Joaquin Phoenix and Mara Rooney to produce new film connecting animal agriculture and pandemics

Vegan power couple Joaquin Phoenix and Mara Rooney will be executive producers of The End of Medicine, an upcoming documentary that highlights the connection between factory farming and pandemics like COVID-19. The new film was created by filmmaker Alex Lockwood and What the Health? co-director Keegan Kuhn. Lockwood will direct, while Kuhn will produce.

The End of Medicine is a timely film; however, its creation wasn’t inspired by the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world. Instead, filming for the documentary began back in October 2019, before COVID-19 really hit.

The film’s team hopes to expose how damaging factory farming is on our health. The End of Medicine will focus on how animal agriculture is behind health threats, including both swine and bird flu, food-borne illnesses, MRSA, and now COVID-19, which was possibly caused by a wet animal market in China.

The End of Medicine will feature interviews with highly respected scientists and is expected to cease production in late 2020.

Phoenix and Mara are no strangers to advocating for a vegan lifestyle. Phoenix used his Academy Award acceptance speech to promote veganism, and the couple recently partnered with Beyond Meat to help anyone suffering from food insecurity.

In a joint statement regarding the new documentary, Phoenix and Mara stated, “The science is irrefutable. Modern animal agriculture will continue to make us sick if we don’t radically change our patterns of consumption.”

Article by Tessa Altman- United States