The Reality of Netflix Documentaries

I’m sure we all enjoy a good Netflix documentary. However, this might change the trust you put into the information you are hear on these “documentaries.”

Photos of woman on a dairy farm. Walking in front of her diary cows and supporting the dairy industry against the false claims in Netflix documentaries about agriculture

Just a friendly PSA...

Not sure who needs to hear this , but that Netflix documentary you watched about food, agriculture or honestly just about anything is just a TV show, not a documentary or scientific study. It hasn’t been fact checked or peer reviewed.

This reminder comes after watching a few popular “documentaries”, one being Down to Earth with Zac Efron, and the other was Seaspiracy.

To start off with Down to Earth, it was rather interesting. Until we got to the part with the water sommelier. An "expert" in water. The only problem is... It's a made-up title with no formal training 🤦🏼‍♀️ This part of the show made me question everything else about the show. and for good reason.

The water guy makes some good points like how pointless bottled water is. But then he starts scaring people about the water they are drinking. And how "healing" it is to drink water with super high TDS or Total Dissolved Solids (one was above 7,000 ppm!)

He briefly mentions that this water is "not for hydration" but that's it. He doesn't mention why there is a low standard TDS for drinking water. However, according to the EPA drinking water should be below the standard of 500 ppm TDS.

So while the show has been interesting and thought-provoking, it's important to remember to trust the scientists with the facts like the EPA and their drinking water standard and not some water sommelier on a TV show.

Now for Seaspiracy, and I am not gonna lie, it was good. By good, I mean it had you believing everything they said. It was really entertaining and captivating. It made you think that all fishermen were the villains, and you could be a hero if you just “go vegan”.

As luck would have it, the day after I watched it, I ended up on the phone with fisher. When I asked him about it, he gave me multiple creditable sources that disputed almost all the “facts” from the movie. He shared what fishers are actually doing to be sustainable.

You can find more information at the following:

The University of Washington- post goes through each “claim” in the movie and shares factual information.
This extensive research from 2009 shows no downward trend for global fisheries.
Fish populations are actually improving.

Moral of the story is don’t believe everything you watch on TV. However, use these documentaries as an invitation to dig deeper and learn more about the industry and see both sides of the story. If you have questions go to the source. I promise they will be a great source of science-based data and information.