How Is Your Meat Produced? Meet the Meatrix

by Katherine Gustafson · 2010-02-02 11:30:00 UTC
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For National Meat Week, it's worth thinking about how the majority of our meat is created. I posted earlier today on the debate surrounding whether meat can be part of a sustainable food system, but what I didn't delve into was the details of the high-output meat factories that create most of what winds up on the supermarket shelves.

For an entertaining, if horrifying, perspective on what goes on inside the dreaded CAFOs, check out Sustainable Table's brilliant series of animated videos called "The Meatrix." The three short videos — The Meatrix, The Meatrix II: Revolting and The Meatrix II½ — follow Leo the pig, Moopheus the cow and a chicken named Chickadee as they discover the terrible secrets of the U.S. factory farm system.

"The Meatrix," Moopheus tells Leo, "is the story we tell ourselves about where our meat and animal products come from." Even though they are cartoons, the videos are surprisingly disgusting, as they tick off each disturbing problem ("12 million pounds of excrement," for one) found in these hellish places. Extra features offered along with the videos make it all the more graphic; this 360-degree depiction of a factory farm will put you off your lunch.

Each video ends with a link to the "Inside the Meatrix" page, which overflowing with information about the meat system and how to support the small family farms that produce better animal products. As Moopheus says at the end of the first video, "it's not too late; there is a resistance."

Screenshot: The Meatrix II: Revolting

Katherine Gustafson is a freelance writer and editor with a background in international nonprofit organizations.
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