Page 62 - All About History - Issue 56-17

What if…

The US had started

eating hippos?

The American diet – and its landscape – could have looked very

different had the country taken a radical step to feed its growing nation

Written by Jack Parsons

n 1910, the US was facing a meat crisis. The Agriculture to make the case for importing hippos. of stubborn belief in the ability of Americans to
price of beef was soaring because the nation’s This included testimonies from the frontiersman do anything they decide to do, regardless of data
farmland had been ruined by overgrazing, Frederick Russell Burnham, who had spent to the contrary.”
making it harder to raise cattle, while America’s years living as a scout in South Africa, and Fritz One motivation for ‘wilful ignorance’ Gailey gives
Ipopulation had never been greater thanks to Duquesne, a Boer hunter who had given a series of is if the bill was tied into the financial interests
three decades of high immigration. Up until this lectures on East Africa’s ‘wonderland’ across the US. of a political party. After the hearing, Broussard,
point, the US had responded to food shortages In part due to Burnham and Duquesne’s Burnham and Duquesne formed the New Food
by expanding west, but the country had run out charisma, the newspapers fell in love with the idea. Supply Society to lobby their cause. If the Society
of frontiers to cultivate. One radical solution was The Washington Post declared Americans would had received financial backing from a wealthy
to import hippopotamuses from Africa and start be eating hippo meat in just a few years, while the patron, perhaps Roosevelt, they may have been
ranching them in swamplands. New York Times euphemistically called it “lake cow able to sway Congress to pass the bill.
“It was taken very seriously!” says Sarah Gailey, bacon”. Former president Theodore Roosevelt, an However, Gailey is not confident that hippo
author of the alternative history novel River of old friend of Burnham’s, also supported the cause. ranching would have solved America’s food
Teeth. “This idea was considered a potential But, despite the hype, Broussard’s ‘hippo bill’ failed. problems. “I think it would have been a boom-and-
solution to a major problem in the US. I don’t think “The primary downfall of the hippo bill was bust industry that would have left a lot of people
that the logistics were considered properly, but the the revelation of the true nature of the beast itself. hungry in the end.” But she also thinks it could
core concept — we should import hippos, breed Unlike cows, which are generally considered slow have had a significant environmental impact. “The
them, and eat them — was considered relatively and docile, hippos are fast and aggressive,” says hippo bill was not solely focused on hippos — it
foolproof by a lot of people.” Gailey. “I think that, to change that history, the allowed for the importation of other exotic animals
Robert F Broussard, a Louisiana congressman, parties involved would have needed a greater for consumption. The impact of these importations
led a hearing before the House Committee of degree of wilful ignorance or a greater degree on American ecology cannot be overstated.”

How would it be diferent? l The bill fails l ‘Food will win the war’
Too late in the year to get
In an effort to produce enough food
Congress to act on the bill, the
to feed their troops and allies during
New Food Supply Society is set WWI, the US urges its citizens to
l The hippo bill up to maintain pressure but eat less wheat and meat through
Congressman Robert Broussard ultimately loses momentum and ‘Meatless Tuesday’ initiatives
introduces a bill to authorise the bill fails. 1911 and propaganda. 1917
and fund the import of ‘useful
animals’. Burnham, along with Fritz
Duquesne, makes a compelling case
Real timeline to the Agriculture Committee. Real timeline l The Food Riots
March 1910
Food prices remain high through the
1910s and skyrocket in the weeks
before the US enters WWI. Riots break
1910 out in New York as mobs confront
store owners for raising prices.
l The Meat Question February 1917
With beef prices at an
all-time high, Americans
question how to feed
themselves. Frederick Alternate timeline
Russell Burnham publishes
an essay on how African
animals could be l The bill passes
introduced to America’s With serious financial backing, the New Food Supply Society
empty deserts and lobbies politicians hard to support the hippo bill and it passes
swamps. February 1910 in the next congressional session. 1911
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