Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados TODAY Inc.
by Michael Ray
With more and more robust debate on the monkey problem in Barbados, I am proposing an unconventional way to reduce the growing population and simultaneously create other possible benefits for Barbados and Barbadians.
A recent editorial in a section of the print media has led me to return to a major unresolved problem still confronting local farmers.
An editorial writer has correctly suggested that focus should shift away from tourism with substantial investment directed towards agriculture.
But farmers continue to face the destruction brought to bear on agricultural produce by an expanding colony of green monkeys.
As grotesque and inhumane as it may seem to animal rights advocates and activists, the monkey population on the island must be eliminated once and for all, otherwise diverting investments towards agriculture will be a waste of time, energy and most of all money.
Barbadian farmers and consumers will continue to be at significant disadvantage now and well into the future if monkeys are allowed to mark their destructive footprints across the food-producing fields of Barbados.
It is not by accident that my attention was drawn to an article supporting the idea that rodents, specifically rats will become a major source of protein for the world’s population in the not too distant future.
The authorities should make a concerted and conscientious effort at producing monkey-meat as a special export item shipped to countries in Asia and Africa for those who consume rodents and wild-life as an integral part of their diet.
Would people who eat rodents not be attracted to a possibly healthier alternative?
Would their exportation of Barbadian green monkey-meat not significantly decrease and possibly eliminate the destruction of our food crops?
In an article titled “Rodent meat – A sustainable way to feed the world?” and written by freelance journalist Karl Gruber for the EMBO organisation of researchers, two experts in the persons of Grant Singleton, a visiting professor in rodent biology and wildlife management at the International Rice Research Institute of the Philippines, and neuro-ethno biologist Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of the Oulu University, Finland and Andong National University of Korea gave credence to the idea of greater efforts in the future towards the supply of meat-protein from rodents and wildlife.
In the same article, these supporters of rodent and wildlife meats were supported by Louw Hoffman, a researcher in rodent and wildlife science at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
The facts provide evidence that rats are a source of meat protein in Asian countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, parts of the Philippines and Indonesia, Thailand, China, Vietnam and in North East India among the Adi tribe. There is a vibrant trade of canned Star (rats spelled backwards) meat exported from the Philippines and Cambodia to Vietnam during the high season.
Benin, Togo, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal are the African countries known and identified for the consumption of rodent meat.
I am therefore encouraging Barbadian authorities to engage in some “outside of the box thinking” and make arrangements to export monkey-meat as a possible healthier alternative to rodent meat.
Such an initiative is likely to achieve several results such as reduction of the monkey population, minimising the destruction of agricultural produce, creation of an export industry, the earning of foreign currency and the establishment of a food security system.
Yes, we must be prepared to think outside the box and journey on the road less travelled.
This article was submitted as a Letter to the Editor.
