Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Enter the Meatrix: Viral Flash Activism

In November of 2003, links to the flash film The Meatrix jammed the email in-boxes of computer users across the globe. A snappy three minute and 47 second flash film mimicking the plot and characters of the cult-classic film The Matrix, The Meatrix details the hidden truth about our food supply, that the small family farms of our national unconscious have been replaced by factory farms or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations ( CAFOs) run by large agribusiness corporations.

If you haven't seen the film, go to google right now, typed in "The Meatrix" and watch it. It will take you under four minutes. There is also an updated Meatrix film, too, that you can watch.

Produced by the new media company Free Range Graphics for the Global Resource Action Center (GRACE), a non-profit that fights factory farming and promotes sustainable agriculture, The Meatrix provides us with a critical lens through which to survey the social, economic, environmental, and cultural impacts of factory farming on rural communities and on us all since we all are consumers of food.

The Meatrix also provides an interesting example of new media organizing and critical literacy in action as it models what new media designers call “viral flash activism.” Viral flash activism uses short Macromedia Flash films that convey an organization or group’s message through a narrative that is mean to “inspire, amuse, and activate” a “target audience” (“What are Flash Films”). Viral flash activism films often make use of humor and pop culture references and are an effective organizing tool for drawing in the so-called Internet Generation. At the end of a viral flash activist film, the user is given a “clickable call to action,” which urges readers to get involved, take action, e.g., sign a petition, join an organization, participate in a specific campaign, or donate money.

The “viral” aspect of viral flash activism is the fact that the flash film is distributed quickly via a membership list and then mailed by members to friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances. Viewers do not have to go a theater to see the film; instead, it is spread like a virus through the online community, mailed and then forwarded and re-forwarded to maximize its viewing and impact. Bloggers link to the film and so do the websites of non-profits and political advocacy groups, thus accelerating the film’s impact on the originating organization. The film has become an organizing banner for a variety of non-profit and advocacy organizations ranging from non-profits like Farm Aid to academic think-tanks like the Institute for Food and Agriculture Policy. The medium of viral flash activism has caught on and new flash advocacy films have been recently released such as the Organic Fair Trade Association’s 5 minute film “Grocery Store Wars,” a spoof of “Star Wars’ and a critique of genetically modified foods.

The Meatrix offers an interesting, strategic and quick way to introduce the general public to the debate over factory farming and also provides a case study for the radical potential of new media as an advocacy resource. The Meatrix works to sponsor a critical literacy moment for viewers, and it moves beyond mere agricultural literacy (simply knowing how food is grown) to what Jacqueline Edmondson calls a new alternative agrarian literacy, an understanding of the environmental, social, economic, and political consequences of the food system ; furthermore, the film offers an endorsement of developing sustainable food systems and sustainable ways of living (15; see also Frefoygle on new agrarianism).

Since most Americans buy milk, eggs, and meat that have been factory farmed, whether they/we realize it or not, The Meatrix prompts us to think of factory farms not as a problem “out there,” out of sight, out of mind, but a problem for us all. It encourages mutual identification between rural, urban, and suburban communities around the issue of food production, consumption, and agribusiness.