Monday, June 28, 2010

Markets in Everything: Lion Meat Burgers

MESA, Ariz. - People are feeling the World Cup fever all over the globe. The South Africa tournament has captivated fans, and now a Mesa, Arizona restaurant is paying homage to the host country with a special menu item. But by offering that item, the owner has received threats.  Cameron Selogie is selling burgers made from lion meat, starting Wednesday at Il Vinaio in Mesa.

The big cat is not illegal to eat in the U.S., and the African lions used to make the burgers were actually raised on a free-range animal farm in the Midwest.

HT: John Stossel via Coyote Blog.

16 Comments:

At 6/28/2010 2:59 PM, Blogger misterjosh said...

Who eats carnivore meat?

I'm not sold on the restaurant quality - that's the part of town where you find sports bars with mediocre wings. If I'm going to be eating lion meat, I'm thinking it's better to hit a fancy bistro.

 
At 6/28/2010 3:17 PM, Anonymous Benny The Man said...

Okay, in a free market, can we eat human meat burgers? What's the problem?
What would Milton Friedman say?
"Dinner time"?

 
At 6/28/2010 3:19 PM, Anonymous grant said...

Maybe the Lion meat comes from the mid west of no where because it is beef with lots of sauce over it so you can't tell what it is.
But they never stop trying!

 
At 6/28/2010 4:06 PM, Blogger misterjosh said...

Benny... I'm surprised that you're not railing against the ridiculous ag subsidies that must be in place to make this lion meat affordable. Surely you haven't descended entirely into childish inanities!?

 
At 6/28/2010 4:10 PM, Anonymous Benny The Man said...

misterjosh: It would not surprise me to find out that the raising of livestock, including lions, is subsidized somehow (BLM land is rented out at far below cost).
And I ain't lyin'.
BTW, you chide me, but dodge the question: Why not human meat burgers? It's a free market, right?
No need for government regs, no?

 
At 6/28/2010 4:22 PM, Blogger Free2Choose said...

"...but dodge the question: Why not human meat burgers? It's a free market, right?
No need for government regs, no?"

The reason there are no human meat burgers has nothing to do with regulation. People who don't murder people don't abstain from murder because the legal code says they should. They do it because they themselves would like not to be killed. It isn't likely that if murder were made legal, that rational people would suddenly decide to commit murder any more than those who are intent on murder refrain from doing so now with a law in place against it. The same goes for eating "People Burgers". You give law and regulation far too much credit.

 
At 6/28/2010 6:50 PM, Blogger Marko said...

As usual, someone is confusing free market with anarchy. Not the same. If you were allowed to kill people for economic reasons, it would not be free for the person being killed. I suppose you could voluntarily sell your own meat in a free market, and I am not sure I see anything wrong with that, from a broad perspective (I wouldn't do it or eat it though).

Other than voluntary selling of your own meat, I suppose you could eat already dead people and that wouldn't be a problem, but who would want to eat people that weren't butchered? I mean, you wouldn't eat people that died of natural causes or in accidents any more then you would eat road kill or some dead animal you find in the woods.

Rand Paul style disclaimer - I would like to note that I am against the eating of dead people.

Besides all that, people burgers would have to be made by

 
At 6/28/2010 6:53 PM, Anonymous dannybuntu said...

@Marko Besides all that, people burgers would have to be made by

---Humanitarians!

 
At 6/28/2010 6:56 PM, Anonymous Benny The Man said...

Libertairans and free marketeers and Milton Friedman acolytes know are many ways we could have people burgers w/o murder.

Voluntary--people sell their meat to raise money to support family.

War-You kill off a couple hundred people. Are you going to let that meat go to waste?

Road kill-Again, why waste good protein?

State executions--chow down afterwards.

Again, the question isn't whether we have it or not--the question is why it should be legal or not.

Eating lions is legal. Why not eating People Burgers? Or better yet--Italian Sausage.

 
At 6/28/2010 7:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm all for liberal burgers, raised free range in Berkeley.

Not that great to eat, but satisfying nonetheless.

 
At 6/28/2010 10:14 PM, Anonymous Lyle said...

So this is really not that different than buffalo burgers, which again are purpose raised for their meat. So other than those who look at animal rights this is not a problem, since the animals were purpose raised.

 
At 6/29/2010 8:29 AM, Blogger juandos said...

psuedo benny did you have one human burger to many?

 
At 6/29/2010 10:36 AM, Blogger misterjosh said...

Benny, you remind me of Rachel Maddow. "Check out what I can get the Libertarian to say!"

I'll bite:
I have no problem with somebody chopping off his arm and selling it to somebody for some good eatin', occasionally known as long-pig.

However, the statement stands: "Your rights end where my nose begins".

War meat, human roadkill, prisoner pasties... now you're just fuckin' with me.

 
At 6/29/2010 10:53 AM, Anonymous Rand said...

If a lion eats a person and then another person eats the lion, is that cannibalism?

 
At 6/29/2010 12:40 PM, Blogger Ron H. said...

Marko said: "I suppose you could voluntarily sell your own meat in a free market..."

This is already done in many parts of the world, although not for food.

As food, I can't imagine body parts selling for enough to compensate for the loss to the donor, even at the premium prices possible due to the novelty.

"...any more then you would eat road kill or some dead animal you find in the woods."

Road Kill is used on a regular basis in Alaska, although I don't suppose there are enough pedestrian deaths to include them in the program. Also, this recipe for Hedgehog spaghetti carbonara sounds delicious.

 
At 6/30/2010 9:21 AM, Anonymous feeblemind said...

Ironically, if lion meat burgers were to catch on, that may be precisely the way to save the species. Make them profitable to sell and people will breed and raise them for the market.

As a species cattle and pigs are very successful because we raise them for food. They number in the hundreds of millions world wide. Does any other large animal exist in those numbers?

 

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