All livestock in First We Eat are humanely raised and humanely harvested by the farmers that raise them. There are no shots of an animal dying, however it is implied that an animal is harvested, i.e. killed, for food. There are scenes of harvested animals being processed for food. In Dawson City, Yukon where this film takes place, due to our short growing season, there is no protein source that can be produced in any quantity that is not animal based. Therefore all of our protein comes from meat, fish, eggs and dairy and includes harvested wild meat and fish as well as meat, eggs and dairy raised by farmers. The importance of using all parts of an animal harvested is addressed in this film. The question of salt, in a community that is far from the sea, is also addressed, which involves some creative experiments to extract salt from wild plants, salt licks and blood.
In the 55 minute cut-down version of the film there is:
- a scene of a salmon being gutted and the salmon eggs being gifted by a First Nations elder
- a scene of a dead chicken being processed into what is recognizable as a chicken ready for roasting. This is an important scene to recognize where packaged meat, as we see it in the grocery store, comes from.
- the sound a of a gun shot and a scene of harvested moose quarters briefly being hauled, hung, skinned, and moose steaks being wrapped in brown paper for the freezer
- a scene of the harvesting of a moose nose, from the head of a dead moose, by a First Nation’s elder
- a scene of a calf being born
- a scene of a trapper skinning a lynx after which the family is gifted some lynx steaks that the mother cooks for supper
In the full feature version of the film, there are the same scenes as in the 55 min version plus additional scenes including:
- a scene of a boar being harvested which includes a shot of the captive bolt gun that will be used to harvest the boar, the harvested boar being hung, bled, put into/taken out of the scalder of the mobile abattoir, and pork sides hung at a butcher shop
- organs of the moose (heart, liver, kidneys) being washed in the sink and identified by the father and daughter
- blood:
- blood when the boar is bled
- a bag of boar blood being poured into a blender and blended
- a blood donation from Dr. Adam’s arm
- centrifuging blood in jars in a re-jigged washing machine
- boiling down blood serum to try and get salt
- a chick hatching from an egg