David White Photo: supplied
The information we get about meat production usually comes from either those staunchly opposed to meat-eating or farmers themselves, says filmmaker David White.
His new film MEAT tells the real story of 'the people behind the meat' – a pig farmer, a chicken farmer, a beef and lamb farmer and a deer hunter.
White says that even though he was a farm kid himself (in Hawkes Bay) he'd never visited a pig farm or a chicken farm or been hunting until he made the film.
Many young people today have never been to a farm or met a farmer, he says, and the images of meat production facilities that we most commonly see are covertly shot by activists and therefore have a dark slant.
"It's always at night-time, it's always with a torch, it's always – or a lot of the time – [the activists] breaking in."
On the other hand, videos made by farmers are "too nice".
While he believes hypocrites shouldn't eat meat – "if you can't deal with the killing of an animal then you probably should become a vegetarian or a vegan" – White says his film doesn't have a moral message.
He says the issues the film presents are societal and more complicated than 'right or wrong'.
"This question of being ethical is so much more complex than just my decision at the supermarket."
As a sideline, White is also serving up his own brand of barbecue sauce 'David's BBQ Sauce'.
"I've been threatening my friends for a long time that I was going to start selling this sauce. Then I told my publicist for the film and she said 'Haha! David, we've gotta do it."
MEAT opens in NZ on 4 May. You can watch the trailer here.
David White has made several documentaries exploring agricultural life, including I Kill and The Cleanest Pig. He also co-produced the feature documentary Shihad: Beautiful Machine and directed Little Criminals, a survivors' record of NZ boys' homes based on the book by David Cohen.
