Food: What a boar!

PERIGUEUX, France, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- If the price of foie gras in your favorite restaurant should suddenly soar, it might be the fault of the wild boar.

Wild boars have become a menace in certain areas of the Dordogne, home of the goose and the duck whose bloated livers become the silken confection that appears on your plate at an already astonishing price.

Wild boar roam picturesquely with their young in family groups through the chestnut forests covering the hilly counties of the Perigord that make up the Dordogne region. Fifteen years ago you might have come across a handful of animals caught in your headlights as they cantered alongside the country lanes or minor roads.

But these days, according to local Perigord farmers, the number of wild boars is out of control. They crash through fields of maize, knocking down row upon row of cob-bearing stalks. And it's this maize that goes to feed the ducks and geese whose enlarged livers we so enjoy quickly fried with a fruit chutney on the side, or cold on toast with a jumble of jelly, on celebratory nights out in expensive restaurants. If there is any shortage of maize because the wild boar are destroying the crops, it will be reflected eventually in that morsel of pâté about to slide into your mouth.

Jean-Pierre Mizoule is a farmer in Montaut near Issigeac, not far from the Dordogne town of Bergerac, familiar as the home of Cyrano, the fictional composer of romantic serenades. For the last three weeks, Mizoule and his neighboring farmers have circulated a local petition that will be presented to the president of the Hunting Federation of the Dordogne protesting "the increase in damage to crops by large game" with a plea to have them listed alongside stags and Roe deer as "damaging game."

"There is more and more destruction," says another farmer, Thierry Dufour. "At the end of winter I had to go over my fields all over again to set them straight enough for planting."

The Hunting Federation compensates damage caused by large game. But according to the petitioners, the compensation is limited year by year. Applications for restitution have to be completed 15 days before the moment of harvesting, and the extent of the damage is only investigated then by the powers that be. Destruction can be caused at far earlier times of year, however.

The farmers have no argument with the principle of hunting. Most of them are hunters themselves, enthusiastic about catching wild boar, whose meat is highly prized. Their complaint is that the hunters are not culling enough of them. What the farmers are hoping for is the abolition of quotas for the number of boars that may be killed. This, along with their reclassification as "harmful," will allow them to be freely hunted.

The Hunting Federation doesn't believe that there has been an increase in destruction to crops by these animals, which look like long-snouted, long-legged, bristly pigs. In 1993 and 1994, the federation points out, it paid out 162,633 euros (one euro equals roughly $1.23) for wild-boar damage; while in 2003 and 2004 the sum dropped to 99,465 euros. Ten years ago, 1,912 boars were killed, compared to 6,883 last year.

So far the petition contains more than 200 signatures. Mizoule hopes that by September they will discover whether they have enough to demand a meeting with the president of the federation and the chief administrator of the area.

"We're told we're beating our heads against a brick wall. But even the Berlin wall came down one day," he said.

Keep an eye on the price of your appetizer.

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