Pig 05049
The Dutch artist Christien Meindertsma’s book ‘Pig 05049’ tracks what products were made from a pig randomly selected from a farm in the Netherlands. The pig 05049 was made into at least 185 non-pork products, including soap, bullet, and heart valve.
Sustainable Capitalism and Green Production
Chris Berg (2010), a researcher in economy, argues that Meindertsma’s work contradicts the common misconception that modern production is wasteful and unsustainable. In fact, the economic system supports the idea of selling the waste to people who find it useful. Many corporations would make the most of the materials, as they aim at saving costs and making profits. Therefor, ‘global capitalism is better for the environment than most people think'(2010:26).
Contaminated Products and Muslim Consumers
The ‘pig 05049’ case illustrates that consumers today are quite often not able to tell where a product comes from, what it is made of, and how it was made. This knowledge may seem trivial to a number of us, but to many others it is not.
Some vegetarians may find it hard to accept that the toothpaste they use everyday is bron from 05049’s death, while for many Muslims, this would be intolerable and outrageous. ‘Halal, which means permissible, not only covers food and drink, but anything that can be used in daily life, including drugs and cosmetics.’ The globalised processing of products makes consumer goods sold to Muslims potentially contaminated and dangerous. (Duncan 2013) The ‘pig 05049’ example is also referred to in the recently published ‘Handbook of Halal Food Production’ as it is related to potential hazards of Halal facilities.
References
Christien Meindertsma’s Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/christien_meindertsma_on_pig_05049
Berg, C. 2010. Greener than thou, pig. Institute of Public Affairs Review, 62(3), pp. 26-27.
Duncan, G. 2013. Muslims regularly consuming Haram without knowing: expert. Available at: https://muslimvillage.com/2013/02/20/35739/muslims-regularly-consuming-haram-without-knowing-expert
Riaz, M. N. & Chaudry, M. M. (eds) 2019. Handbook of Halal Food Production. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Contributed by JarynHuang on 08/02/2019
