Bushmeat?

[RSteve]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — U.S. customs agents say they have now confiscated bushmeat multiple times at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport since December.
WCCO-TV reported Friday that both Customs and Border Patrol officers seized more than 100 pounds of bushmeat from U.S. citizens returning from their travels to Liberia. The travelers said on written and verbal declarations they had brought fish but further inspection revealed both fish and bushmeat in the same package.

Minnesota State agriculture officials define bushmeat as raw and/or minimally processed meat from wild animals such as monkeys, cane rats, bats and other primates. The meat, which is often smoked, dried, or salted, poses a risk of human infection and the spread of Ebola virus.
The agriculture department says the fine for bringing bushmeat into the country is $250,000. The confiscated bushmeat was destroyed.

 

[Blackhorse]

Mmmmmm. Roadkill Monkey Jerky. A tasty Liberian treat. I’m thinking that solidly puts those yokels into the 4th World catagory.

 

[Jevverrett]

I always figured one of the major selling points on immigrating to the US was getting away from needing to eat such things. Not that I haven’t eaten some of the tastier North American varmints. Maybe it’s a “taste of home” kind of thing.

 

[Blackhorse]

You’ll likely eat anything is there’s nothing else to eat.

 

[Balisong]

Meat is meat! It's easier to raise it than hunt it, ask Tyson. I've raised chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, quail, and, rabbits for our table. It's better to thank your dinner while it's still alive.

 

[Zeno Marx]

A significant amount of the African continent is going through an extreme drought. Makes California and the west look like a tropical oasis. They can't raise anything. There's no water for their livestock. Entire villages of families are loosing their herds to starvation and thirst. And you can bet it isn't limited to livestock. PBS just did a piece a couple days ago about how giraffes are getting hit particularly hard.

When I worked with Nigerians and Kenyans...some of the nicest and most generous people I've ever met...they ate all kinds of odd dishes. Odd to me. They always offered some before they took their first bite. Very social people. They used tripe a lot, at least it seemed so. They didn't leave their foods and culture behind.

 

[Ranger107]

Cow brains, tongue, turkey nuts, rocky mountain oysters, chicken gizzards, all available at most midwest butchers. Maybe we should think twice before commenting on other cultures food choiced, lol.

 

[ftrplt]

Just watch a few sessions of "Bizarre Foods" on TV to get an idea of "alternatives" to McDonalds!!!!!! FTRPLT

 

[Jevverrett]

My issue isn’t so much the species, I’m sure anything can be good if prepared properly. My granny made a mean squirrel pie, and I eat rabbits I shoot in my garden annually. It’s more the disease factor outlined in the original post. There’s a reason we have the laws we do about bringing in meat and plants. It’s not like it was something exotic from the duty free in the airport I would imagine.

 

[RSteve]

I don't eat them now because of the high cholesterol but I used to love all fried poultry livers. Years ago, when I lived in North Dakota, there were a couple of years where Canada geese in enormous flocks, in a matter of hours, would consume complete wheat crops. Limits were taken off the number of geese that could be taken with this qualification, 6 per person for home consumption, the rest donated to a processing center to be used in the prisons, schools, public nursing homes, etc. I volunteered to be on a team of "butchers." Sadly, much of the birds was discarded. I asked if I could have some livers and was told, "Knock yourself out. These are wild tough geese. The livers are tough." I probably took 20 pounds home, much to my wife's displeasure. After a 24 hour marinade, fried with onions and garlic, they were delicious.

added Tuesday at 2:25 pm...Were it not for the fact that my recent LDL cholesterol reading was 118, 30 points under where it's been for years, and I'm land locked with an elevated leg on the sofa, I'd think about driving to a nearby Asian grocery for some duck livers.

 

[RSteve]

It’s more the disease factor outlined in the original post.

One word: Ebola

 

[RSteve]

It's better to thank your dinner while it's still alive.

100%
I consume almost no meat anymore, but as spring approaches and I crave grilling meat outdoors, I will only buy meat at the local farmers' market from farmers who understand and live, "It's better to thank your dinner while it's still alive."

 

[RSteve]

I still like haggis, made with ground lamb and variety meats, oatmeal, onions, potato, some carrots. I don't know if it's traditional, but I liked the sewn stuffed stomach slowly simmered in stock until the inside was fully cooked, then dried, rubbed with lamb fat, then baked in the oven until the stomach was crisp. The first time I made it, my wife nearly puked when I crunched on that crisp skin.

 

[DoverPipes]

As a brand spankin' new Customs Inspector at JFK Airport, I cut open a bag of "Bush Meat" coming off of an Air Afrique flight many years ago. The bag popped and stunk up the entire terminal. The smell would literally "choke a maggot"! The Senior Inspector that was working with me puked into the garbage bin beside our belt. She didn't talk to me for the rest of the shift. Good Times!

Yes, everything was seized and given to USDA "Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ)......

 

[RSteve]

As a brand spankin' new Customs Inspector at JFK Airport, I cut open a bag of "Bush Meat" coming off of an Air Afrique flight many years ago. The bag popped and stunk up the entire terminal. The smell would literally "choke a maggot"! The Senior Inspector that was working with me puked into the garbage bin beside our belt. She didn't talk to me for the rest of the shift.

So funny!! As a graduate student, I found myself in a residence crunch and rented a studio apartment in a building adjacent to the U of MN campus that primarily housed students from Nigeria. I think I know that odor to which you are referring. I once asked a neighbor, "What is that smell?" They laughed and said, "some delicacies from home."