How does eating beef contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions that are hastening climate change? Why does meat production have serious impacts on our soil, air, and water? That is what the new documentary short called The Secret Life of Beef answers. While many films on the subject focus on animal welfare and ethical concerns, Secret Life of Beef focuses specifically on the climate and environmental consequences directly caused by our consumption of beef and meat in general.

This constructive and highly creative film shows us not only the environmental impact of beef production, but also makes clear the solutions that lie before us. Among some of the more startling facts revealed here is that meat production contributes 18 percent of all global man made greenhouse gas — more than all global transportation services combined. Some United Nations estimates go as high as 51%.

Overall, the United States not surprisingly consumes the most beef, followed by the European Union, Brazil, China, and Argentina. To fuel this rising demand, the CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) emerged out of the 60s, taking cows off of pasture and cramming them into dark and dingy warehouses, pumping them with chemical growth stimulants, hormones, antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals that would be necessary to keep them from getting sick in such a dismal and unhealthy environment, amputating some of their body parts such as tails and hoofs to keep them from injuring each other in these stressed and overcrowded conditions and feeding them a diet of genetically engineered corn and soy that makes them ill since their natural diet is grass.

Some other incredible facts the movie covers include the destruction of the amazon and other highly valued rain forests in a desperate attempt to find more land to grow animal feed. The government’s role in the problem is also under the microscope. “In essence, our tax dollars are being used to help clean up the massive amounts of pollution that CAFOs produce.” The Farm Bill which largely dictates the government policy and practices of animal agriculture has largely favored the industry over the environment, and arguably over human health, animal welfare and world hunger. Clearly if so much land was not allocated to feeding the animals that we consume, there would be more than enough land to grow plants (grains and vegetables) to feed the world’s hungry.

While many of the facts revealed here have also been covered in other films like Food, Inc., Dirt and Fresh, The Secret Life of Beef has an unmistakably clever way of portraying the subject. It’s easy to follow for both children and adults and does a bang up job of making a very complex problem easy to digest in a short viewing. So it’s a great primer for the general public who may have been otherwise unaware of how eating beef impacts the quality of our life.