Robin Speer
August 20, 2008
There’s an interesting story gaining some traction in Canada this
week.

According to Reuters, officials in India are encouraging people to eat
rats instead of rice to alleviate some food shortage concerns. But
that’s not the most intriguing part:

“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.

The story has been picked up by the Canadian media. Here’s some
commentary from Kevin Hursh that runs on the daily ag radio in western
Canada:

It’s estimated that nearly 50 per cent of India’s grain stocks are
eaten by rodents, either in the field or when the crop is being stored
in warehouses. According to a report this week by Reuters news
service, authorities in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, are
calling on everyone to eat rats. There are even plans to offer rats on
restaurant menus. Rat meat is already eaten by some people in India.
The Bihar government argues that more people dining on rats will lower
human consumption of grain. Plus, there will be fewer rats to eat
grain. Cultural differences pertaining to animals and food are
amazing. Depending upon your faith, you may not eat pork or you may
not eat beef. Most people in North America are turned off by the idea
of eating dogs and horses because they’re companion animals. The
aversion to rats is because they’re dirty rodents. It is an amazing
statistic though that nearly 50 per cent of the grain in India is
destroyed by rodents. Makes you wonder why there are so many people
who obsess about the amount of grain used to produce biofuels. I’m
Kevin Hursh.
http://www.goodfuels.org/2008/08/rats-not-rice/