Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscars Speech Puts Dairy in the Spotlight
The actor used his moment in the spotlight to speak up for animals.
Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur/Animal Equality
The dairy industry has been criticized in front of millions of people, as actor Joaquin Phoenix uses his Oscars acceptance speech to talk about calves’ “cries of anguish”.
"I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world. Many of us are guilty of an egocentric world view, and we believe that we’re the center of the universe”, the “Best Actor” winner explained in his acceptance speech. “We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal."
His call for more compassion towards the natural world has had an impact on many viewers, including writer Lena Dunham and public figure Eugene Gu, MD.
Such responses reflect a more general trend in increased public awareness surrounding the impact of animal agriculture. Growing ethical concerns are leading a change in habit for consumers worldwide: sales of cow’s milk have fallen $3 billion in the past four years. Meanwhile, plant based milks are surging in popularity, with oat milk sales alone rising over 600 percent last year.
Phoenix’s speech is also a testament to the power of using one’s platform to speak out on what one believes in. Together with his fiancée, actress Rooney Mara, Phoenix is regularly taking a stand to speak out for animals.
Just weeks before the Oscars, the actor headed straight to a slaughterhouse “vigil” after winning an award at the Screen Actors Guild. He was pictured alongside other activists who were offering water and comfort to pigs who were awaiting their slaughter.
The Joker star says his passion for activism stems from a childhood realization of injustice. In an interview with Collider, Phoenix spoke of how he became vegan at just four years old after seeing fish struggle for their lives:
“Really it was seeing these fish being killed when I was on a boat as a kid. I guess to stun them they were throwing them against the side of the boat. I just had a profound strong reaction. It felt like a real injustice. [...] I think it made me distrustful, and angry, and frightened of humans, humanity. I just thought it was such a gross abuse of power in a way. I think that during that moment we knew that we were not going to eat meat anymore.”
Species Unite
A collection of stories of those who fight the good fight on behalf of animals.