More than 100 students, staff and community members gathered last week in UNC Wilmington’s Lumina Theater for the screening of “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret,” an environmental documentary by producers Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn and executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio.

Graduating senior Lee Stapleton organized the UNCW Cowspiracy Project, because the film debunked what she previously thought she knew about environmental problems today and what she thought she could do to solve them.

So, wanting to share what she had learned with as many of her peers as possible, Stapleton began planning the semester-long awareness project.

When asked what made “Cowspiracy” fundamentally different from other documentaries, Stapleton said many environmental films are discredited for being too radical or not appealing enough to the masses. DiCaprio’s production refutes both of these characteristics in one motion.

The project’s mission was not to convert everyone to veganism or to implement an all-or-nothing attitude, but to pitch plant-based dining to people first as something unrelated to the environment, according to Stapleton.

Because she aimed to reach as many individuals as possible, Stapleton appealed to individual values, not just environmental ones.

“We were able to engage a large number of people who wouldn’t typically be involved in environmental care,” said Stapleton.

The all-or-nothing approach, according to UNCW student Laurel Revette, scares people away. 

Laurel said she doesn’t think she will completely cut out meat anywhere in the near future, but even now, she doesn’t eat meat for every meal because it is expensive.

However, 85 percent of the room raised their hands when asked if they were considering a vegan diet or were already vegan, according to Harry Stewart, a UNCW senior and long time vegan. He said he was surprised at the number of attendees who held up their hands before seeing the film.

“Cowspiracy” approaches sustainability from a diet standpoint that differs greatly from the calls-to-action that most environmental advocacy groups like Greenpeace or Oceana encourage. Kip Anderson, the face of the documentary, searches for answers to the big question: what is the primary driver of climate change?

The use of fossil fuels is the popular answer, but animal agriculture is what he and many others, like environmental researcher Dr. Richard Oppenlander and environmental author Dr. Will Tuttle, have found to be true. WorldWatch, an environmental research organization, has attributed 51 percent of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions to livestock and their byproducts.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, animal agriculture is responsible for 80-90 percent of US water consumption. Facts like these made the UNCW community’s jaw drop.

“Cowspiracy” is now available to stream on Netflix, but for many students, Tuesday night was their first time seeing it. 

UNCW student Jake Byrne said the film was very moving, and he didn’t realize how much animal agriculture degrades the environment. As a result of watching the film, he is now considering a pescatarian diet.

Rising senior Hannah Pursely said she felt “heavy” when the film focused on the negative impacts of eating meat, having had no idea it could be as damaging as the film portrayed. She doesn’t think she would succeed in being vegan if she quit cold turkey, so she is transitioning to vegetarianism first. Nonetheless, she said she enjoyed the film and feels better now knowing the things she learned from “Cowspiracy.” 

For UNCW student Sam, this was her second time seeing the film. Prior to viewing it, she was expecting to see the mistreatment of animals and was surprised when it focused on animal agriculture as the driving cause of climate change. She said the easiest way to combat climate change is cut out meat a few times a week and “put more vegetables in.”

UNCW student Kirsten Verbrugge is currently writing a paper on government subsidies on corn and how it plays a huge role in people’s health and the state of the environment. She said it contributes to Mexico’s crisis, possibly part of a global food problem, not just an American one.

“I’m definitely going to continue to tell people about this,” said Verbrugge. 

Stapleton reassures students that cutting out meat isn’t impossible; she used to eat Cook-Out twice a day every day for a year and a half, she said as she laughed.

The panel for discussion following the film was composed of Kat Pohlman, UNCW’s Sustainability Captain and co-chair of the Sustainability Council; Matt Rogers, a representative of Campus Dining; Chelsea Smart, UNCW’s Registered Dietician; Dr. Anthony Snider, a UNCW environmental studies professor; and Jay Denton, a minister active on UNCW’s campus.

Rogers said being vegan doesn’t prevent him from doing his daily duties like quality control and tasting, saying “it’s okay to still like meat.” The outcomes were incredible, he said, after choosing a vegan diet in an effort to curb his high cholesterol, and for him, “it was a diet that meant so much more” once he got into it. 

Stapleton said making the issues tangible to people is an effective way to promote plant-based diets, saying “everyone has smelled that horrible smell along I-40, and everyone has seen the manure spraying mechanisms along that strip of highway, but not everyone knows what they’re smelling or seeing. Similarly, everyone knows about climate change, but not everyone knows that they can change it with just one bite.”