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The Meatrix!
Take a moment to visit the link below to watch the animated MATRIX spoof entitled The Meatrix.
This spoof has received millions of views since it first hit the web. It is an amusing way to create public awareness regarding a serious topic. Many people in this world have no idea where their food comes from, and some even ridicule those of us who take these topics seriously. The “why worry about it” mentality is very common. I even have friends and family members who share such a nonchalant attitude.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting mass hysteria. I am however promoting awareness. I’ve yet to find a knowledge machine that passes information through osmosis while we are sleeping.
For those interested in more “Meatrix” like material (without the amusement), consider reading up at the link below. Take some time to look through the Photo Gallery and read through some of the reports filed under the Issues heading.
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/issues/factoryfarming
It will certainly serve as an eye opener to many.
Ross
PS -New members to the blog may also wish to look here.
15 Comments so far
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If you get a chance, Earthlings is a more serious look at this. You can find it on Google Video or YouTube.
Vincent
It’s horrible how animals are treaten! I can’t imagine how it feels being stacked in small cages unable to move, just eating until the body is larger than the legs can take.
-sorry my bad english, but this is a very serious topic, had to comment.
That is a good way to raise interest on the topic among youngsters. All my students will get the adress. They even have subtitles in a lot of languages and refer to national adresses. This shows, that a global problem is raging.
Thanks,
Faust
The people who say “Why do you care about it” or “don´t worry about it” think yeah i will die some day.
But when the health is gone everyone is moaning.
To these people i always say, often such illnesses like cancer or other hard illnesses don´t happen suddenly or directly after you ate a burger, smoked cigarettes or ate fruits and veggies insufficiently,
they often happen suddenly after a long period of time.
And then it´s often to late.
Let me preface this by saying that I personally try to support traditional agricultural practices and local farmers – when my pockets allow. But when you look at the big picture, things become a little more complicated.
There are many negative things that can be said about modern, large-scale farming practices, but there is one strong point in their favor: efficiency. Modern practices produce a much larger amount of food, food that lasts longer and has a better chance of reaching the consumers table. If we were only trying to feed a small population we could consider traditional farming to be a viable alternative. The unfortunate reality though is that we are trying to meet the demands of a huge population that continues to expand daily. Frankly I doubt that we even have enough land to have all of those animals roaming around, living a free lifestyle, while still raising enough of them to feed all of the demand.
Perhaps the surest way to deal with this is a drastic population decrease, but as we all try our best to avoid world wars and international epidemics, this is not likely to happen in sufficient numbers.
So – what does that leave us with? A nutritional aristocracy, a small group of people eating natural animal products while everyone else eats mass produced flesh, filled with impurities? Its a hard question to answer fairly. I think we can all agree though, that you will live longer from eating unhealthy food than you would from eating no food at all.
Top marks for posting this Ross – this is a really important issue both from an animal and human health perspective. People often assume that meat is meat and so they worry less about the quality of it than they do about more conspicuous nutrition issues like HFCS or trans-fats. Quite appart from the residual eantibiotics, the the nutritional profile of grass-fed meat differs significantly from that of farmed meat so eating farmed produce is bad for the animals and bad for us.
While I find it good that to inform people about how their food is produced, I can’t agree with the farm sanctuary link.
It’s PURE propaganda, and when you read the text, you quickly find out that the authors of the website have no fucking clue whatsoever.
Regardless of what is written, these are real pictures:
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/issues/factoryfarming/photos/
There is no denying that, and that alone is worth others seeing.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Ross
Woodsman wrote:
“So – what does that leave us with? A nutritional aristocracy, a small group of people eating natural animal products while everyone else eats mass produced flesh, filled with impurities? Its a hard question to answer fairly.”
One choice is to leave out the animal products entirely, or at least diminish the use to the minimum. This also seems, as far as I’ve pondered it, to be the most probable vision of the future. Regardless of the health benefits or the ethics involved, the day will come when the Western society has to face the fact that this kind of food production for this amount of people can’t go on anymore. Not on this planet.
In any case, striving to be more aware of what’s going on around you (and within you) is always a good thing.
In response to Oan and Woodsman I will add this. How many times have you gone to a wedding, all you can eat this or that, resort with meals included, etc. only to see a huge amount of food wasted? Not only are we trying to feed a huge population, we are wasting tons and tons of food every day. It is disgusting, especially considering the “need for mass production” of this stuff that we end up throwing away. If we just started out by thinking about what we are will to support, we would make big changes.
I personally eat very little meat (which includes chicken and fish for those who somehow don’t consider that “meat”) and if everyone was as moderate with their consumption I would guess that the demand would go way down, so the supply would have to go down, so the ability to produce a healthier product would go up, since the less you eat of it, the more you would be willing to shop around for quality.
GREAT POINT Robert… My mother taught us from early on. Don’t throw food away!
So much food is wasted in the world. The restaurant industry is another example. When I was 16 years old, I worked at Dunkin Donuts after school. All food that wasn’t sold by midnight would be thrown away, as they always needed to have fresh supply in the morning. Clearly, this isn’t the best example of “health” food, but the point is that there was still a LOT of food disposed of each night. There are hungry people in the world with nothing, while others think nothing of throwing away huge quantities of food.
Ross
Thank you Ross for posting this information about about animal cruelty. I was considering doing an essay for my English class in college on factory farming or vegetarian way of eating. So, now I have all this information you have provided us and I will use it for research!
Hey Ross! It’s your boy Chuck.
Man this was a cool way to stress a real point. These are the things that are really going on in our tragic world & it’s sad. I’m glad that your one of the people Ross that supports real farms and then encourages others to do so as well, your doing your part in this world & that’s a great thing man. Thanks again for some more truth Ross, you are the man.
as usual, ross you are a breath of fresh air in a “fitness” industry that promotes so much un-natural food/fuel (supplements, protein shakes, “nutritional” bars, etc). thanks for encouraging all of us to use the full resources of this body that God gave us… including our minds. true health — body mind and spirit — requires awareness. its about making conscious choices in all aspects of our lives. its about not being mindless sheep! we can consciously choose what we put in our bodies, just as we consciously choose to exercise instead of sitting on the damn couch watching teevee.
in reference to vincent’s post above, the documentary “earthlings” changed my life. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1299802404123561313&ei=ZkjrSJLhD5zYqAOf3ISNCw&q=earthlings+the+movie when presented with just the plain facts of the matter, i could no longer consciously choose to eat animal products. i know that has been the best path for me, and the radical transformation in my health has only reinforced the correctnes of that decision for me personally. i’m not saying that its the best path for everyone — i can’t speak for anyone else. i’m saying take the red pill, and make your decisions consciously from a place of absolute reconciliation with reality.
As someone who has been greatly concerned about the health of our planet and my own personal health for over 20 years, I consume a plant based diet and have done so for many years. I get all the protein I need from fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. Protein from plant sources is much more bioavailable than animal protein. When ignorant people want to make an issue out of my diet I just challenge them to any athletic endevour they care to name. I tell them that they will certainly kick my butt with all the animal based protein they are eating and my obvious protein deficiency. Most don’t even want to take up the challenge. Forget buying a hybrid car, the best thing you can do for the planet is eat a plant based diet.