The Netherlands has 11.4 million pigs. But where are they?
In 1950, one pig farmer kept an average of 7 pigs, now there are 4,700. In 99 percent of the cases, they only come out to move to another stable or slaughterhouse.
Photographer Sabine Grootendorst wanted to see where the more than 11 million pigs live in the Netherlands. From the open road, she has already photographed more than eight hundred farms. But she barely met pigs, only hermetically sealed stables.
What roadside plastic barrels say about pig farming
Earlier this year, I faced a photo series that kept haunting me.
These were Sabine Grootendorst's photos of pig farms in the Netherlands. No pictures inside, not of the caliber of sad little pigs with oh so human eyes, but pictures from outside: bare buildings, tidy yards, not one living piglet in the picture.
But there, in those stables, up to 114 million pigs live. And at the edge of the road are these barrels:
They were made to cover something.
