By the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th centuries. southern states of the usa they faced a dual crisis, environmental and food, which some argued could have a common solution.

On the one side, rapid spread of water hyacintha non-endemic species of flora that “premiered” at the New Orleans World’s Fair in 1884 and flooded the canals of the American South within two decades, threatening key trade routes.

With another, cheap meatA product of American prosperity that had long been available to even the poorest of immigrants suddenly became scarce, turned into a commodity.

And yet it was way to solve both problemshe said at the time Louisiana Congressman Robert F. Broussard;and it was none other than her hippo breeding. Who will feed on hyacinths to help clear the waterways and be slaughtered for meat to feed the Americans.

On March 24, 1910, he appeared before the House Agriculture Committee and laid out the details of what would go down in history as the American Hippo Bill.

He argued that hungry herbivorous giants from Africa, by eating food, would solve the problem of “suffocation” by alien species, which were considered invaders outside their natural environment and spread uncontrollably and quickly.

Then, when the hippos reached the right age and weight (which ranges from 1,300 kg to 4.5 tons), they were slaughtered, revitalizing America’s depleted meat market.

From hippos to dik diks and yaks

And hippo meat (or “lake cow bacon,” as the New York Times called it.) would be just the beginning. “I think it would be easy to add a million tons of meat to our supply chain every year. There is no reason why we cannot find a place in the United States for every one of the 100 species of animals that exist today but are not domesticated,” William Newton Irwin, a researcher with the Department of Agriculture, told the same committee. time.

And he was referring to a plan to import alien species into American territory, such as dik-dik and antelope from sub-Saharan Africa, buffalo from South Africa, rhinoceros, yak from Tibet and pigs from Manchuria.

“I was born in Africa and ate hippos for most of my childhood. As for the quality of their meat for consumption, I want to draw your attention to the mighty race of the Dutch who lived on hippos during the Boer War, ”said the South African soldier and then German spy Fritz Zuber Duken before the commission. took part in his persuasion campaign.

ex-president Theodore Roosevelt who, after his term, delighted American audiences with photographs of safari in Africa, subscribed fervently to Broussard’s project. But the American people did not say their last word.

And the persuasion campaign continued.

“The UK has eaten the kangaroo and loves it. Horse meat is a staple food in Europe, while Central Americans eat lizards. Why can’t we Americans eat hippos? asked reporter William Henderson in a North Dakota newspaper.

The committee members, however, were still not convinced. Its president Charles Scott then asked if large mammals could be domesticated and ranched and, on the other hand, if they would eat the invasive water hyacinth.

Irvine and Broussard agreed emphatically, not knowing at the time how wrong were their theories: Among other things, hippos, the deadliest animal in africa and some of the deadliest in the world, they would be difficult to keep in fenced areas, putting people and crops at risk. More water hyacinths they made up a small part of the animal’s diet which come out of the water at night and attack the grass.

And also, hippos, although they do not eat in the water for a long time, but defecate there, as a result of which their feces not only “nourish” and multiply the aquatic flora (from the excess of which the southern states wanted to get rid of), but also pollute local ecosystems even more .