003: Vegan for Animals, Vegan for Humans with Shawn Bannon

Essential Ingredients Podcast

English - August 05, 2022 13:00 - 13 minutes - 11.2 MB - ★★★★★ - 127 ratings
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Previous Episode: 002: Through the Lens— The Concealed Exploitation of Wildlife with Skyler Thomas

Next Episode: 004: Microbial Oil— Solving Global Issues with the Tiniest Organisms on Earth with Lars Langhout

Series: Mindful Eating Film and Food Festival

Episode Description:

“I’m not just vegan for the animals. I’m also vegan for humans. Being compassionate for humans is very important— understanding the conditions that people are living in and the oppression that is going on.” -Shawn Bannon

On a farm, animals are treated like machines. They're kept in cages with no room to move or express themselves, and they live their entire lives on the same land with no chance of escape. They are fed a diet that is unnatural and often unhealthy, and they are exploited to produce resources for humans.

But what about the people who live nearby? How do they fit into this equation? The truth is that it's not different at all. When animals are used as a farming tool, they lose their lives—directly through slaughter and indirectly through pollution caused by pesticides and other toxic chemicals used on crops to protect them from disease-carrying insects or weeds. In many cases, these chemicals also seep into groundwater supplies where many human communities live causing health issues. Furthermore, communities also have to face economic challenges and even oppression from these large corporations.

Directed and Produced by award-winning filmmaker Shawn Bannon, The Smell of Money sheds light on this horrific truth. This documentary features the story of Elsie Herring and the rest of her community and their decade-long battle to reclaim their rights to clean water and a healthy environment. Rancho Compasión’s 3rd Annual Mindful Eating Film and Food Festival to be held on the 6th and 7th of August, 2022 features this heart-wrenching and motivational documentary.

Listen in as Shawn shares more about The Smell of Money and his motivation behind the environmentally-themed film. Justine and Shawn discuss how going vegan benefits not only the animals and the environment but also humans and how we, as a community, can be a part of changing our food system.

Meet Shawn:

Shawn Bannon is an award-winning filmmaker whose films have been screened at the Sundance Film Festival, AFI FEST, and featured on The Atlantic, Forbes, and BBC America. His short films, Hurricane Heroes, Bloody Barbara, and A Ghost Story – 10 Pages, have all been selected for Vimeo Staff Picks. His recent film The Green Knight Documentary was made for A24 and premiered on iTunes. The Smell of Money is his first feature-length documentary.

The Smell of Money

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