what happened to babe © Lilly Schwartz
Yesterday in the shop when stocking up on food I certainly found proof that the festivities aren’t fun for everyone. I was a bit surprised that they sell whole piglets with the head and everything, but then I was too busy trying to take a picture to think too much about it. By the way, I’m sorry about the title, but sometimes I just can’t help it with the sarcasm. After all, you can either laugh or cry about it and laughing is probably healthier in the long run. For those of you who don’t know it: “Babe” was a film featuring a cute little piglet. It also reminds me of an album of Client that starts with the line “Life is cruel and then you die” which is awfully fitting for many situations, including this one. Sarcasm like this just proves that I’ve lived in England too long. There it’s very common to just make fun of the things that are beyond your control. Why let such things ruin the fun of it all?
Personally I actually find it quite good that you can find this in the meat section here. I have less of a problem with people who eat the little piglet anyway. My beef (excuse the bad pun) is with people who are entirely disconnected from the fact that their dinner cost the life of an animal. I precisely mean people who get squeamish about this sort of thing, but still eat meat since they don’t want to connect the dots. We all can decide how we live our lives and I think it’s important to remember that someone somewhere always pays for our lifestyle choices. It doesn’t have to be about the little piglet that died to be our dinner, it can just as well be about the electronic garbage that gets shipped illegally from the US, the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries to for example Ghana making it nothing more than a landfill for the richer countries. Awareness is key.
I hope this didn’t ruin your dinner … I myself will be grateful to a duck tonight. Happy New Year!
Just to let you know I have been enjoying your posts very much. I started with a social commentary blog awhile ago because my wife didn’t like me discussing politics in public. She attacked the people were weren’t informed enough the issues. Anyway it morphed into a photojournalist/photo blog…mostly photo. I am welcome there and I get nice insightful comments.
But you and I have things to say so we will carry on.
Happy New Year
Poor Babe! I really don’t like to see the meal packaged like this, but as the daughter of a father raised at the end of the Great Depression, I was made aware very early about where my meals came from. Thank you, Dad! And thank you, Lilly, for a good thought provoking post.
Reminds me of a pig fetus that was used for education purposes and dissected in my anatomy class years ago. The instructors tried to make light of the situation by having us name our pig. My group chose “M C Hammer”
A very powerful image indeed, Ms. S…
Wow…this is such a though provoking and powerful image…thanks for posting
It’s hard to deny that this piglet was a living animal when one sees it packaged with head, feet and all. Even though I live on a farm and raise food animals, this photo still puts the destiny of a food animal right in front of us all. Thoughtful eating is important indeed. Respect for the animal doesn’t have to mean veganism or vegetarianism.
Strong shot 🙁