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Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Movie Review: Vegucated

I just found out that this movie came out in 2010, but it was new to me when I saw it listed on Netflix. Hubby and I settled in to watch the documentary, which was to follow three people as they try living as vegans for six weeks. The idea sounded like it would be entertaining and informative. Sadly, I was very disappointed.

It started out giving a synopsis of how they lived up to that point and then they went to the doctor to have their health assessed. Then it quickly progressed to disturbing footage of animals being poorly treated. Then they trespassed on a family farm and saw dead pigs in a trailer.

I grew up on a hobby farm and had friends who lived on larger farms. While I agree that the animals raised for consumption need to be treated better in the larger facilities, I feel like they jumped to conclusions about the smaller farms. Those dead pigs they found - my first thought is that they got sick and died, and the farmer took them away from the barn to be picked up and properly disposed of (for example incinerated to prevent the spread of an illness). The documentary did not allow for that type of thought - the participants were immediately hysterical that they were seeing the types of practices they learned about in the videos they were shown.

They all decided they had to live a vegan lifestyle. In the end, they return to the doctor and had lost a number of pounds and lower cholesterol. So, we are led to believe that this is the result of becoming vegan.

I started watching this movie with the hopes that I would learn something about the transitions that a person makes from omnivore to vegan, and instead was assaulted with images of animals being hurt. It was like the movie was using a scare tactic to force the viewers to go vegan. This is where my disappointment lies. I wanted to learn, and they instead were stereotyping every farm as being evil. My parents raise chickens for meat and eggs - I used to play with them as a kid. It was nothing like the portrayal in the movie.

That's just my two cents. If you want to watch it, it's on Netflix as well as for purchase at their website. Please share your opinions too!