Suicide Food
You’ve seen it—the deliriously happy pigs promoting barbecue, Charlie the tuna who wants to become “Chicken of the Sea”—but maybe you didn’t know there was a term for it: suicide food. As the fascinating Suicide Food blog puts it, “Suicide Food is any depiction of animals that act as though they wish to be consumed.”
The blog has been around since 2006 but I didn’t know about it until an out-of-town friend mentioned it as we drove past Mr. Barbecue (and Miss Fried Chicken) on Peter’s Creek Parkway. The commentary and ratings system for the images—one to five nooses, from “mildly disturbing” to “Ye gods! I must go wash out my eyeballs!”—are lively and amusing. But they make a serious point. As the blog description says: “Suicide Food says, ‘Hey! Come on! Eating meat is without any ethical ramifications! See, Mr. Greenjeans? The animals aren’t complaining! So what’s your problem?’ Suicide Food is not funny.”
No, suicide food is not funny. But the blog is—and thought-provoking as well.
