Name _________________________________________________ Date _____________

APESMr. Dillman Period ____________

Questions for The Meatrix Trilogy http://www.themeatrix.com/

The Meatrix I
1. What is The Meatrix? the story we tell ourselves where meat and animal products come from
2. What is a factory farm? Where we get eggs, milk, meat
3. What happens to the animals on a factory farm? Packed tightly and never see sunlight and given antibiotics
4. Why are the animals given antibiotics? What is the problem with this? To keep them alive. Creates a resistance.
5. What is happening to family farms? Getting replaced by factory farms
The Meatrix II: Revolting
1. What has happened in regards to sustainable eating in the past few years? People are buying healthier foods
2. What happens to cows in dairy factories? They get sick, tails cut off, separated from mothers,
3. What is rBGH? Why is it given to cows? Artificial hormones. To make them produce more milk
4. What happens to the calves? Separated from mother and fed cows blood
5. What can be caused by this? Mad cow disease
The Meatrix II 1/2
1. At this factory, how many cows can be processed in single day? 5,000
2. What often happens to the workers in the processing factories? Injured
3. Profit is the name of the game.
4. As a job, meat-packing is the most dangerous.
5. Due to the speed of the processing, what gets all over the meat? What bacteria does this substance contain? What
problems can this cause? Manure. Ecoli. Severe sickness or death.
The Meatrix 360 Interactive Go to the following section of the site (or type/paste in this link:
http://www.themeatrix.com/interactive/index.html). Roll-over and click on the different parts of the scene. Read and take notes on
each of the following topics that are discussed:
1. The precautionary principle- if we think an activity can cause harm, we should take the measures to protect ourselves
2. Feed- cows should eat grass and silage but many are fed antibiotic and unsavory byproducts
3. Policy & legislation-
4. Health- the health of workers and local communities are at risk and so is the public health
5. Community- factory farms do not contribute to local economies and are ruining rural communities
6. Family farms- Since 1930s the US has lost 5 million farmers due to factory farms
7. Cows- Hoof rot, Mastitis, contagious diseases, and horrible living conditions confront cows on factory farms
8. Milk- used to be milked by hand in family farms but with factory farms they use machines until they are all drained out of
milk
9. Processing- After the cows can no longer produce milk they are taken to slaughter houses and are made into hamburger
meat
10. Workers- They are often given low pay and work in hazardous conditions. Some have even died on the job.
11. Downer cows- a diseased cow with no meat
12. Pesticides-the resides accumulate in animal fat
13. Antibiotics- low daily doses are often given to cows to ward off diseases and make them grow faster. This contributes to the
increase of bacteria resistant diseases
14. rBGH- Artificial growth hormones given to cows to make them produce more milk
15. agribusiness- consolidation of food production concentrates the power in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations
16. waste recycling- methane digesters are not suitable and still leave behind manure, heavy metals, and other waste
byproducts.
Name _________________________________________________ Date _____________
APESMr. Dillman Period ____________
Questions for The Meatrix Trilogy http://www.themeatrix.com/

17. Waste- CAFOS create huge amounts of waste that pollutes the air and water supply
18. water pollution- runoff from the factories have killed millions of fish
Write: Before viewing these videos, how much did you know about agribusiness? What was some new information you learned
from these videos? What is the goal of these videos? Do you think these videos will change how you eat? Why/why not?
Nothing. A lot of our products today are made in factories but there are still some places that do it naturally. To show awareness of
how bad factory farms are. Maybe, it might cause me to think about the more organic stuff.