What is The Meatrix

[Master Yoghurt]

Take the red pill! This was posted at another board, but I like it so much, I'll just HAVE to post it here, hehe :)

http://www.themeatrix.com/

[Charley]

:lol oh PETA, you make me lol every time

[JMK]

HA! PETA, the same people who sent Roy Horn a 'you got what you deserved' letter while he was still in a coma. :rolleyes

[Dasquian Belargic]

That was really good (and informative) :)

[Master Yoghurt]

Yeah, its informative. As consumers, its good to be aware of the choices we have :)

..and Charley, its not PETA. Its Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, which works for ethical yet sustainable agriculture. You should have taken the red pill :p

[Charley]

Same difference to me (eats a burger)

[Master Yoghurt]

I love your avatar :)

I am no vegetarian, and have no regrets eating a burger, but lets think about it. Say you have the choice between two products which are comparative in nutrition and taste. Product A is 5% more expensive, but during the production, aspects like health, food safety, economic justice, workers' rights, environmental integrity and animal rights were taken into account. Product B is cheaper, yet does not uphold any of the above values. What product would you rather have?

[Charley]

Uh...

the only valid point you have is that it might be healthier.

Economic justice? Workers rights? Rrrright. I'm sure nobody loses their jobs when these large-capacity farms go under :rolleyes

I'll save my money and stick with Product B, until the USDA recommends otherwise, or I have enough disposable income to care.

[Master Yoghurt]

Economic justice? Workers rights? Rrrright. I'm sure nobody loses their jobs when these large-capacity farms go under

I don't think they should go under. I think though, there should be reasonable conditions for how our food is produced. Like it or not, eventually, these large capacity farms will have to adjust their production to satisfy the demand of consumers and legislators, even though it affects their profit margins.

About the potential loss of jobs, I think it would work in an opposite manner. The idea behind these mass producing farms is to maximise profits through increased efficency and automation. So their goal is to have a minimum amount of labour working force per unit produced.


I'll save my money and stick with Product B, until the USDA recommends otherwise, or I have enough disposable income to care ..and that is of course entirely your prerogative. Despite what some may think, its a free world :)

[Ryla Relvinian]

Funny, but the fact remains that if the people who made that video/website/statement itself live in houses, wear cotton, or write on paper, they too are displacing native habitats and supporting the systems that they claim to hate. If they really feel so strongly, they should go live in a shack in the woods, naked, and find their own roots and berries.

There is, of course, a solution to supporting those places: Go hunting more often. ;)

[Charley]

I write all this from a unique perspective. I have worked on a free-range (traditional) farm, and my grandfather owns one. Yeah its quaint and nice, and what have you.

Its also pretty inefficient, especially in terms of production vs land capacity.

So, I'm sure we can OMG RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and get rid of factory farms. Then again, we'd end up having to turn half of America into traditional farms. Did I mention that this would hamstring (lol ham) our capacity for other agricultural production?

You know those starving kids in africa, asia, south america, that get our food? Sorry, the jig's up!

:lol we're the bad guy again o noes

[Jedieb]

Large capacity pig farms produce huge profits for their owners, but if they were held to any decent environmental standards they'd actually end up being MORE expensive than traditional hog farmers. Factoring waste removal and other economic factors such as decreased property values and the industrial pig farm ends up being more expensive than small hog farms producing the same amount of juicy bacon. Also, they produce enormous steaming lakes of pig <font color=ff00ff> DIDN'T READ FAQ</font>. I wouldn't mind paying a bit more for bacon if it meant family hog farmers could keep their land and the envirnoment would be better off.

Bacon.....

[Master Yoghurt]

If you have worked on a farm, you probably know a lot more about these things than I do :)

Anyway, youre right; less efficent production means less overall output production. Maybe the solution is not outright getting rid of the factory farms, but gradually reform the industry to at least somewhat more traditional/'humane' methods. Hopefully, there is a middleway between the extremes. While good agricultural capacity is important, I don't think its a good idea to ignore what standards our food is being produced either. For example, knowing how some of these 'broiler' chickens come into existance makes me a little ill, I doubt its healthy.

About the starving 3rd world countries, I think they are the ones who need to improve the food production efficency, not us. Our primary role should be to help them modernise food production by machinery and knowledge of modern agricultural industry. Africa for example, is not a huge desert wasteland as some people tend to think, but actually has a rich soil and tremendous natural resources. If cheaper, more varied and globally available food is a goal, how about we remove the artificial trade barriers to third world countries? How about we focus less on the domestic production, but more on the overall production of the global community?

Btw, I am not sure how much food is being shipped to those starving kids. In rich countries, food is being dumped to regulate market prices! While we do have organisations like the UN & Red Cross acting whenever there is a humanitarian disaster, Im uninpressed by OECD's countries level of commitment to solve these problems.

[Ka' el Darcverse]

I lived and worked on non-confinement hog farm for 7 years of my life (Dad saw the market going under about 6 months before it did and sold out)

Our mortality rates and vet bills were generally 25-35% lower than the confinement farms surrounding us. Dad got paid top dollar because his hogs were considered leaner, healthier and better looking than the confinement hogs and it was better meat. That being said I will tell you why Big Business Farms are more efficient

They own the feed companies and the packing plants. They aren't selling their hogs to packing plants or buying feed at retail rates, their feed costs them what it costs to produce and they sell their animals as brats and pork chops. Thats why big business confinement farms make money.

[ReaperFett]

I feel like a pork sarnie now :)


Movies like this never affect me, as they're clearly biased. If it felt like "Look, this is bad, don't you think?", I might listen. Instead, we get "EEEEVIL CORPORATIONS MAN! BAAAAD!"

hee hee, Chickentry :)

If you click the link at the end, they seem to think that Flash was cutting edge. I didn't think it was :)

And I'd take it more serious if the main part didn't sound like the lovechild of Yoda and Kermit :)

[JMK]

I thought he sounded like a slightly more literate Jar Jar.

[Master Yoghurt]

Well, the flash animation IS supposed to be parodical. If you thought it was funny (like I did), all the better :)

[Jedieb]

Originally posted by Ka' el Darcverse
I lived and worked on non-confinement hog farm for 7 years of my life (Dad saw the market going under about 6 months before it did and sold out)

Our mortality rates and vet bills were generally 25-35% lower than the confinement farms surrounding us. Dad got paid top dollar because his hogs were considered leaner, healthier and better looking than the confinement hogs and it was better meat. That being said I will tell you why Big Business Farms are more efficient

They own the feed companies and the packing plants. They aren't selling their hogs to packing plants or buying feed at retail rates, their feed costs them what it costs to produce and they sell their animals as brats and pork chops. Thats why big business confinement farms make money.

Ka' el Darcverse, let me ask you this. When you worked on your farm, what did you guys do with your hog waste? I was under the impression that most of it was used as fertilizer. From what I've read, on these large industrial farms it's just treated as waste. It's literally dumped into a huge pit. You get this lake of pig crap. It's so massive that it creates a stench that effects property around the farm for miles. Enough so that it actually brings down property values. These large farms produce pigs that are less healthy, they produce more waste. They make money because like you said, they control more elements of production than small farms. But just because THEY make more money, doesn't mean they're good for consumers or the envirnoment.

What do you think?

[ADarksideJedi]

I heard some people talking about it and It sound like a cool site!I just hope it is not blocked from my computer!Thanks for letting me know!btw I would pick the red pill!lol!BYE!JM:crack :evil

[Crystal]

:lol that was great.


And.. I like my meat. I don't care much where it's from or how the animal lived. It was born to be made into a sandwitch, eventually.. and it IS dead now, and it's FOOD.

Yes, I'm that careless. :uhoh

[Ryan Pode]

I concur with Crystal. They were made to be my food. They aren't making me sick, so I don't care how they live their lives. Afterall, everything has a purpose.

[Darth Viscera]

America has over 9 million square kilometers of land. I think we can accomodate some pig waste here and there.