Product Details

• Directors: Jennifer Abbott
• Studio: Flying Eye Productions
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000Q02TOE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #326,222 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sobering, troubling.... this film will affect you!, February 21, 2010

By 

R Schmidt (Honolulu, HI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Cow At My Table: A Feature Documentary About Animals, Meat & Culture (VHS Tape)

You may love this film, A Cow At My Table.

You may hate it.

In any case, you will react to it. That makes Jennifer Abbott's creation powerful.

I haven't seen the VHS version of this film. I have a copy of the DVD, and the copyright is 1998. It is labeled the "10th Anniversary DVD Edition." I'm assuming they are the same. If they are not, please let me know!

First, what this film isn't. It isn't 81 minutes of livestock being killed. In fact, there are less than 60 seconds filmed on the killing floors of slaughterhouses.

It is not a one-sided film, although it is not meant to be a dispassionate overview of the livestock (meat) production industry. Abbott does allow meat industry spokespersons to make their case. And the meat industry spokespersons are articulate and reasoned. However, the ending indicates that any cooperation Abbott was receiving with the meat industry in the filming of this documentary came to an end.

This film is an attack on the meat production industry. It specifically does not attack Joe and Jane Farmer. It does attack the "agribusiness" of animal production, transport, and slaughter.

The majority of the film is made up of historic clips of meat production and the "talking heads" of a variety of people, including Carol Adams, Jim Mason, Peter Singer, Tom Regan, and others from Farm Sanctuary, Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, and similarly inclined groups and individuals.

It is the words, combined with the images, that are haunting and damning. This film was sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts. I'm certain there was extreme pressure put on them, from the meat industry and their lobbyists, to withdrawal their support. Looks like it didn't work.

I hope to use this film in a (planned) university course to stimulate discussion about eating habits. Books I am planning to use include The Foie Gras Wars: How a 5,000-Year-Old Delicacy Inspired the World's Fiercest Food Fight, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood, and at least one on the meat industry. Suggestions welcome, on all sides of the controversy!