French Frog Cuisine (Cuisses de Grenouille)
The British Guardian reported on the 23rd (local time) that French and Belgian food culture is putting some frog species at risk of extinction.
According to a report published by the international non-profit animal and environmental protection organization “Pro Wild Life,” some European countries, including France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, import more than 200 million frogs every year.
To make a dish called Cuisses de Grenouille.
Frogs exported to Europe account for 74% of the total from Indonesia.
Pro Wildlife warned that the number of frogs sold for food in Europe is so high that “some frog species are rapidly disappearing from the earth.”
In particular, the Guardian reported that the Turkish native “Anatolian seal frog” will not be found in the wild within 10 years, and frogs living in Indonesia and Albania are also feared to decrease in population.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has identified frogs and other amphibians as the most threatened vertebrates.
On the other hand, 27 of the EU members have set a policy to ban the capture of frogs in their own countries, but have not imposed import restrictions.
Environmental groups have called for EU countries to restrict frog imports, mark the origin of frog legs, and register extinct animal and plant species.