In an unprecedented piece of school lunch policy for Japan, four schools in Mimasaka, Okayama are serving soups containing wild boar and deer as a part of their lunch program. It would seem the scheme is intended to both teach children about local food sources and decrease a “nuisance” to the local environment.
From this Monday, one kindergarten, two elementary schools, and one junior high school will be using jibie in lunches. In Japanese the word jibie comes for the French word for “game” meat, gibier. The meat comes courtesy of a recently opened processing facility in the city. It was started in June of last year as a way for the high number of trapped deer and boar to be used.
In 2012 it was estimated that around 48 million yen (US$467,000) worth of damage was done to the city’s agriculture and wildlife industries from these animals. As a result 3,392 deer and 811 boars were trapped. From June to December last year, 746 deer and 176 boars were accepted into the meat processing plant, well ahead of their 600 head target for that period.
These events resulted in the 27 children in Ohara Elementary eating a delicious feast of soup with plentiful amounts of boar’s leg meat served in a soup rich in carrots, tofu, and green onion. Aye, it be a feast worthy of the House of Lannister.
“The meat was soft and very easy to eat,” sayeth one nine-year-old pupil on break from his alchemy class.
Jokes aside, although this inherently seems to be a limited time project, it’s a great idea to teach kids about their local food sources. I can remember back when my school let me eat all their house centipedes so I could better understand my local food environment.
They… let me do it.
Source: Sanyo Shimbun WebNews (Japanese)
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