World
Virus Pushes China’s Poor Rat Meat Farmers to Brink of Despair
- Authorities encouraged breeding of the animals to ease poverty
- One rat produces up to 2 kilograms of meat, stewed or in soup
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Bamboo rat meat, a once profitable commodity China’s poor traded for quick returns, now risks pushing those farmers back into poverty.
Many local governments had encouraged impoverished citizens to breed the animal, offering financial incentives as part of poverty-relief measures. But Beijing has now clamped down on trading wild animals due to the coronavirus, potentially destroying the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers.