Public Story
The Life of a German pig for NZZ
Summary
THE LIFE OF A GERMAN PIG
Assignment for Neue Zürcher Zeitung in December 2020
Assignment for Neue Zürcher Zeitung in December 2020
For NZZ I visited a pig farm in Prignitz, Brandenburg, to photograph “Falko” the pig. Writer Anja Stehle followed Falko from birth until the day he was slaughtered, a total life span of 215 days. Mass meat consumption, cheap wages, and cost pressure have lead animals, humans and the environment into a dead end. In 2019, Germany was the worlds third largest pork exporter.
Assignment for Neue Zürcher Zeitung in December 2020
For NZZ I visited a pig farm in Prignitz, Brandenburg, to photograph “Falko” the pig. Writer Anja Stehle followed Falko from birth until the day he was slaughtered, a total life span of 215 days. Mass meat consumption, cheap wages, and cost pressure have lead animals, humans and the environment into a dead end. In 2019, Germany was the worlds third largest pork exporter.
150 million pigs were bred in the EU In 2017. Germany is ranked second highest producer of pork meat after Spain, with 27,6 million pigs farmed. In Berlin and Brandenburg alone, six million people consume around 220 million kilos of pork per year. Germany’s leading meat processing company, ‘Tönnies’, located in North Rhine Westphalia, slaughters 20.000 pigs per day. In June 2020, Tönnies was hit by a severe Coronavirus outbreak with over 2000 employees that tested positive. 7,000 people in the area were instructed to go into quarantine. This incident has prompted Germany to review stricter regulations on its meat industry.
A reportage with words by Anja Stehle and photographs by Nadja Wohlleben.
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