5 Movies That Are Sure To Turn You Vegan

July 17, 2019

The Five Movies That Are Sure To Turn You Vegan

Veganism is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing movements in the world. When it comes to sustainability, animal rights, and even human rights, going vegan is one of the best things you can do for our planet and its inhabitants.

As far as I know, no one has ever woken up one day and suddenly decided to make the compassionate choice to go vegan. No, typically the decision to go vegan comes with time, research and inspiration. Increasingly, that inspiration is found through the form of documentaries.

In my experience, sitting down to watch these documentaries can be a difficult task. Most of us are set in our ways, and we don’t necessarily want to make big life changes. However once you’ve watched one life-changing documentary, you can’t help but seek out more. If you’re looking for a powerful movie to change your life, the below recommendations are guaranteed to be winners.

1. Cowspiracy

Cowspiracy Vegan Movie

Fun fact: Cowspiracy is the film that made my own mother go vegan. This life-altering film is an environmental documentary that follows Kip Anderson as he conducts deep research into the issue that is cattle farming. This film goes into great detail to explain how animal agriculture is the biggest cause of deforestation, water consumption, and greenhouse gasses, even more so than the transportation industry.

Animal agriculture is easily the greatest environmental ill challenging our planet today, and yet there are virtually no regulations in place to combat it. Anderson has created this documentary in order to change that fact, going to great lengths to challenge big names in the industry. Even when his freedom is threatened, Anderson persists for the greater good.

This documentary manages to find a humorous approach to a grim topic, making it entertaining as well as educational.

2. Vegucated

Vegucated Vegan Movie

Vegucated is easily my personal favorite. This innovative documentary does something I haven’t ever seen before, taking three everyday meat eating people and documenting their journey as they spend six weeks living a vegan lifestyle. This documentary is fantastic because it’s so realistic. It takes you through the step by step process of buying vegan items at a grocery store, ordering out at a restaurant as a vegan, and towards the end of the documentary you get to see the participants reactions to seeing factory farming footage. It’s easy to see yourself in at least one of the three people taking on this challenge, and that relatability makes this a really fun documentary to watch. Wait until the very end to see if any of the three stay vegan!

3. What the Health

What The Health takes a different approach to the two documentaries above. This film focuses on the health aspect of eating a vegan diet, as opposed to the ethical approach of Vegucated and the environmental approach of Cowspiracy. This revolutionary movie was made by the same people as Cowspiracy and exposes the corruption in our government that’s costing us trillions of dollars in healthcare every year. This film makes no secret about its critiques of the meat and dairy industry, going into great detail about how these foods are killing us slowly. If you’re at all concerned for your health, this is the documentary for you.

4. The End of Meat

The End of Meat Vegan Movie

The End of Meat comes at you from an activists perspective. The creators of this documentary heavily promote a plant-based diet, but they also promote an alternative that could change the minds of even the most pro-meat people among us. While watching this film, we learn about stem cell meat, which is meat that’s grown in a laboratory using nothing but a cluster of cow cells. This alternative could change the world, and The End of Meat aims to make lab-grown meat a mainstream choice.

5. Earthling

Earthlings Vegan Movie

I saved the best for last. If none of the above documentaries do it for you, Earthlings is guaranteed to make you seriously question your life choices. This documentary is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix and holds absolutely nothing back. It presents its information in five different sections, including pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research. This film uses hidden cameras to show you behind the scenes real-life footage of the events of each one of these industries, and the results are shocking. Earthlings makes it clear that simply changing the way you eat is where you should start, but it’s not where you should stop. There are many different factors to consider, including where you obtain your pets, how you shop for clothes and making choices like taking your kids to the circus. This film is horrific in the best possible way, but I would certainly recommend not snacking while you watch it.