The Global Human Hair 'n' Kidney Black Market

“Most of the hair that gets shorn is from men. That gets sold to chemical companies and gets reduced to an amino acid called L-cystine, which is used as a leavening agent in baking goods.”
 — Hi, I’m trying not to throw up. Here’s a great primer on Scott Carney’s look at the markets for humans and their parts. Obviously the incredibly large industry of kidney-harvesting is more truly disgusting but, ack: human hair food. I guess the world isn’t really quite that flat after all, since white babies are worth more in the adoption market and expensive organs in “the west” fetch next to nothing to their original owners in “the east.”