French gourmands may have to bid adieu to one of their favorite dishes — frog legs. France gobbles up over 4000 tons of cuisses de grenouille every year, and that appetite is endangering species on the other side of the planet.
According to Food and Wine, the European appetite for frog legs croaks 80 to 200 million frogs a year, predominantly from Indonesia, Turkey and Albania. Species like the once common "fang-river frog" are nearly extinct. More than 500 environmentalists have delivered a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, urging him to jump into action and limit the amount of imported amphibian leg meat.
"Veterinarians have joined this initiative in large numbers because they are both sensitive to the cruelty that prevails in this market and concerned about the ecological imbalances caused by the collapse of amphibian populations," Alain Moussu, the president of the Vétérinaires pour la Biodiversité, said. Moussu added that the overfarming will cause "…subsequent risks for human health linked with the increasing mosquitos' populations" once the frogs disappear.
If France adopts the same protective standards for foreign frogs as they do for swamp dwellers in the EU, being green will get a lot easier.
See also: Kambo: the new age frog poison killing people and the rainforest
