Who the heck eats guinea pigs?

Yes folks, you've logged onto the site where we talk about eating guinea pigs.

Are you shocked or simply taken aback? My aim is not to shock or offend anyone but rather to educate and encourage people to take more responsibility for the food they eat. But why eat guinea pigs you may ask?

For many people in South America, guinea pigs are their main source of meat.

The guinea pigs are kept inside the houses and people even sleep with them. (I'd be sure to keep my slippers on!) They have no qualms however, to cull a few now and then for the pot. guinea pigs are respected as their furry little critters and as a food. They are a valuable commodity. Guinea pigs are prolific breeders and cost nothing to feed as they absolutely thrive on fresh grass. Any animal that feeds on a grass diet is a very healthy source of meat. In fact, if you care about your health at all you would shun grain- fed beef etc. as the fat on such animals is not a healthy fat to eat.

Nowadays, especially in America, most beef is grain- fed in feed lots in very inhumane conditions. The use of anti- biotics is rife to stave of disease. These poor beasts stand in their own muck and never so much feed on a blade of grass.

The trend to produce cheap meat is always a pressure on the producer so he will do anything that will keep him competitive. He doesn't have your good health in mind when he raises his cattle, he only looks after his profit margins. The story is not quite so bad here in Australia, yet, but a lot of meat is already being raised in feed- lots and who knows if it is or isn't when you buy it? What about the other drugs and growth promoters used? Pigs and chickens are notorious for having growth hormones fed to them. I certainly can't raise a chook for the dinner table in the time it takes for a commercial chook to grow to full size!

I am a Permaculture teacher and teach people how to live a self-sufficient life. If you are a meat-eater, then you will be very wise to start procuring your own meat. You will know where your meat comes from and you can take care of your livestock with organic means instead of with chemicals and drugs. Raising your own meat will cost you next to nothing.

When I realised that not all people who wish to grow and produce some of their own food lived on acreage but also on suburban blocks, I thought it would be prudent of myself to point out that guinea pigs are a source of meat that can be produced on very little land. I suggest raising guinea pigs for meat here in Queensland, as it is illegal to keep rabbits. Pigeons as well as rabbits are favoured by a lot of Europeans, (both Frank and myself have European back grounds) and these can be raised by people without their own land as is so often the case in these over crowded countries. During W.W.ll this became a very popular activity as this source of meat was a very welcome addition to their meagre diets. Who knows if there might be a time where our lives may be so disrupted by war or severe global economic downturns, or because of the oil crisis??

We have become a very soft society and are badly out of touch with our food sources.

We are hardly aware when particular foods are in season, as these days they are transported from far and wide simply to keep them on the shelves.

We also keep pigeons for meat and we allow the birds to breed and periodically take their young at maturity. The young birds are called squabs and this is a very traditional source of meat for millions of people all over the world. This is an activity that is popular in over-crowded cities where the birds are housed in the attic and allowed to fly outside over the roofs.

The fat from a grass fed animal is a very healthy and clean source of fat.

With so much paranoia about saturated fat in the diet it is heartening to learn that organic grass- fed animals are a healthy part of the diet. If you are unfortunate enough to suffer from cancer you will do well to go on a completely organic diet as this is the only way that your body will overcome any disease. Eating exclusively organic food is how God designed our bodies to function at its best. In His wisdom He created the environment with all that is in it and He saw that it was good. Nature was in a state of balance and there was very little room for ill- health. If we abide by these natural laws and grow and eat our food as we were meant to, we would not be the sick lot we are today. Unfortunately the quality of our food in the shops is going down- hill fast. Cheap food means cheap quality nutrition. Bad nutrition means ill- health. My mission is to help people to good health by teaching them to help themselves.

No one can afford to buy all their food organically grown and produced, it's simply too expensive. The workshops and courses that I teach are all that I have learnt by experience over the last twelve years. We are about 75% self- sufficient and enjoy robust good health. Take whatever you want from these courses and workshops and empower yourself and your family to good health. You and they will eat well and enjoy good health.

elisabeth@permacultureproduce.info

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