NEW YORK CITY, Sept. 21st 2006- In honor of The Dalai Lama's upcoming visit to New York City from September 23rd to the 25th, Sustainable Table today released the Tibetan translation of its critically acclaimed flash animation The Meatrix.

The Venerable Lama Pema Wangdak, director of the Vikramasila Foundation and Pema Ts'al Schools, translated the short film as well as performed its voiceovers.

"We feel The Dalai Lama's visit is a fitting occasion to release this Tibetan translation," explained Diane Hatz, Executive Producer of The Meatrix. "The Meatrix is a film about problems on today's industrial farms, problems such as environmental destruction, animal welfare issues and the negative impact on farmers and local communities. His Holiness teaches that we must learn to be compassionate, and respect for the environment and all beings are essential tenets of Buddhism."

The Meatrix is a four-minute flash animation that spoofs The Matrix movie trilogy while educating viewers about the ills of industrial agriculture and the problems with today's meat supply. It is a creative satire that mixes humor, pop culture and entertainment to create an educational vehicle for viewers to question where the food they eat comes from and to respond to a call for action.

The Meatrix has been translated into 28 languages with 7 foreign dubs and has been viewed by more than 15 million people worldwide since its debut in fall of 2003. It has received more than a dozen major film and Web awards and is widely-recognized as having revolutionized online advocacy.

Sustainable Table and Free Range Studios, the creators of The Meatrix, saw the need to draw the world's attention to the problems of industrial agriculture with the release of The Meatrix. The film introduced viewers to factory farms when it showed animals being raised in crowded, confined spaces, not able to carry out their natural behaviors like grazing, rooting and pecking. In addition, antibiotics, chemicals and/or hormones are used to promote faster growth and to ward off diseases.

Factory farms often raise animals in facilities that cannot properly process all the waste, so manure is often held in large outdoor lagoons that can hold millions of gallons of waste. This waste is often over-applied to the land and runs off into surrounding streams and waterways, or leaks from the lagoons into the ground and ground water. Factory farms emphasize high volume and profit over environmental quality, human health, safe food, humane treatment of animals, and the rural economy. For more information on factory farms in general, visit the Factory Farming page on Sustainable Table.

Other problems with industrialized farms include air pollution, water pollution, negative health impacts on both humans and animals, destruction of rural communities, environmental pollution, mistreatment of animals, and unsafe conditions for workers. Add to this the use of hormones and growth enhancers, and questionable feed practices that can help spread mad cow disease, and the serious problems with factory farms becomes evident.

Sustainable Table is a leading Web resource designed to celebrate the sustainable food movement, educate consumers on factory farming and food-related issues and increase demand for sustainable food.

• Source: Phayul.Com | See all Meatrix Animations here.