Indian State Recommends Eating Rats

Adding rodents to menu pushed as solution to food crisis

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 18, 2008 12:47 PM CDT

(Newser) – Faced with high food prices and ebbing grain reserves, officials in the Indian state of Bihar have endorsed the consumption of rats, Reuters reports. The state government sees the strategy as a way to reduce the pest population as well as curb the demand for grain, and has even proposed that restaurants start offering the rodents.

"Eating of rats will serve twin purposes—it will save grains from being eaten away by rats and will simultaneously increase our grain stock," said Vijay Prakash, an official from Bihar's welfare department.

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Indian laborers rest at a wholesale market in Allahabad, India, Sunday, April 27, 2008. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Vendors sell vegetables at a market in Allahabad, India, Sunday, May 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

A woman collects the wheat grains left on the ground at Bhagatanwala grain market in Amitsar, India, Friday, April 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Aman Sharma)

"Eating of rats will serve twin purposes%u2014it will save grains from being eaten away by rats and will simultaneously increase our grain stock," an official of the Indian state of Bihar says. ((c) jasja dekker)

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We are very serious to implement this project since the food crisis is turning serious day by day.
- Jitan Ram Manjhi, Bihar Caste and Tribe Welfare Minister

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Indian State Recommends Eating Rats