Pig 05049 · Steve Krause

A page from Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma’ book “Pig 05049.” It shows a drawing of a pig annotated with tiny numbers indicating how the pig’s parts were used.

Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma spent three years documenting what happened to Pig 05049. After being slaughtered at a commercial farm, parts of Pig 05049 ended up in at least 185 different products. Ammunition, train brakes, paint, heart valves, soap, cellular concrete, bread, and low-fat butter would like to thank Pig 05049 for its contribution to them.

To see the other 177 end products, including bacon, you can consult Meindertsma’s book, PIG 05049. I saw a copy at The Art Institute of Chicago. Here you can many sample pages.

Meindertsma also gave a TED presentation on the subject.