Name _________________________________________________

Date _____________
Honors EESMr. Dillman

The Meatrix Trilogy

Period ____________

The Meatrix I
1. What is The Meatrix?
The story we tell ourselves about where our meat and dairy products come from.
2. What is a factory farm?
Where most eggs, dairy products, and meat come from; it is a place where animals are kept in tight
quarters
3. What happens to the animals on a factory farm?
Animals cant move, see sunlight, disease spreads quickly.
4. Why are the animals given antibiotics? What is the problem with this?
To keep the animals alive, creates germs that are resistant to the antibiotics.
5. What is happening to family farms?
They are being destroyed due to the increased production of factory farms.
The Meatrix II: Revolting
1. What has happened in regards to sustainable eating in the past few years?
Many people are changing their food to healthier options.
2. What happens to cows in dairy factories?
They are sick due to close quarters, their tails are cut off, and their lives are conserved of getting
milked, bred, and getting separated from their calves.
3. What is rBGH? Why is it given to cows?
Artificial growth hormone. To make them bigger so they can produce more milk or meat.
4. What happens to the calves?
They are fed the blood of female cows.
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?
Injuries due to the fast processing
3. Profit is the name of the game.
4. As a job, meat-packing a dangerous job.

Name _________________________________________________
Date _____________
Honors EESMr. Dillman

The Meatrix Trilogy

Period ____________

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; E-coli; disease in humans
The Meatrix 360 Interactive Go to the following section of the site (or type/paste in this link:
http://www.themeatrix.com/educate ). Then Click on Meatrix Interactive 360 then Roll-over and click
on the different parts of the scene. Read and describe any 10 of the words below:
1. The precautionary principle
2. Feed
Cows should eat grass and silage, but many are fed antibiotics and unsavory byproducts.
3. Policy & legislation
The corporations that bring you factory farms are not only changing the way our food is produced;
theyre changing our government as well.
4. Health
5. Community
Factory farms do not contribute to local economies and are ruining rural areas.
6. Family farms
7. Cows
Hoof rot, mastitis, contagious diseases, and horrible living conditions confront cows on factory
farms.
8. Milk
9. Processing
After they can no longer give milk, some dairy cows are sent to slaughter to become hamburger
meat.
10. Workers
Workers on family farms are often low paid and are subjected to hazardous working conditions.
Some have even died on the job.
11. Downer cows
12. Pesticides
Pesticide residues accumulate in the fat and tissue of animals.
13. Antibiotics
14. rBGH
15. agribusiness
16. waste recycling
Methane digesters are not sustainable and still leave behind manure, heavy metals, and other
waste byproducts.
17. waste
Often over-applied to fields, causing several problems.
18. water pollution
Runoff from factory farms can cause nitrate to leach into private drinking wells.
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?
I didnt know much about agribusiness besides the videos that show the abuse of animals in factory farms.
I learned more about what happens to the animals on these farms, like the modification of animals and the
feeding of the calves. The goals of these videos is obviously to make a change in how animals are treated,
to convert you to eat different types of animals that arent abused. Videos like this influence the way I see
things, but they wont change what I eat.