"We really wanted to make a film that didn’t necessarily wag its finger at a hearty meat eater, to make it approachable," says director Christopher Quinn, discussing new-to-the-UK documentary Eating Animals. Adapting a successful book is difficult for anybody, but when it's one that's entirely created out of the truth of a world-leading industry, it could be harder than ever before.
Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of the original text and producer on the documentary, and Natalie Portman, who served also as a producer, as well as the narrator on the film, worked together with Quinn to create something truly special. This isn't just another movie about how damaging eating meat can be to the world, but one that offers up evidence of why things have to change sooner, rather than later.
Speaking with Female First, Quinn explained: "All the issues that are in the film are extremely important moving forward. One of the considerations is this way of farming, this factory farming; if we look at either the meteoritic rise of meat consumption in South Asia and East Asia, we really have to change the way we consume meat if we want to have a healthy planet moving to the future.
"Also the idea that this type of meat consumption isn’t necessarily good for social health, and that never before in the history of mankind have we caused so much suffering. These things are brought up in the film, but it’s also there to provide the evidence and let somebody walk away with their own conclusions."
Eating Animals is unique in many ways to a lot of other documentaries in the same vein. It doesn't use incredibly violent and confronting imagery to drill its point home, for example. Quinn says this was "difficult" at times, but was also a "personal decision" because of how hard those scenes are to watch.
"I wanted to stay on point," he said. "Anybody who’s conscious knows there’s something really bad under the hood of factory farming, and what I always say when I’m speaking to audiences is this is the PG version of what really is out there. It’s easy to see that; you can go to YouTube and see really extreme things.
"90% of Americans, and I’m sure this statistic can carry over worldwide, don’t believe in cruelty towards what’s put on their plate - they don’t want that to be a part of what they’re consuming - yet that’s exactly what factory farming is, because it’s really an issue of cost and efficiency."
Whether or not the modern world is open to such a change when it comes to consuming meat is something up in the air. With Westernised eating on the rise in Asian countries, and climate change deniers in some of the highest offices of power across the globe, it's difficult to see things getting any better, fast.
Asked what he thinks could see matters change, Quinn said: "I think it’s public opinion. That’s one of the reasons I decided to make documentaries; it’s very difficult, it takes a lot of effort but for me, I feel so satisfied having made this because I feel it’s one of the most important things that we can be talking about.
"I don’t think politicians ever change, like in Washington there are lobbyists. The meat industry is very influential, so is the Dairy Council; politicians won’t stand up because there’s real money at play there, and the industry itself spends a great deal of time and money and resources, so it’s a mammoth undertaking to consider it and change the optics, but politicians will change if people change.
"That’s really where it begins and you’re starting to see people at least saying, ‘I know this is bad’, and that gives me hope, that people are really already conscious that something is wrong and now it’s just really about information and informing people that you really do have the power to change this, and politicians will change when people change."
Speaking about one fan of the film in particular, he added: "There was one guy who said to me, ‘I want you to know I haven’t consumed meat in the two days since [I watched], I might go back to it, but you gave me a roadmap that maybe it’s okay that I just cut back and don’t consume meat twice out of the week. I’ve never seen a film or read anything that has given me that roadmap’, so I felt very gratified with that."
Eating Animals is available to watch in UK cinemas now.