Venezuela's 'Plan Rabbit' encounters 'cultural problem'

BBC ^ | September 14, 2017 | Staff

[C19fan]

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has devised a "rabbit plan" to counter the economic war he says is being waged against his government by "imperialist forces". The president urged crisis-hit Venezuelans to breed rabbits and eat them as a source of animal protein. Venezuela is facing record levels of child malnutrition amid persistent food shortages. An opposition politician said the plan was "a bad joke".

[C19fan]

Bernie Sanders approves of "Rabbit Plan".

[Flick Lives]

What will the rabbits eat?

[ClearCase_guy]

Someone once told me that you can starve to death while eating rabbits. Not enough fat in the meat.

[Pollster1]

Rabbits will eat clover, weeds, grass, and even twigs, but the problem is Venezuela’s people are already doing that.

[Chainmail]

Soviets tried the same idea back in the early ‘20s - but the starving just ate the breeding pairs as soon as they got them.

[EQAndyBuzz]

I guess they never heard of “eating the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

[Little Ray]

Rabbits can eat grass, unlike people.
Still...

[antidisestablishment]

People say that about caribou as well, but it’s not true in either case. Rabbits are lean, but they are a great protein and can gain fat. They are the most economical meat on land, but they don’t grow on air. You still have to feed them, and the feed conversion rate is not exceptional.

This idea comes up during every economic crisis, as evidenced by the term Hoover chicken.

[tflabo]

The Big Stump Mustachio cannot explain just how yanqui imperialism is destroying their economy. No Mad Stump its your brand of Castroism doing the trick instead.

[GOPJ]

Socialism doesn’t work... period.

[spokeshave]

Those that do not know history....are doomed to repeat it.

Not Photoshopped. This is Szmolinsy with one of the giant rabbits that captured Kim Jong-Il's heart... and eventually found its way into his birthday dinner.

So Kim gets in touch with 68-year-old Karl Szmolinsky of Berlin, the world's foremost breeder of giant rabbits, and says he wants Szmolinsky to come to Pyongyang and set up a farm to breed these rabbits. For Kim believes that the meat yielded by these rabbits will end his people's starvation.

Szmolinsky tells Kim this is, quite frankly, the dumbest idea possible. These rabbits only yield about 15 pounds of meat... and they have huge appetites... so they eat way more than that in carrots, potatoes and other vegetables. If anything, breeding giant rabbits would make the North Korea hunger situation even worse.

Undeterred, Kim pays for 12 rabbits, at a cost of about $115 each. He tells Szmolinsky that the rabbits will be kept at a petting zoo in Pyongyang and, in a few months, Szmolinsky will be flown in to help really set up a farm for breeding.

In February of 2007, about five or six months later, Szmolinsky gets a call from a North Korean official canceling that trip. Why? Because, Szmolinsky believes, Kim couldn't resist... and ate the giant rabbits to celebrate his birthday.

[JoeFromSidney]

Back during WW2 I raised rabbits to put meat on the table while Dad was off to the War. They ate a lot of rabbit food and hay. In terms of producing protein, they were losers. If it weren't for the fact that meat was rationed, I don't think we would have bothered.

[okie 54]

Maduro even makes Hillary look smart

[okie 54]

Maduro even makes Hillary look smart