(Picture from www.snafugear.com)
First of all I have to give credit where credit is due- the people who created The Meatrix were brilliant!! What a great way of getting information out to the public in a way that is portrayed in a serious way but is not threatening or too heavy-handed. Watching the three different videos really brought the reality of factory farming into focus for me. After I watched the videos I sat down with my husband and had him watch them as well. This led to us doing a google search on “factory farms” which brought horrifying videos to our attention. Right then and there we promised each other that we would not support certain companies because of our newfound knowledge.
The videos supported what I had already read about in Pollan’s book, but brought it to a whole new level for me. Being able to actually see, whether in cartoon form or in the gruesome reality of documentary film, the horrors that occur in factory farming brought me literally to tears. While books like Pollan’s are extremely important as they start to bring awareness to the public, I think that the shock of actually seeing horrendously overcrowded chickens, cows too weak to walk being shoved around with fork lifts, featherless and debeaked chickens, and the empty eyes of the animals who are basically the walking dead has a much larger impact.
These videos have brought me to a point where I want to spread the information via the most startling, reaction-getting way I can, but I struggle with “forcing” this reality on others. The things I have learned in this class- the over-milking of cows to the point of bleeding and pus (Ozeki’s book), the horribly boring, mundane, painful lives of animals in the overcrowded pens (Pollan’s book and The Meatrix) have stirred a passion in me that is changing my life.
I am much more aware of what I buy and who I will support. No longer will I buy meat from Tyson’s, Foster Farms, or other companies like that. Where my food comes from means so much more to me because I know that I am not contributing to the torture of animals just to get a meal. I am inspired to let more people know about this issue as well, for I had no idea that things were this bad in our food system and I suspect that only a very small percentage of people are aware.
The videos supported what I had already read about in Pollan’s book, but brought it to a whole new level for me. Being able to actually see, whether in cartoon form or in the gruesome reality of documentary film, the horrors that occur in factory farming brought me literally to tears. While books like Pollan’s are extremely important as they start to bring awareness to the public, I think that the shock of actually seeing horrendously overcrowded chickens, cows too weak to walk being shoved around with fork lifts, featherless and debeaked chickens, and the empty eyes of the animals who are basically the walking dead has a much larger impact.
These videos have brought me to a point where I want to spread the information via the most startling, reaction-getting way I can, but I struggle with “forcing” this reality on others. The things I have learned in this class- the over-milking of cows to the point of bleeding and pus (Ozeki’s book), the horribly boring, mundane, painful lives of animals in the overcrowded pens (Pollan’s book and The Meatrix) have stirred a passion in me that is changing my life.
I am much more aware of what I buy and who I will support. No longer will I buy meat from Tyson’s, Foster Farms, or other companies like that. Where my food comes from means so much more to me because I know that I am not contributing to the torture of animals just to get a meal. I am inspired to let more people know about this issue as well, for I had no idea that things were this bad in our food system and I suspect that only a very small percentage of people are aware.
