What's Old is New

Live enough years, have a long enough memory, and everything comes back again.  Qoheleth once said that there is nothing new under the sun, and I have a history of agreeing with a lot of what he said. There are modern ad campaigns and slogans that are identical to some I've found in 50 year old Life magazines.

Back in 2005 I produced the above mixed media print for a group folio called Blatantly Kitsch.  It had roots in those same Life magazines, but also in found artifacts- old dog food labels of that same era found in the basement.  I always knew that horse meat was commonly used in dog food back then, but from the labels I learned that mule meat and mule meat by-products were also major ingredients- at least in this particular brand.  You won't find those is contemporary dog foods.  My satirical advertisement above plays with the idea that equine content in our meals would be considered undesirable by most consumers in the early 21st century.

You won't find horse meat in modern dog foods, but people are discovering that it is turning up in a lot of human food.  News reports began a month or so ago, traces of horse turning up in European fast food burgers.  Quick investigations found it in a variety of prepackaged meals sold in stores and distributed in schools in Europe.  (so far nothing reported here yet)  Another news story today, this time horse in fast food taco meat.  That people may be eating horse is not a crime in itself (it's considered a delicacy in some European countries), it's that products being sold as beef are not pure, and who knows what other mystery ingredients might be in there.  I don't think it's happened yet, but before long I'm thinking that food producers will start advertising how much horse (or mule) they don't have.  You heard it here first.