This documentary highlights the importance of finding compromises on the path to a sustainable diet
By Alberto Sclaverano
The 2021 documentary Meat Me Halfway underlies in its joke-like title what the aim of directors Brian Kateman and Journey Wade-Hak is. Mr. Kateman is the current president of the Reducetarian Foundation. This nonprofit organization promotes the reduction of meat and meat-based products, but without advising to go strictly vegan or vegetarian. The foundation aims to find common ground among people who understand the damage that intensive animal farming and huge meat consumption are doing to the environment, but are not ready for a drastic change in their eating habits. Released in 2021 in the United States through the internet, this small-scale documentary takes a minimalistic approach, probably due to budget-related issues, but it is nevertheless spot-on when it makes its case.
In a deeply polarized world, where the discourse around every possible political and social topic becomes more toxic every day, it is fascinating to observe the non-confrontational approach taken by the authors of Meat Me Halfway.
More answers than questions
Through a series of interviews and dialogues with people of different backgrounds, and diverse opinions, Mr. Kateman, also co-writer and producer, shows how it is possible to find a middle ground on the topic of a plant-based diet.
He is also one of the main protagonists of the documentary. And his own story serves as the base for the discussion. But he is no Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth. And it is not only a question of independent low-budget production vs. Oscar-winner documentary. It is, instead, first of all, the differences between a documentary aimed at persuading the public on a specific thesis vs. a movie that poses more questions than answers.
It is a film aimed at people deeply concerned with the climate and environmental crisis, and convicted of the value of a plant-based alimentation, yet not sure about going vegetarian. The same experiences were shared by Kateman himself when he was a college student, as he tells in the movie. He believed in the cause, but he was not prepared to become a vegetarian or a vegan. So, in the film, he advocates for a progressive reduction of meat consumption and enlightens the small changes that everyone can make in their everyday eating routine.
Step by step through dialogue
Meat Me Halfway proposes a gradual and partial approach to a meatless diet, that, even through small steps, can still produce positive change for the planet. This is not a documentary for people who are already vegan or vegetarian, nor it is a radical piece of cinema such as Shaun Monson’s Earthlings (2005) or Chris Delforce’s Dominion (2018), in which the horror of industrial farming and slaughterhouses are presented in the most extreme way possible. Meat Me Halfway instead is a dialogue-based, calm piece of cinema in which people still undecided try to be persuaded, not forced or shocked, to consider the advantage of modifying our diet to reduce meat. It is the type of moderate discourse that in this day and age perhaps we need more than in the past, and it proves that even small changes, if shared by a great number of people, could make a real difference.
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