NEW "MEATRIX" MERCHANDISE AVAILABLE ONLINE
All proceeds will go to FARM AID
New York (NY), December 17, 2003 – T-shirts, caps, mugs and other lively merchandise featuring the humorous characters of "The Meatrix" (www.themeatrix.com) – the hugely popular online animated film that reveals the dark side of the modern American meat machine – are now available on the Internet through The Meatrix action page at the end of the movie or directly at http://www.sustainabletable.org/getinvolved/
All proceeds from sales of Meatrix merchandise will go to FARM AID's Saving Family Farms Program (www.farmaid.org). FARM AID provides immediate and effective support services to farm families in crisis, emergency grants to small farms threatened with hunger and loss heat or electricity, and program grants to family farm organizations that work locally to strengthen family farm agriculture.
"Since the launch of The Meatrix in November, we’ve received many requests for Meatrix t-shirts," says Alice Slater, president of GRACE. "So we decided to respond to popular demand and create a line of Meatrix merchandise that includes not only t-shirts, but also caps, mugs and other products in order to benefit Farm Aid, whose mission of supporting family farms is aligned to our own goals of eliminating factory farming"
"We are delighted to be collaborating with GRACE on this project," said Carolyn Mugar, Executive Director of FARM AID. "The Meatrix perfectly taps into popular culture to create awareness about factory farming and its negative impacts on family farms. FARM AID is proud to partner with GRACE to encourage people to guard against the dangers of factory farming and to support local, family farm-centered food production."
Created by Free Range Graphics (www.freerangestudios.com) for GRACE, (www.gracelinks.org), The Meatrix is a humorous 3-minute Flash™ animation that spoofs The Matrix films while drawing attention to the problems of factory farming. Instead of Keanu Reaves, The Meatrix stars a young pig, Leo, who lives on a pleasant family farm ... he thinks. Leo is approached by a trenchcoat-clad cow, Moopheus, who shows him the ugly truth about agribusiness, complete with a send-up of the "stop-motion" camerawork immortalized by the Matrix. At the end of the movie, viewers are directed to an "action page" where they are encouraged to eat sustainable meat and support local family farmers, and where they can now purchase Meatrix merchandise.
In only 6 weeks, The Meatrix has been seen by well over 2.5 million viewers worldwide – an unprecedented success for an online advocacy film – and has been picked up by outlets ranging from USA Today and CNN Headline News, to The Guardian (UK), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, NPR and MichaelMoore.com.
GRACE is a New York-based not-for-profit that works to oppose factory farming and promote a sustainable food production system that is healthful and humane, economically viable, and environmentally sound.
FARM AID was founded in 1985 in order to keep family farmers on the land. Board members Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews host an annual concert event in order to raise funds to build a food and farm system that produces high quality food, protects natural resources and strengthens communities.
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