THE PEOPLE’s BACON: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT (2024)

The phrase “You are what you eat” was thought to originate from the 1826 saying “Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you what you are” by Anthelme Brilliat-Savarin. The significance of this quote is that the food we eat has a bearing on us, specifically our mental and physical well-being. The nutrients in our food help to form the building blocks in every cell in our body.

Many companies that control the quality of our food, as well as consumers, do not pay enough attention to the ramifications of eating or producing food from factory farm animals. Instead, the focus is placed upon convenience, profit, and even gluttony. The People’s Bacon: You Are What You Eat is meant to symbolize that if we eat meat from sick animals, we become just like them, sick. Meraki the Phoenix chose to take these images through a plastic sheet to signify the thin veil between the people and the truth about their food and the phoniness of the attempts to make the quality seem better than it is.