Posted on September 2, 2008 - by Frank

Meat for the Poor

The present meat situation in Cambodia highlights some of the less spoken consequences of food access for the poor being squeezed by economic circumstances.

Cambodia’s inflation has sky rocketed, pushing food prices up. With beef being pushed beyond the reach of the poor, other meat sources have been accessed - namely rat. The price of a kg of rat has more than quadrupled since last year.

The problem is heightened by the fact that Cambodia is supplying a large demand for live rats in Vietnam as the poor in Vietnam who live on the border of Cambodia take up rat meat as a food source as well.

Around the world, rat is fast becoming the choice of food for the poor with officials in Eastern India encouraging poorer people to eat rat as a source of sustenance in order to save grain stocks and give people access to a cheaper food source.

As it becomes an increasingly viable option, commercial catching and selling begins to take over where the poor would have once simply caught it themselves - thus it begins to be driven outside of their ability to access it.

The increased desire and need to use rat as a food source is a clear indicator of problems and the longer the global food crisis continues and local economies get squeezed, the less even this will be a viable option for the poor as demand for rat increases. Cambodia is a case in point for this particular issue.

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