14 September 2019Agriculture, Corporate Funding, Environment, Seventh Day Adventist Studies

2040 Documentary

2040 – The Documentary

2040 is a documentary by Damon Gameau that targets a young audience to convince them that they can make a difference to planet Earth’s well-being using technology that we already have at our disposal.

The key areas addressed in the documentary are:

Transport: Reducing our reliance on private car ownership and with the advent of self-driving cars will allow much valuable land that is allocated to roads and parking to be much better utilised.
Electricity production: Small scale electricity production by individual houses that networks communities, enabling the distribution and sharing of electrical power.
Agriculture: Improving soil structure by retaining organic matter greatly increases the productivity of the land.
Marine permaculture with the intensive growing of kelp: Kelp grows as cool-water forests in shallow water. Some species can grow ½ a metre per day and reach a height of 30-80 metres. Kelp communities support a large number of animals. It can be used as food for people, animals and fish, a source of iodine, crop fertiliser and a source of methane for fuel.
Education with a focus on girls: Education, particularly for girls is a great benefit for the individuals and their communities.

In slightly more than 20 years, by the year 2040, sufficient change has occurred to save the Earth from environmental disaster which appears inevitable.

Solutions proposed by 2040 that individuals can implement.

Reduction of food wastes: 30-40% of the food produced in the US goes uneaten. Food wastes that end up in landfill is a significant contributor of methane which is a green house gas. “Although food waste is a huge environmental issue, it’s something we can all address.”
Eat less meat: Reduce the amount of meat consumed from the average of 110 g per day to 55 g per day.
Choose chook over beef: “Chicken is far better for the planet than beef. In terms of emissions, it’s about three-to four kilos of carbon per kilo produced while beef is 33 kg. So there’s a huge difference there.”
Know where your meat originates: “The emissions from the type of meat that comes from industrial farms is astronomical compared to meat farmed through regenerative practices.”
Choose seeds, nuts, fruit and vegetables wisely: “Avoid or limit their intake of mono-cropping grains and cereals like corn, soybeans and wheat.”
Grow own food: According to 2040, growing your own food is one of the best things you can do for the planet. Owning a garden means you can choose which foods to plant and eat. The documentary suggests that the best home crops for storing carbon in the soil are warrigal greens, Queensland arrowroot, garlic chives and Greek basil.
Eat ingredients from bulk-food stores: “Herbs spices flour, nuts, seeds and legumes sold at bulk-food stores do not use any packaging. Shoppers are encouraged to bring their own re-purposed jars and containers. Or, you can use re-usable paper bags that may be supplied by the shop.”

The impact of these measures are negligible.

Health Benefits of Plant-based Diets

A Taiwanese Buddhist study with 4,384 participants compared type 2 diabetes outcomes for vegetarians (vegans and lacto-ovo-vegetarians) compared with those who ate fish and meat. The meat-eating group ate only a very small amount of meat. ¹

Meat intake for females: 50% consumed less than 10 g/day; 25% consumed less than 2 g/day.
Meat intake for males: 50% consumed less than 20 g/day; 25% consumed less than 7 g/day.
Fish and meat intake for females: 50% consumed less than 17 g/day; 25% consumed less than 3 g/day.
Fish and meat intake for males: 50% consumed less than 37 g/day; 25% consumed less than 11 g/day.

There were insufficient numbers to divide the vegetarians into subgroups (pesco, lacto-ovo, vegan). There were 69 vegans (no animal products) and there were no cases of diabetes within this group.

Three garden peas weigh a gram. One Big Mac, with 2 meat patties, contains 90 g of meat—so the participants were consuming only a very small amount of meat.

That minute amount of meat increased the risk of diabetes 4 times for females and 2 times for males.

A strong commitment to health has been a part of Adventist’s tradition since its founding in the 1840s.

The comparison of the types of diet (in the AHS-2 study) showed a significant difference in both the body weight and the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes. ²

Category	%	BMI	Type 2 diabetes Odds ratio
Non-vegetarians Red meat, poultry more than once a week plus fish, milk, and eggs	46.9	28.8	1
Semi-vegetarians Red meat, poultry less than once a week plus fish, milk, and eggs	6.1	27.3	0.69
Pesco-vegetarians Vegan with fish, milk and eggs	11.4	26.3	0.56
Lacto-ovo vegetarians Vegan with eggs and milk	31.6	25.7	0.43
Vegan No red meat, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs	4.2	23.6	0.32
(*) After adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, education, income, physical activity, television watching, sleep habits and alcohol use.

(*) After adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, education, income, physical activity, television watching, sleep habits and alcohol use.

Much publicity is given to the longevity of the people of Japan and Okinawa (an archipelago that stretches from southern Japan to Taiwan).

However, the population with the longest lifespan and the highest levels of health on the planet is the vegan Californian Seventh-day Adventists. Californian Adventists have a higher lifer expectancy at the age of 30 years than other white Californians by 7.28 years in men and 4.42 years in women, giving them perhaps the highest life expectancy of any formally described population. ³

Note that Californians are much healthier than the average American being in the top five states for longevity with an average life expectancy of 5-6 years greater than the Mississippi states.

The solutions proposed in 2040 are only a minor step towards a viable and sustainable future. Much, much more needs to be done with a greater sense of urgency than is shown in the movie. Billions of dollars is spent annually to ensure that industries, corporations and governments remain unaffected and unchanged despite increasing evidence that we need to change much more rapidly towards a sustainable future.

A truly sustainable agriculture is best not only for our environment but also for our health and the animals that we share the earth with.

Last updated on Thursday 26 March 2026 at 12:55 by administrators

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Footnotes

Chiu, T. H. T. et al. (2014) Taiwanese Vegetarians and Omnivores: Dietary Composition, Prevalence of Diabetes and IFG Marià Alemany (ed.). PLoS ONE. 9 (2), e88547.
Tonstad, S. et al. (2009) Type of vegetarian diet, body weight, and prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 32 (5), 791–796.
Fraser, G. E. & Shavlik, D. J. (2001) Ten Years of Life – Is It a Matter of Choice? Archives of Internal Medicine. 161 (13), 1645–1652.

Tags: adventists agriculture alaska consumerism corporate funding diabetes education fishing japan mediterranean diet nuts omni plant based diet seventh day adventists soy subsidies taiwan taiwanese buddhist study united nations vegetarian diet wheat

2040 Documentary

2040 – The Documentary

Health Benefits of Plant-based Diets

Footnotes

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