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India-Pakistan
Rat snacks can solve world food price crisis: Indian official
2008-08-13
Eating rats is the best way for rich and poor people to solve the global crisis of rising food prices, an Indian official said Wednesday as he unveiled his plan to put rodents on menus. Regular rat snacks would translate into fewer rodents eating precious grain stocks -- 50 percent of which are lost in the northeastern state of Bihar every year to the animals, said Vijay Prakash, secretary of the state's welfare department.

"This will help in mitigating the global food crisis. We are sure that it will work wonders," Prakash told AFP. "It will save half our grain, and will also reduce villagers' dependence on food stock."
"Rats on a stick! Rats on a stick! Git yer red-hot rats on a stick!"
Prakash's plan promotes consumption of rat meat in homes, street stalls, restaurants and even international five-star hotels. He said he was also holding talks with prestigious hotels outside India to encourage them to put rat meat on their menus, but admitted his scheme had to overcome public prejudice.

"The only issue is how people react to rat meat, but I think it will not be a problem," he said. "Some socially deprived people in Bihar have always consumed rat meat. If they can eat rats, why can't the rest of the people?" he said.

Members of the Mushar community and some other impoverished groups have traditionally eaten rats in India. "Rat meat will make up nutrition deficiencies among villagers, since rats are a major source of protein," Prakash said.
Posted by:Delphi

#14  IIRC FOX or CNN > short montage on how the steady decline of US veterinarians skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of large/big animals had become a NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE for the US Army-DOD - THIS ARTICLE ON SERE TRNG as per EDIBLES ILLUSTRATES WHY.

WHAT CAVALRY HOSSES EAT-N-DRINK NATURALLY, etc. ON THE MOVE MATTERS TO THE LT PHYSICAL HEALTH AND BASE SURVIVAL OF TROOPERS + UNIT, ESPEC IN HIGH-STRESS SITUATIONS LIKE, OH I DUNNO, COMBAT!
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-08-13 23:20  

#13  You don't know how close that gets to the truth. When India closed down the reptile skin trade the local snake charmers took a major economic hit. Venom sales alone wasn't good enough to keep the tradition alive. So Ron Whittaker of crocodile fame had them start a rat catcher co-op. The snake charmer families got a steady income all the rats they could eat plus the 10's of kilos of rice and wheat the rats had stored. The farmers got their fields cleared of rats cheaper than baits. Ron got the surplus rats to feed his crocs. Mind you that these Indian rats tend to be around house cat size.
Posted by: bruce   2008-08-13 21:16  

#12  King Rat was by James Clavell. You'll also find rats as food in the C. S. Forester Hornblower series. Does anyone here have the O'Brian cookbook?
Posted by: Eric Jablow   2008-08-13 21:00  

#11  Snake is even better John, prolly much better for you than beef.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-08-13 17:10  

#10  I eat squirrels, they're nothing but a tree rat. I'd assume Norwegian browns are fairly similar.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-08-13 17:08  

#9  This is not the first time that the department secretary has come out with such an innovative idea.

Earlier, he proposed to recruit eunuchs as security guards to maternity wards in hospitals.

"Yes, that proposal is in its advance stage and we'll very soon engage them in various social activities of our department," he said.

And the welfare secretary's next plan?

"I'll make snake catching popular for the economic value of its venom," he said.
Posted by: john frum   2008-08-13 16:04  

#8  Would you say phooey to ratatouille?
Posted by: SteveS   2008-08-13 15:40  

#7  It'd be just another menu item (of a sort) here
Posted by: Pappy   2008-08-13 15:34  

#6  Tastes just like chicken.

Bet that Beijing restaurant serves rat penuses.
Posted by: DK70 the Scantily Clad7177   2008-08-13 15:15  

#5  MMMM Rat Jerky!
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2008-08-13 14:33  

#4  Read Patrick O'Brian about the culinary habits of the British Navy circa 1800.
Posted by: AlanC   2008-08-13 14:18  

#3  Didn't someone write a book about prisoners of war in a Japanese POW camp who started capturing cooking and selling rats.

I think the book was called 'King Rat'.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2008-08-13 14:04  

#2  You can have mine, Vijay.
You're welcome.
Posted by: tu3031   2008-08-13 14:01  

#1  Reminds me of a biography of a NORK defector I read. In a labour camp, he figured out how to catch and cook rats and was eating 30 or 40 a day.

He said the guards were terrified of him. They thought he was somekind of magician/sorcerer, because he was getting fat while everyone else in the camp was starving to death.
Posted by: phil_b   2008-08-13 13:51  

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