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Let them Eat Rats
Photo Credit: Limonada
I think what disturbs me about this Reuters news piece even more than the Let them Eat Mud story that I posted about mud cake consumption in Haiti, is that the government in Bihar, India, is actively promoting it.
Just to be clear. It's official government policy for people to eat rats. (The full story here and below.)
It's a useful case to ruminate over. What is it, after all, that's so appalling here? Clearly the idea of eating vermin is, by definition, distasteful, but what a culture decides is edible, and what is pestilent, isn't written in our DNA. As we used to chorus in Sociology 101: "it's a social construct". Some think pork is as dirty as rat. Some think that by renaming pigeons as 'squab', they'll taste better.
That people are eating rodents isn't the only thing that should turn our stomachs, though. The Bihari government endorsement of rat-eating is simultaneously a sign of defeat. They've given up on fighting poverty so that people can afford to eat. Given up on trying to protect the grain harvests with decent infrastructure. Given up, almost, on their people.
In a time of scarce resources and rising hunger, rat-eating becomes a handy technical fix. After all, what is rat-eating but a technology to increase nutrition and eliminate the use of pesticides and the need for secure grain storage?
And if we're appalled by this, and we should be, then how different is this from the logic that justifies Golden Rice? After all, doesn't golden rice become useful only when governments have resigned themselves to the fact that the only thing people can afford to eat is rice? That the healthcare system can't be resuscitated? That the best technology to fix the problem is one that doesn't address it?
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PATNA, India, Aug 18 (Reuters) - A state government in eastern Indian is encouraging people to eat rats in an effort to battle soaring food prices and save grain stocks.
Authorities in Bihar, one of India's poorest states, are asking rich and poor alike to switch to eating rats in a bid to reduce the dependence on rice. They even plan to offer rats on restaurant menus.
"Eating of rats will serve twin purposes -- it will save grains from being eaten away by rats and will simultaneously increase our grain stock," Vijay Prakash, an official from the state's welfare department, told Reuters.
Officials say almost 50 percent of India's food grains stocks are eaten away by rodents in fields or warehouses.
Jitan Ram Manjhi, Bihar's caste and tribe welfare minister, said rat meat was a healthy alternative to expensive rice or grains, and should be eaten by one and all.
"We are very serious to implement this project since the food crisis is turning serious day by day," Manjhi, who has eaten rats, told Reuters.
In Bihar, rat meat is already eaten by Mushars, a group of lower caste Hindus, as well as poorer sections of society. (Writing by Melanie Lee; Editing by Paul Tait)
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Posted on 20 August, 2008 - 15:27
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Some people have to eat rats to live. If there is no other food available, people have to eat what they can find. I'd rather eat rats than waste products, which is what I saw people eating in another blog post.
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I wouldn't have a problem eating rats. They're sources of meat, just like pigs, goats, cows, chickens, etc...
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Submitted by Conrad (not verified) on 29 August, 2008 - 13:14.
I was inquiring/discussing the consumption of rats with my Cambodian girlfriend just yesterday. (I noticed both India & Cambodia were mentioned in this latest batch of rodent eating stories.) The perspective of people who have had to eat 'lower' lifeforms to survive at one point or another in their lives is fundamentally different than your average 'first-worlder'. Do not pass judgment on them as they really may not have had any other choice - it is out of necessity. We watch those survival shows with people chomping into live fish or eating rotting deer meat - uncooked - and we are shocked... only b/c of OUR perspective.
Back the the 'beef rats' as my girlfriend calls them... apparently they can taste quite good. During the Khmer Rouge period, there are accounts of people attempting to consume live crickets to augment their lack of nourishment only to be beaten until they spit it back out. Live flies have been eaten as well - anything that is a protein source. With a food history such as this under your belt, a rat is not so 'low'.
I do AGREE with you, Melanie Lee & Raj, that ANY government supporting this as an easy 'fix' is not exactly proactive/helpful.
Never forget what they say, variety is the spice of life, non?
-Conrad
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Submitted by Ji-Young Park (not verified) on 29 August, 2008 - 23:40.
I don't think the point is that rats can taste good to some people. Nor is anyone casting judgment on anyone who eats them for whatever reason.
Social constructs about food can be very powerful even in times of starvation. (link to article with several historical examples http://www.historycooperative.org/proceedings/interactions/laudan.html)
Case in point:
During the Korean war when there was widespread starvation and famine some people ate rats because there was nothing else to eat. Some remember it tasting ok, others remember it as vile, and some refused to eat them at all (they chose boiled bark instead).
If you ask a South Korean person over 60 or so what they remember most about going hungry during the war many will mention "that stinky rice". They mean long grain American rice that was brought in when there were shortages of native short grain rice.
My parents still remember gagging on the smell and taste of long grain rice. Of course now, after living in the States for almost 35 years, they like lots of different kinds of rice, but back then they, like almost all Koreans at the time, wanted their staple variety.
It's really no different from telling hungry Americans to eat Fido and millet, when they want beef and white bread.
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Submitted by Steve N. Lee (not verified) on 27 August, 2008 - 07:35.
I hadn't come across this news till reading your post which Big Bav referenced on Peak Energy.
As you say, it's appalling that the poverty-stricken are reduced to this but at the same time, I've never tasted rat to know what it's like. (It might be delicious. Let's hope so!) I've never tasted frog, dog, or horse either, but those are all perfectly edible food sources in various parts of the world.
What's even more appalling is the amount of food we in the west throw out every single day while these people are reduced to eating vermin. That means our vermin, eating our waste, are eating better than millions of people in India. What a wonderful world!
I'll be posting about this very problem next week - I'm just collecting stats now. It's unbelievable how much we waste!
Good post.
Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com
and suspense thriller 'What if...?' http://www.steve-n-lee.com
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Submitted by Giusi (not verified) on 22 September, 2008 - 18:05.
I come from a country which is listed among the capitalized countries: Italy. In my country (only certain regions, among those the one I come from), we regularly eat horse and donkey meat. This meat tastes great and is not yet tainted by problems like mad cow disease (horses are already mad, just kidding...), or antibiotics and similar. I even gave it to my husband (American), without telling him what it was, otherwise he would not eat it, and he didn't taste the difference, he liked it.
About cats now: Once I met an older Italian which said that during the II WW they were starving and decided to eat cats. He said it tasted good. There is a German proverb which says: There is no better spice for food than hunger...
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