Dear Galen,
Thank you for sharing this.
Very interesting that the technology these days actually allow people to mould their fruits to the shape they desire. In this case a "baby". I don't think the farmer intended the shape of the fruit to be a Buddha, because he said,
"People called me crazy. They said I was whimsical and it was impossible to grow baby-shaped fruits. They told me to stop wasting my time and money,"
Great effort from his side I would say for being so creative in order to meet the ever changing demand from consumers. But I do recommend him doing something more cartoonish like Sponge Bob Square Pants / Care Bears / Sesame Street Characters or anything else that's cute and easy to shape. This will then encourage the kids to have more fruits
As to whether eating the fruit will be equal to desecrating a Buddha's image? I personally don't think so. I look at is as a fruit that have a shape of baby and nothing else. It was moulded that way to add appearance to the fruit. As I've mentioned above, for a better and neutral marketing plan, Mr. Hao should adopt doing cartoon characters instead of Christian Saints and other Religious figures. But then again, he'll have to worry about copyright issues.... Well, he can always do his own cartoon or animal figures
