 14:45).
Questions that Keegan answers in the video:
- Since Cowspiracy came out has there been any update from any of the environmental organizations in the film who had remained silent about animal agriculture? (Starts at Timecode 27:13).
- The University of Hawaii divested from fossil fuels, have you seen anything like that in any University divesting from animal agriculture? (Starts at Timecode 28:57).
- What has been the rebuttal from the cattle industry about the Cowspiracy film? (Starts at Timecode 29:53).
- What’s the tipping point before we see a massive shift happen in a positive direction? (Starts at Timecode 31:15).
- What would the world look like of we switched from animal agriculture to plant-based agriculture fully? (Starts at Timecode 32:06).
We are so grateful to Keegan for traveling to Hawaii on his own dime to be part of VegFest Oahu 2016! He recently released his new movie, What The Health, a follow-up documentary exposing the corruption in government that is costing us trillions in health care dollars and showing how big business influences our nation’s health.
We want to thank The Pollination Project for giving VegFest Oahu a grant which included funding to pay for the editing of this video. Since 2013, The Pollination Project has made daily seed grants to inspiring social change-makers who are committed to a world that works for all. Everyday they invest in projects that create a more sustainable, just, peaceful, and compassionate world. We are grateful VegFest Oahu is among those projects!
Michael says
What a treat to be able to see and hear Keegan’s presentation. I was caught up with main stage activities, and was only soothed about missing it live by the knowledge that it was being video-recorded. Thanks SO MUCH to Joy and her video team for capturing this GREAT talk, and sharing it. I’ll be watching it again – Keegan’s multi-leveled knowledge and ability to make connections is so impressive!
Andrea says
FANTASTIC blog post Positve Media! Will be sharing far and wide.