Short Film: The Meatrix
About the Film
The Meatrix is a short film that exposes the ugly truth behind today’s industrial factory farms that produce the majority of meat and dairy in the U.S. today.
Summary
Back in the mid 20th century, big agriculture corporations began maximizing their profits by eliminating and buying up small and medium-size farms where animals roamed and grazed, and were allowed to maintain their natural behavior outdoors. These huge corporations instead created “industrialized” factory farms where a maximum number of animals are confined into crowded, unhealthy, unnatural conditions and consequently are forced to live miserable lives.
This is the story of Leo the pig and Moopheus. Moopheus gives Leo the choice between “knowing the truth” about where his food comes from, or continuing to live in a “fantasy world” about his food. Leo is given the choice to take the blue pill to stay in the “fantasy” world or the red pill, which will reveal the truth about his food and the life of the factory farm animals that provide his food. The Meatrix is the story we tell ourselves about where our food comes from without knowing or acknowledging the real truth. Leo chooses to know the “truth” and takes the red pill. When he visits the factory farm, he’s shocked by what he sees. Once he sees how the animals are treated, he asks Moopheus, “how did this happen?”
What a factory farm is like:
- Animals are packed as closely together as possible–often cannot move, turn around, walk, and never go outside or see sunlight. Their natural behaviors are thwarted in order to live in extreme confinement.
- Animal distress and misery is so horrific in these confined spaces it causes them to bite and be aggressive, so corporations began systematic mutilations of their bodies to keep control of them and force them to live in such cramped spaces.
- Animals can’t get enough fresh air to breathe – they breathe their excrement 24/7 (ammonia fumes) and as a result suffer respiratory problems.
- Corporations have added a daily stream of antibiotics to keep these animals alive — we ingest these antibiotics by eating meat, eggs, and dairy. These antibiotics are causing antibiotic resistance and cancers in humans. The overuse of antibiotics has become epidemic.
- The 12 million pounds of excrement that animals breathe daily from their waste, is polluting our air and water systems, and causing greenhouse gases contributing to climate change.
- Factory farms are destroying communities and destroying small and medium-sized local farms.
- Factory farms are brutally inhumane to animals, causing their constant suffering on an unimaginable level.
What you can do to stop factory farming:
1. Eat less meat or stop eating meat and dairy altogether; transition to a plant-based diet.
2. Buy more vegetables, beans, grains and plant-based substitutes or alternatives to meat and dairy products. For milk, you can buy plant-based milks available in various nuts, grains, and seeds like including soy, hazelnut, almond, cashew, hemp, and rice milk.
3. If you do buy meat, buy only from small local family farms that support humane animal practices and natural animal behaviors. Don’t buy meat or dairy from factory farmed suppliers or companies.
Credits:
Produced by: Free Range Studios and Sustainable Table
Learn more about The Meatrix® series here.
