Inflation and demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel (69 pence) from 1,200 riel last year in Cambodia.  Inflation over 37% has put other meat far out of reach for poor people, which is pushing the price of a prime Rat cut.  (I’m not making this up folks)

The price of beef has become too much for poor Cambodians to feed a family with.  Spicy dishes like “Field Rat with Garlic” have become a popular dish as rats fleeing high ground have become easy pickings for villagers. 

“Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family,” Ly Marong, an agriculture official, said by telephone from the Koh Thom district on the border with Vietnam.

“Not only are our poor eating it, but there is also demand from Vietnamese living on the border with us.”

Yikes, makes it hard to complain about anything when you read these sort of stories from a desk with computers all around you, not to mention a cupboard with irradiated can goods and preservative laden boxes of instant whatever.

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