The Meatrix: The Revolting Reality of Factory Farming
by Vin Miller
Meat, poultry and eggs are excellent sources of nutrition that support and promote optimal health. However, most people don’t realize that the selection of these foods typically found in supermarkets is of poor quality and is likely to originate from animals that were raised in horrendous conditions.
The meat, poultry and eggs that come from factory farms are often contaminated with antibiotics, pesticides and hormones and are likely to contain unbalanced and substandard levels of nutrients. Furthermore, when you purchase these foods, you’re contributing to animal cruelty and are supporting an extremely large and influential industry that’s harming the environment and pushing smaller farmers out of business.
Many of the farmers forced out of business are the ones who use sustainable and environmentally friendly methods, genuinely care for the well being of their livestock, and are dedicated to producing the most nutritious foods available. Our well being depends on these farmers and they should be praised for the tremendously important service that they provide, but instead, many of them are pressured into becoming factory farmers themselves. As this continues to happen, high quality whole foods will become less available and it will be much more difficult to support your health with a nutritious diet.
An Entertaining Lesson on Factory Farming
The following three videos are parts I, II and II 1/2 of a cartoon series titled The Meatrix. Based on the false sense of reality depicted in the movie The Matrix, the false reality in this case is in regard to most people not knowing the disturbing truth about factory farming. Each video is only a few minutes in length and I highly recommend that you watch all three. They’ll give you a basic understanding of what factory farming is about and why it’s such a serious problem. After the videos, I’ll explain what you can do to prevent factory farming from impacting your life and what you can do to help spread awareness.
The Meatrix Part I
The Meatrix Part II
The Meatrix Part II 1/2
How to Protect Yourself
Factory farming promotes animal cruelty, produces low quality food and is a strain on the environment. The easiest and most effective way to voice your opinion against factory farming is to buy from responsible farmers instead. You can use Eat Wild to find a listing of local farmers who are committed to responsible and humane farming methods or you can use Local Harvest to find a local farmer’s market. The Eat Well Guide, run by the makers of The Meatrix, is another excellent resource that can be used to find reputable farmers, farmer’s markets, restaurants and stores.
Although it’s usually most advantageous to buy from local farmers, it’s also possible to buy online. Two excellent places that will ship grass fed and free range meat anywhere in the United States are U.S. Wellness Meats and Blackwing Quality Meats.
Help Spread Awareness
For the sake of the environment, your health, and the health of everyone around you, please make an effort to educate yourself on the importance of sustainable farming and the dangers imposed by factory farming. An excellent place to get started is at Sustainable Table. They’re the organization who created The Meatrix videos and they offer an abundance of information about sustainable farming, factory farming, and what you can do to help make a difference.
This article is part of Real Food Wednesdays.
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Thanks for educating the public about this. Factory farming is not only cruel to the animals but grim and repulsive. Most people would become instant vegetarians if they knew where their food comes from.
I’m not advocating vegetarianism but it would be nice if farm animals were raised in a more natural, clean and humane way even if I had to pay a bit more for my food.
These movies are such a great teaching tool! Thanks for joining in on Real Food Wednesday, Vin!
I like showing these videos to people who’ve never been introduced to the issues, but I often wish they were more specific or in depth. That’s why I’m excited about Food, Inc. and Fresh. Hopefully we’ll finally get feature-length look at what’s wrong with our food supply and how to fix it.
Cheers,
KristenM
(AKA FoodRenegade)
Thanks Vin! Fantastic writing from your blog as usual. I really like your accessible writing style. It comes out as very pleasant. I’m torn on all this stuff. As I get older I get more and more concerned about the treatment of animals. On the other hand I know that cheap food is important to many less well off people, even if I can afford to pay more. Are the animals conscious in a way that makes this cruel? I don’t know. I surely hope not. I want to encourage responsible practices myself, but I’m not sure that I can project that on those that are less fortunate than myself. Stumbled!
Great video. I thought that is soften it up a little because of the animation. Video of the real thing is horrific. I have to admit I don’t always make the right decision when it comes to this. I fall into the convenience trap. I stop at my the local butcher to get a steak, I buy the bag of frozen skinless chicken breast, I don’t ask for the source of food when I go out to eat. I am not going to beat myself up too much because I have made a vast improvement in my nutritional choices overall in the past year or so. This issue is not something that is new to me. Buying better fruits and veggies is been made so much easier. If you can’t make it your local farmers market, most stores carry organic produce these days. Meats are harder to find and when you do it is much more expensive. Now that I think about it, the reality is that I make better choices with my produce because it’s easy and not too much more expensive. I guess my choice is that I continue to ignore my conscious in favor of convenience and laziness or to do some homework and find better sources of meat and poultry. The economic impact can be negate by juggling around different menu options. A little less meat, some more vegetarian dishes, and I am from a place of plentiful seafood choices that are inexpensive. So I do have some options. Thanks Vin. I feel challenged.
Stephen makes a great point. Our whole food supply system needs to be overhauled. The government need to create polices that are in the interest of their people instead of the ConAgra’s of the world. I am proud to be an American but I am sick and tired of our political system being run my corporate America and not main street America. Money is going to be spent on this issue one way or the other. We can create policies and incentives to create a food supply free of cruelty to animals, antibiotics, hormone, chemicals, and pesticide. Or we can continue to pay for the health care aftermath of our current food supply policies.
Great article, Vin. Knowledge is power. Keep educating people. Maybe if we can get enough people off the fence like me we can get enough of a consumers voice to force some changes to our food supply.
Such great comments! Thanks guys!
Liz – I agree. It’s a shame that people are inspired to become vegetarians based on the cruelty of factory farming without realizing that there are plenty of reputable and humane places for them to get meat from.
Kristen – More detail would certainly be nice, but I think these videos do a great job of introducing people to the issue. I’m excited for these newer movies as well, particularly Fresh. I just wish there was an easier way to actually see it!
Stephen – Thanks for the compliment.
You raise a very interesting issue, but I don’t think factory farming is the answer by any means. For most people, I think they simply need to adjust their priorities, and for those who are truly poor, there must be a better alternative than factory farming for making food accessible to them. Factory farming is much more about making money than making food more accessible and I don’t think we had any less of a problem with affordability before it’s advent! In fact, with all the opportunities that exist today to overspend, I wouldn’t be surprised if the problem is actually worse now. On a related note, here are some tips for reducing the cost of organic food.
Don – Having awareness and buying responsibly most of the time is certainly better than doing nothing! I don’t eat out often, but when I do, I don’t always consider the source of my food. If I did, my choices would be severely limited, and in some cases, such as social gatherings, it can be difficult. This is part of my perspective on moderation. We can’t be perfect 100% of the time! However, I’m proud to say that the food I buy for preparing meals is always from a reputable source.
I’m sick of corporate interests running the country as well … literally! Many people are suffering from poor health because of the misinformation that is spread as a result of misleading marketing. I find it appalling that there are greedy scientists, executives and politicians with significant influence who knowingly put our health on the line in exchange for profit. It’s one of the primary reasons why I started this blog!
I love the Meatrix web site and believe it is a very informative and eye-opening resource for information about the meat people are eating. Thanks for this post and the videos, I’m always glad to see others being concerned about these critical issues and getting the word out…hopefully when people see the facts and statistics, it will open their eyes and they will change their habits!
Also, the article I wrote today deals with the topics you mentioned – greedy corporations and pharmaceutical companies putting profit in front of health. It’s quite sickening!! (no pun intended!)…http://agriculturesociety.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/big-corporations-and-big-pharma-dictating-whats-acceptable-to-eat/