India's poor urged to 'eat rats'

[Alyrium Denryle]

Frankly, those of you balking at eating rats need to grow a set of metaphorical balls. Provided the meat is cooked you kill any parasites, and the meat if seasoned well (curry?) might taste pretty good. All of this bitching about eating rats is social taboo, like eating insects. And I can tell you right now, insects are tasty (I am about the worst urban gay man ever...)

So try something new. Eat some insects, and rats. I imagine a rat and termite stir-fry.... wow that actually sounds pretty damn good

It is not the issue of cooking it well. It is the issue of meat handling. The SARS epidemic occurred partly because of poor meat handling, mind you.

That goes for any food animal. Parasites, influenza... all of them come from our food animals. We dont just get a new flu strain every year because our own flu virus mutates, we get it because it jumps species.

[Broomstick]

Let's see, what have I eaten:

Beef
Pork
Lamb
Deer
Ostrich
Buffalo
Turkey
Duck
Chicken
Rabbit
Fish
Lobster
Crab
Squid
Snails
Shellfish

I won't eat anything still living. Some things I won't seek out to eat again (squid, snails, pork) but I'd eat them if I was hungry and they were in front of me.

Farm raised fish has issues, too - fish farms aren't always good places, can be contaminated, cause pollution, and so forth. I gave up eating sharks because, although I like the taste, they are being overfished and I can't condone eating an endangered or nearly endangered species.

Insects? I don't know... maybe if they didn't look like insects.

I'd consider eating rat, or horse, although I think I'm too indoctrinated in my culture to knowingly try dog.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Pork
Beef
Lamb
Buffalo
Moose
Turkey
Duck
Chicken
Fish (Lots and lots of different types)
Lobster
Prawns
Shrimp
Crab
Oysters
Squid
Shellfish

Farm raised fish has issues, too - fish farms aren't always good places, can be contaminated, cause pollution, and so forth.

Better get used to it dollface, fishfarms are the future, what with the oceans being fished dry and all . (Although in most cases of a closed system farm (A pool as opposed to one in a stream), pollution will just kill all of the fish, often within hours).

[Broomstick]

Farm raised fish has issues, too - fish farms aren't always good places, can be contaminated, cause pollution, and so forth.

Better get used to it dollface, fishfarms are the future, what with the oceans being fished dry and all . (Although in most cases of a closed system farm (A pool as opposed to one in a stream), pollution will just kill all of the fish, often within hours).

1) Don't call me dollface.

2) The US does maintain some fisheries that are stable (at least for now). Of course, the fish from such are more expensive than from other places, but I'm willing to pay that price so I will have fish in the future.

3) I did not say ALL fish farms were terrible, just that some were. It's not enough to see "farm raised" on the label, you still have to do a little research to be a responsible consumer. In fact, farm raised catfish is the only sort I'd consider eating, whereas I recently passed on farm-raised tilaipia because it was from China and let's face, they can't keep lead out of the paint on toys or poison of toothpaste, Og knows what's in the food raised there.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Farm raised fish has issues, too - fish farms aren't always good places, can be contaminated, cause pollution, and so forth.

Better get used to it dollface, fishfarms are the future, what with the oceans being fished dry and all . (Although in most cases of a closed system farm (A pool as opposed to one in a stream), pollution will just kill all of the fish, often within hours).

1) Don't call me dollface.

My Sincere apologies.

2) The US does maintain some fisheries that are stable (at least for now). Of course, the fish from such are more expensive than from other places, but I'm willing to pay that price so I will have fish in the future.

Did I say that they don't? I'm quite aware of the global distribution of fish farms.

3) I did not say ALL fish farms were terrible, just that some were. It's not enough to see "farm raised" on the label, you still have to do a little research to be a responsible consumer. In fact, farm raised catfish is the only sort I'd consider eating, whereas I recently passed on farm-raised tilaipia because it was from China and let's face, they can't keep lead out of the paint on toys or poison of toothpaste, Og knows what's in the food raised there.

Ah, kk, thanks for the clarification on your criteria as opposed to a blanket opinion on fish farms. (sorry for assuming the latter)

[Broomstick]

It seems some would eat rat, but can't afford it:

The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation puts other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials say.

With consumer price inflation at 37 per cent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel ($1.48).

Spicy field rat dishes with garlic thrown in have become particularly popular at a time when beef costs 20,000 riel a kilogram.

Officials say rats are fleeing to higher ground from flooded areas of the lower Mekong Delta, making it easier for villagers to catch them.

"Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family," Ly Marong, an agriculture official said.

"Not only are our poor eating it, but there is also demand from Vietnamese living on the border with us."

He estimates that Cambodia supplies more than a tonne of live rats a day to Vietnam.

Rats are also eaten widely in Thailand, while a state government in eastern India this month encouraged its people to eat rats in an effort to battle soaring food prices and save grain stocks.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Honestly, provided it is clean meat, this seems to be about the same prejudice against eating catfish.

Sure; provided it's clean. What guarantee is there of that in India's slums? If what Fingolfin says is true and plague broke out in the country as recently as the mid 90's, then I think it's not unreasonable for me to blanch a little at the thought of plucking rats off of the streets of New Delhi after they finish traipsing in sewage and filth and trying to skin and eat it like a chicken.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Honestly, provided it is clean meat, this seems to be about the same prejudice against eating catfish.

Sure; provided it's clean. What guarantee is there of that in India's slums? If what Fingolfin says is true and plague broke out in the country as recently as the mid 90's, then I think it's not unreasonable for me to blanch a little at the thought of plucking rats off of the streets of New Delhi after they finish traipsing in sewage and filth and trying to skin and eat it like a chicken.

CDC has a few webpages on that incident in 1994: http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/PrevGuid/m ... 033015.asp.

Then this article: http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/122/2/151

[Sidewinder]

If what Fingolfin says is true and plague broke out in the country as recently as the mid 90's, then I think it's not unreasonable for me to blanch a little at the thought of plucking rats off of the streets of New Delhi after they finish traipsing in sewage and filth and trying to skin and eat it like a chicken.

May I assume you'd blanche because you have enough money to buy meat from more sanitary sources, which are available where you live?

From what I understand of India's poor, they don't have the alternatives we enjoy in the US and Canada, Western Europe, Singapore, etc. It's eat a rat and hope it wasn't diseased, or starve.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Rat is an ok meal, but jungle rats are WAAAAY bigger than your usual north american one.

Doesn't really taste like much of anything, so I say pass the rat curry.

[Sarevok]

How would you convince people who don't even eat beef to consume rats ? Probably a large majority of India's population would find some religious reason not to touch rats.

[Broomstick]

That's like asking how you're going to get Jewish people to eat beef when they won't eat pork - what does a prohibition on beef have to do with eating rats? Hindus don't eat cow because cow is sacred, not from a ban on red meat. And Muslim Indians eat beef but not pork.

I'm not aware of any prohibition on rat meat - of course, I don't pretend to be aware of all the food taboos in that large and diverse country.

[Sarevok]

That's like asking how you're going to get Jewish people to eat beef when they won't eat pork - what does a prohibition on beef have to do with eating rats? Hindus don't eat cow because cow is sacred, not from a ban on red meat. And Muslim Indians eat beef but not pork.

I'm not aware of any prohibition on rat meat - of course, I don't pretend to be aware of all the food taboos in that large and diverse country.

Muslims won't eat rats and they are a large minority (150 million iirc). Sikhs may have similar rules too. Maybe Phantasee can clear this up.

As for hindus I am not sure about religous rules regarding rat meat consumption but the ones I know will probably be impossible to convince in touching a rat much less eating one. The cultural icky factor towards rats is very very deeply ingrained.

[NecronLord]

It's my understanding that Islam permits haram foods to be consumed if you're actually starving. Just the same as judaism permits non-kosher foods in such dire straights. Pass the pork.

[Broomstick]

As for hindus I am not sure about religous rules regarding rat meat consumption but the ones I know will probably be impossible to convince in touching a rat much less eating one. The cultural icky factor towards rats is very very deeply ingrained.

There's at least one temple in India where rats are venerated, if I recall correctly. I tend to assume such people wouldn't eat rats because they're venerated, but I don't know. As I said, it's a very diverse county and I do not feel comfortable generalizing it. If someone can show a religious prohibition that's one thing, but the avoidance of rodent meat may be a cultural bias that could be changed more easily than a religious taboo.