Christien Meindertsma talking:
In the Netherlands, where I come from, you actually never see a pig, which is really strange, because, on a population of 16 million people, we have 12 million pigs. And well, of course, the Dutch can’t eat all these pigs. They eat about one-third, and the rest is exported to all kinds of countries in Europe and the rest of the world. A lot goes to the U.K., Germany.
And what I was curious about — because historically, the whole pig would be used up until the last bit so nothing would be wasted … and I was curious to find out if this was actually still the case. And I spent about three years researching. And I followed this one pig with number “05049” all the way up until the end and to what products it’s made of. And in these years, I met all kinds people, like, for instance, farmers and butchers, which seems logical. But I also met aluminum mold makers, ammunition producers and all kinds of people. And what was striking to