About the film
5 years
22 countries
5 continents
200+ interviews
Frequently asked questions
World Without Cows is a feature-length documentary that explores the complex relationship between what we eat, how it’s produced, and how it impacts the world around us. Through the voices of those who raise, study, question and depend on cattle, it invites audiences to consider a bigger question than the filmmakers initially set out to answer: How do we feed a growing world while protecting the land that sustains it?
Whether cattle are part of your everyday life or rarely cross your mind, World Without Cows is a story about, and for, all of us. If you’ve ever wondered where our food comes from, who produces it or how we can nourish a growing world while protecting the planet, this is a film for you.
To broaden the conversation about cows, bringing more voices and perspectives to debates often framed as black and white. As the global population grows and pressure on land increases, the challenge is not just to produce more food, but to provide better nutrition while protecting the land we depend on. World Without Cows invites audiences to consider what role cattle might play in meeting that challenge.
Themes from the film
Cows are tied to some of the biggest questions about food, our health and the future of our planet. But what if there’s a different story about cows than the one we’ve been told?
By 2050, the global population is expected to approach 10 billion, increasing the need for nutritious foods and high-quality sources of protein. What will be required to meet this need, and are we on track?
Only about one-third of the world’s agricultural land can support crops. Much of the rest is too rocky, dry or hilly to farm. Is it possible for this marginal land to still produce protein?
Cows produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. But unlike carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, methane from cattle moves through a biological cycle. What if cows have a different role in our planet’s ecosystem than we think?
Healthy soil makes food production possible, but erosion and degradation are reducing its productive capacity. Well-managed grazing animals can support soil health, improve biodiversity and increase carbon storage. Do cows help or hinder soil health?
A global question needs more than one answer. Hear from farmers, ranchers, scientists and environmental experts, and you'll find the impact of cows depends on who you ask.
Michelle Michael’s curiosity about the wider world began in a small Ohio town and ultimately led to a decades-long career in journalism, including years spent abroad as a U.S. military correspondent. Her work has taken her from local newsrooms to war zones, earning recognition from the National Press Photographers Association, West Point Military Academy, the Poynter Institute and the Kentucky News Photographers Association.
Over the past decade, Michael has turned her journalistic eye increasingly toward agriculture and the people whose lives are connected to the land. Working alongside longtime collaborator and World Without Cows co-filmmaker Brandon Whitworth, she has traveled extensively to document farmers and producers around the world, bringing their experiences, challenges and perspectives to the screen.
That combination of curiosity, field experience and a reporter’s instinct for asking questions became the foundation for World Without Cows, a five-year investigation that took Michael and Whitworth across five continents in search of a deeper understanding of one of the world’s most familiar, and increasingly debated, animals.
Brandon Whitworth began his career in local television news, spending more than a decade with CBS and NBC affiliates in Kentucky and Utah before becoming an international video producer. A two-time Emmy Award-winning television news photojournalist, he has also received regional honors from the American Advertising Federation, the Associated Press and the National Press Photographers Association.
Like his directorial counterpart, Whitworth is originally from Ohio. He has followed stories wherever they have taken him, from covering wildfires by helicopter to traveling the globe reporting on agriculture, science and food.
For the past decade, he has worked alongside longtime collaborator and World Without Cows co-filmmaker Michelle Michael, documenting the lives of farmers and producers across cultures and continents. That work eventually grew into their most ambitious assignment yet: a five-year global journey examining the role cattle play in our food systems, environment, economies and everyday lives.
