The Meatrix: The truth about factory farms

by Ellen Slattery, Posted Feb 27th 2008 @ 4:02PM

A viral campaign produced by website Sustainable Table, The Meatrix is a cartoon that reveals "the lie we tell ourselves about where our food comes from." It started up a few years ago, and has since been translated into 30 languages and boasts new features.

Not familiar? Though cleverly animated and peppered with humorous anecdotes, The Meatrix films are definitely not a joke, and probably not suitable for kids. There are three installments, the first being an introduction to what Sustainable Table calls "the dark side of the meat industry," and the second and third, The Meatrix II: The Revolting, and The Meatrix II 1/2, which explores new avenues into the dairy and meat-packing industries.

Our pig protagonist, Leo, chooses the red pill, and follows Mootheus, a trench coat-wearing cow, who reveals the grim reality about most of America's meat and dairy products. As they walk around the farm and Mootheus explains how animals are packed into tight-knit quarters and injected with RBGH and fed the carcasses of their relatives, the juxtaposition of the simplistic, brightly-colored cartoons against the shocking statistics helps to drive the point home.

The characters' dialog is carefully laced with statistics ("Meatpacking is the most dangerous job in the nation," Mootheus intones at the meat-packing plant), which help to offset the exaggerated evilness of the Agribusiness officials versus the idyllic, Eden-like atmosphere of the family farms of yore.

In addition to the movies, visitors can explore updated interactive features, like a 360 degree cartoon view of a factory farm. Mouse over an image of cows to reveal a statistic: "Hoof rot, mastitis, contagious diseases, and horrible living conditions confront cows on factory farms." Click on any stat to learn more, including activist resources.

At one point in Meatrix II, evil suits from the factory farm kidnap Mootheus, who screams, "Forget about me and shut down the dairy factories!"

Does Mootheus escape? Does Leo shut down the factory farms and start patronizing family-owned farms? You'll have to watch to find out.

Source

Filed Under: Farming, Television/Film, On the Blogs
Tags: chickens, cows, dairy, factory farm, FactoryFarm, farming, meat industry, MeatIndustry, meatpacking, Meatrix, Mootheus, RBGH, Sustainable Table, SustainableTable

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-27-2008 @9:37PM Kevin Ehl said... Awareness is a great thing! How many people know that grass fed beef has high levels of omega 3's? Good post and great timing considering the recent beef recall due to cows being transported via forklifts!
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2-28-2008 @9:13AM Baron said... What lies do we tell ourselves about where our food comes from? I know most of the people in the world aren't the brightest, but surely, surely, people over the age of 10 know that feeding a country/world of this size for a cheap price means a lot of rough conditions. At the same time, after visiting many feed lots, I find a lot of this rubbish, but I guess that is what I get for actually going there and seeing it with my own eyes.
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2-28-2008 @3:02PM Sam said... Pure PETA crap. The message is harder to swallow when the messenger is so out of touch with reality.
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3-04-2008 @10:12AM Numb said... I absolutely hate seeing crap like this on Slashfood. SFood should be a welcoming place where we discuss and display the divinity and virtues of food and the food world as a whole - not where come to grind our axes with heavy-handed propaganda.
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