The Trouble with Mass Meat

"What’s for dinner?" was the GoGreen Week theme of two documentary screenings on the cost of growing appetites for meat in China. Through film, director Jian Yi examined pig farming, the changes in food production and people’s attitudes towards it.

“What’s For Dinner?” and “Six Years on, What’s For Dinner?” visually explore how food is produced in China, and how people feel about it. The latter revisits the persons and places of the first film to note what has or actually hasn’t changed over that span of time.

The films address how just a few decades ago, meat was in low supply and small pig farms flourished by shipping to Hong Kong and other places. People once used to treat meat as a flavorful garnish rather than as a main dish, but as China’s demand for meat increased, the means of production turned towards more industrialized processes. Eventually, large factory farms took over the scene.

Six years after the filming of “What’s For Dinner?” Jian Yi returned to talk to two of the pig farmers that he interviewed -- both having gone out of business due to industrial farms. He remained pessimistic about the future of Chinese policy regarding food production and animal welfare, even though there are voices calling for vegetarianism and veganism within Chinese society.

(Text by: Mari Allison)