Premiere Meat the Truth New York great success
On Sunday May 17th the premiere of Meat the Truth in New York attracted a great deal of interest. A total of over 400 people attended the two screenings at the New York Film Academy. Because there were so many people that wanted to see the film, an extra screening had to be added.
Prior to the premiere the annual Veggie Pride Parade took place. Thousands of vegetarians and vegans formed a colourful procession through the streets of the Meatpacking District. Marianne Thieme, Niko Koffeman and Karen Soeters led the way for Meat the Truth with a banner and many volunteers handed out flyers that asked attention for a more vegetarian and animal-friendly way of life. The parade finished at Union Square, where people massed together to hear Marianne Thieme speak. The fact that The Netherlands is the first country to have a political party devoted to animal welfare elected to a national parliament, was met by the crowd with a prolonged applause. In her speech Thieme stressed the huge impact livestock farming has on the environment and climate change.
After the Veggie Pride Parade Karen Soeters, director of the Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation, presented the New York premiere of Meat the Truth for an audience of over 400 people. To give everybody a chance to watch the documentary an extra screening was added. The audience reacted to the film with great enthusiasm. For this premiere scientists at the Institute for Environmental Studies of the Free University Amsterdam have calculated the carbon savings that could be achieved in the U.S. as a result of the reduction in meat consumption. After the premiere the visitors seized the chance to discuss these carbon savings tables with Marianne Thieme. The tables show for example that if all Americans would stop eating meat for 1 day a week, this would result in the same carbon savings as taking 19.2 million cars off the road, or 99.6 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions.