‘Let them eat rat’ says diversity expert over Ridley Road Market bushmeat row

Calling for 'cultural awareness': Lester Holloway

A diversity campaigner has said he can see no reason why cane rat meat should not be legally available across Britain.

Cane rats are farmed as livestock in west and southern Africa and are widely eaten across parts of the continent.

A BBC investigation recently found the illegal meat being covertly sold in Dalston’s Ridley Road Market.

Lester Holloway, a former journalist for The Voice who also ran the website Black Information Link, told the Hackney Citizen: “I can’t see a reason why it can’t be sold and imported legally in Britain.”

However, Mr Holloway, who is a Liberal Democrat councillor in the London borough of Sutton, emphasised that the meat would have to conform to hygiene standards and be sold in a regulated way.

He added that reporting of the story by the media risked creating “prejudice” towards some African cultures where the meat is consumed.

Mr Holloway said: “We need cultural awareness if we’re going to cover these stories. It gives out certain messages about the African community which are unfair.”

Far from being the urban “sewer rats” that spawn popular disgust, the edible rodents in question are in fact Ghanaian cane rats. They can grow to almost two feet long and weigh 20 pounds, almost as much as a small dog or cat, and they are farmed domestically in some countries.

Mr Holloway said that in media reports the word rat was “emphasised again and again”.

He said he could not see why meat of this kind could not be legally sold and imported into Britain when other exotic meat such as crocodile, zebra and reindeer is legally available across London including in such magnets for the metropolitan foodie bourgeoisie as Borough Market.

Selfridges’ Food Hall in the West End has an aisle devoted to edible insects, and kangaroo burgers have been sold in Camden Market.

Some exotic meats are banned in the UK on the grounds that they are derived from endangered species, but this is not the case with cane rats.

A spokesperson for The Food Standards Agency declined to indicate whether cane rat meat was likely to ever be legalised in this country.

The agency, which is responsible for food safety and food hygiene across the land, stated: “Non-EU producers wanting to import meat and meat products into the EU have to go through a strict approval process.”

It  added that it was “not aware of any countries or premises approved for the import of cane rats, cane rat meat or products into the UK”.

Hunter with a cane rat in Buzi district of Mozambique. Photograph: Ton Rulkens