Raising Lamb Online
It is a new business idea of raising a lamb for one’s own in a distant farm. One needs to download a company app, which is a farm in Inner Mongolia (a large northern Chinese province famous for its grassland and herding industry) and pay to ‘adopt’ a lamb. The consumer can choose what kind of fodder to use and when to take the lamb for a walk. The app is connected to 24h CCTV image of the sheepfold, and the consumer can watch it grow, pet it, pay a fee to decorate it, buy clothes for it, before eventually organise a tour to visit the farm in person in Inner Mongolia…and consume its meat.
The advertisement describes how one can raise a pet in ‘endless grassland’, ‘eating the organic grass’ and ‘playing freely’. Featuring ‘healthy’, ‘organic’, and ‘natural’ food, the service gives the chance for direct, real-time tracing of the potential feast, producing a sense of authenticity. The business is new and still in the stage of promotion, but it is already under heated debate and contest. Main criticisms are against the ‘cruel idea’ to link meat consumption to pet raising, and the severe tension between personalised pet and commodity. It is unimaginable to raise and build personal or emotional connections with an animal, with the ultimate goal to eat it.
The webpage is in Chinese but you can take a look at the pictures: http://www.sohu.com/a/195854348_470082
Contributed by WenleiHuang on 12/02/2018
