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A Cow's Story

  2. bstein
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The life of an Argentine cow, from birth to slaughter to the dinner table, shows why Argentina can produce high quality beef that is also inexpensive for the local population. The cow, alive or dead, affects every aspect of rural and urban life.

vc2 producers Ginger Gentile and Gerardo Brossy are hard at work in Buenos Aires.
bstein

20 responses // A Cow's Story

  • Right now we are working on lining up the interviews. Our biggest challenge is trying to get all the interviews near the same weekend, to get the most out of the rental car. A big surprise that I have had is that a lot of slaughter houses have opened their doors to us, so no we are trying to pick via location.
    I´ve begun to think a lot about how much meat I eat now, after living in Argentina for 5 years. I used to be a vegetarian, but now I eat at meat at least once every two days. The other day I was talking to a friend about who wants to give up eating meat, and we both agreed that it is so hard to find low cost substitutions.
    Tomorrow we are going to go over the plans and see how to make the most out of our production period.
    gingerandgerardo
  • We found a young gaucho, which is good news! They are hard to come by, as young people tend to leave the family farm. However, his father is more of a natural on camera, so I´ll shoot both and see how it turns out.
    We are going to film in another slaughterhouse that is huge and modern. We are going to have the run of the place and be able to do interviews for the whole shift... which starts at 1am!
    It is going to be a crazy shooting schedule, starting at 5am on a Sunday and ending at 5pm on Monday, with a few hours to sleep tossed in, siesta style.
    gingerandgerardo
  • Young Gaucho!
    bstein
  • the big enemy of the traditional beef industry (in which cows spend their entire lives eating grass until slaughter) is the growth of soy bean farming. Soy is one of Argentina´s newest and biggest exports. Many farmers are turning grazing land into land for farming soy beans. This means that instead of free range grazing, many cows are now raised on, or spend part of their lives, in feed lots. On feed lots the cows are still outside but are in corrals and fed grain and corn.
    Soy bean farming wears out the land much quicker than grazing does.
    I´m wondering how to fit this into my pod, because while the idea is interesting, it is hard to portray visually.
    gingerandgerardo
  • photo of a cow crossing sign, common on road sides in the Argentine countryside
    gingerandgerardo
  • Gerardo and Ginger filming a cow. Yes people, this is what a documentary shoot looks like! No director sitting in a chair, no hot coffee, just a camera, boom mic (that is the fuzzy thing I´m holding) and the subject (in this case a cow).
    gingerandgerardo
  • This is a cow on grass.
    gingerandgerardo
  • Talking about how to film the cows, as they await slaughter.
    This place has a real concentration camp feel to it. Barbed wire, cramped conditions, and the cows moo a lot, I couldn´t help feeling that they KNOW what is going to happen and are trying to tell each other.
    Even so, probably more space and open air than in US and European slaughter operations.
    gingerandgerardo
  • mooo
    They know. . . they know. . .
    before the "big moment" when they get on the truck for their final ride.
    gingerandgerardo
  • One of the main ideas of this pod is to prevent an unsentimental look at the beef industry in Argentina. Our purpose is to show the relationship people have with cows and meat. While some parts are harder to watch (like the slaughter) it is neither pro or anti-beef. I want to convey that for the average Argentine, beef is a cheap source of protein that they view as natural, as opposed to soy (which they view as unnatural and bad for the environment). You will probably meet more people here who won´t eat soy for environmental reasons then meat!
    gingerandgerardo
  • the young gaucho. . . doesn´t he remind you of a young john wayne (without the right wing politics)?
    he is a rarity in that he is went to the university to study farm management. one guacho, more than 500 cows.
    gingerandgerardo
  • guacho at work. They don´t use lassos like US cowboys, they use a string with two balls on it that trap the cows feet. But when they are in the countryside, the guacho just herds them and takes care of sick animals.
    gingerandgerardo
  • meat locker in slaughter house. I think i´ll save the blood and gore for the pod! so stay tuned. . .
    gingerandgerardo
  • a young man with a love for cheap beef sandwiches (believe it or not, he is a "suit" and works in an office building! this is just his lunch break)
    gingerandgerardo
  • She´s a hippie chick, but she likes her beef.
    gingerandgerardo
  • His dad own´s the shop, but he puts in the sweat. . .
    Every day a whole cow gets delivered to his butcher shop.
    He then butchers it by hand, and also makes his own sausage.
    Most Argentine´s buy their beef this way, and not in supermarkets.
    gingerandgerardo
  • baby cows and mama cows grow up together.
    gingerandgerardo
  • bees do it, birds do it, cows do it.
    Most cows are inseminated artificially but the young bulls try anyway
    (this is because all breeds of cows are essentially "human made" and are so big that a bull can break the spine of a female cow while mating)
    gingerandgerardo
  • I'm looking forward to seeing the completed film. So much goes into the making of it, I had no idea. I applaud the film maker! I love the idea that in Argentina cows are enironmentally better for the land and nature than growing soybeans. I read how soybean agriculture is ruining the Rain forest in Brazil. Are the soybeans grown non genetically modified? Is the corn non-GMO? Is the feed of corn and soybeans fed the cows to fatten them at the end of their lives, organic or natural like grass grazing is? Here in USA, more people can be fed with one acre of organic soybeans than cows grazing on comparable land. Unlike Argentina, USA has limited land for agriculture. Keep the great work coming!
    LaughsWithLife
  • http://meatpaper.com/about/index.html
    Meat Paper might be interested in this piece.
    bstein

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