This Little Piggy Went to…
September 27, 2009 at 9:23 AM Leave a comment
Three years ago, when Christien Meindertsma, a 29-year-old design school graduate from Rotterdam, The Netherlands with an interest in raw materials decided to “trace what happened to the body parts of a specific commercially raised pig, she discovered a lot more than packaged meat. That single animal, Meindertsma found, contributed to a mind-boggling number of products — 185 items in all, from chewing gum to bone china.” In the end, Meindertsma wrote a book documenting her findings titled, Pig 05049:
Not surprisingly, much of the pig was bound for the table in the familiar forms of meat. In addition, calcium from the bones was used to fortify yogurt. The pig’s nose, after being deep-fried, became a dog snack.
What is surprising is the staggering array of non-food products that incorporate parts of the pig. Who knew it took pig fat to make automobile paint? Or that hemoglobin from pig blood is used in cigarette filters? Bone ash, Meindertsma found, went into train brakes, bone meal into the coating for aluminum molds, and gelatin from the pig’s skin and bones was deployed by an American weapons manufacturer to help distribute powder to bullets.
Meindertsma’s goal in undertaking this project was to “encourage consumers, in a world in which so much is packaged, to think about where our goods come from, with the ultimate goal that ‘we care for and use our resources wisely’.”
I love that there are people out there who spend time on quirky stuff like this and that we have the Internet so we can know about them and what they do. Life is good!
Entry filed under: Science, The Environment, Weather, Etc.. Tags: .
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