Nicaragua Recommends Eating Iguanas as Food Crisis Looms Due to Worst Drought in 32 Years James Rush - Mailonline
go to original August 15, 2014

A boy holds up an iguana for sale on the highway in the north of Managua, Nicaragua, in May. He is selling the iguana for 300 Cordobas ($12). (Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters)

As the worst drought in 32 years threatens to cause a food crisis across Central America, people living in Nicaragua have been advised to consider farming and eating iguanas.

Low rainfall in an unusually hot season has led to a series of droughts in parts of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, damaging crops and pushing up food prices.

Now, a government expert in Nicaragua has recommended keeping and eating iguanas as a way of providing food, as well as an income.

Land management expert Guillermo Membreño told state-run online newspaper La Voz del Sandinismo, as translated by The Guardian: 'Breeding iguanas brings two benefits. Not only does it supply dietary protein, it also offers a commercial use for the animals.'

He said the tropical lizards contained 24 per cent more protein than chicken and could also be sold for their meat, skin or as pets.

While hunting iguanas is outlawed by the country's environmental laws from January to the end of April, they are allowed to be kept as food.

Read the rest at Mailonline

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