Rats not rice

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by: Robin Speer1
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Word Count: 315

Rats not rice
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.