Have we all not said it at one point in our lives? ’I Could Never Go Vegan’—a documentary by Thomas Pickering, is an informative and gripping piece of work that intends to inspire the adoption of a whole foods, plant-based diet. Pickering seeks the truth, challenges misconceptions and invites us all to reconsider our beliefs.

Pickering has been a vegetarian since birth and uses his knowledge and experience to highlight the benefits of a plant-based diet, as well as the negatives of a carnivorous one. There’s a huge focus on health and fitness at the start of the film, featuring various athletes from all backgrounds. Including British powerlifter, Sophia Ellis, who we accompany on a journey to see if she can win the European deadlift record. The documentary strongly emphasises that we can excel physically without the need for meat and dairy. Additionally, it employs facts and statistics to demonstrate that the human race would be much healthier by consuming a whole foods and vegan diet, even asserting that it could eradicate 80% of diseases treated by the NHS. 
 

Beyond health and fitness, the film also disproves arguments around high costs, climate change, even the notion that vegan food isn’t ’good’ or is ’too difficult’ to prepare or purchase. It also debunks the false ideas surrounding ’free range’ and ’grass-fed’ livestock. Informing viewers that ’grass-fed’ animals only have to be outside for a small portion of their lives and ’free range’ hens come with medical issues due to bad treatment and over-re-production. While the documentary includes semi-graphic footage of livestock slaughterhouses, it is not as explicit as productions such as ‘Dominion’. Pickering even infiltrates a Red Tractor-approved pig farm to prove that even these trusted farms are not ethical. The pigs he encounters have some of the saddest eyes he has ever seen. Stuffed in cramped conditions, tails docked without anaesthetic, babies removed from their mothers and one ball hanging on a piece of rope for their ’enrichment’, it is evident that standard farming practices in the UK are insufficient. 

I Could Never Go Vegan

This documentary serves as a compelling resource for individuals needing persuasion to cease consuming meat. It covers such a vast array of information that it would be challenging to contest the vegan diet. Similarly, vegans seeking to bolster their counter-arguments to the I could never go vegan statements would find this a valuable resource. If everyone consumed a plant-based diet, 76% less farmland would be used. Dispelling myths about growing soy, we are informed that 73% of all soy is fed to livestock, and humans only consume around 7%. Did you know there is more soya in a piece of chicken breast than in the same weight of tofu? Soya skeptics will not be pleased to hear that one!

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Despite its weighty content, the documentary concludes on a more inspiring note, discussing how agricultural farming could provide more jobs and that labs are creating innovative cultivated meats—lab-grown meat. Sophia Ellis wins the powerlifting title, 84-year-old Paul Youd completes his Ultra Marathon, and Mike Coppock breaks another ultra running world record, all while on a plant-based diet. Pickering concludes the story by informing viewers that it is not too late for the world to “turn this around”.

I Could Never Go Vegan is a well-presented and persuasive documentary that offers a refreshing perspective on the plant-based lifestyle. With its engaging storytelling and compelling arguments, it has the potential to inspire viewers to reconsider their relationship with food and embrace a more compassionate and sustainable way of living.

I Could Never Go Vegan is in UK and Irish cinemas from 19 April and you can view the trailer here.

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