Translated
Argentines Turn to Donkey Meat Amid Economic Crisis
As beef prices continue to rise, Argentines are looking for alternatives
The rapid rise in beef prices in Argentina, amid the economic crisis under Javier Milei’s administration, has led consumers to replace beef with cheaper alternatives, such as donkey meat, which is beginning to gain ground in the market. According to a report by Página/12, the price hike has turned beef into a luxury item in the country, dashing campaign promises to lower prices and profoundly altering the population’s eating habits.
In recent months, prices have risen sharply, with increases of over 10% in just one month, and the price of beef often exceeding 25,000 pesos per kilo. Faced with this situation, families have begun to cut back on consumption, initially switching to chicken and pork—options that have also become more expensive—and later to even cheaper foods, such as eggs.
The economic crisis is part of a broader context of persistent inflation. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec), the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.4% in March, up from 2.9% in February, marking the highest level in a year. Over the past 12 months, inflation has reached 32.6%.
Since taking office in December 2023, Javier Milei has implemented a broad program of economic reforms. Among the measures are the halting of federal construction projects and the suspension of transfers to the provinces, as well as the withdrawal of subsidies in areas such as energy, transportation, and essential services, which has contributed to rising consumer prices.
Amid rising prices, a proposal emerged to sell donkey meat, priced at around 7,500 pesos per kilo. Butcher Gonzalo Moreira, from Buenos Aires, described the crisis’s impact on the industry. “We’re facing a major recession. I don’t know a single merchant who isn’t struggling. The industry is under a lot of pressure, even without major price fluctuations. Everything is paid for with a card, pushed forward,” he told Radio 750.
He also highlighted changes in consumer behavior: “And food is also starting to be paid for in installments. We’re reorganizing our sales. People have stopped buying beef, which has seen a drop of about 20% in purchases, and have switched to pork or chicken. A kilo of beef costs between 15,000 and 18,000 pesos. Pork, on the other hand, costs between 8,000 and 9,000 pesos.”
Regarding donkey meat, Moreira acknowledged the role of this alternative in the face of necessity. “If it’s to meet daily needs, I’m not saying it’s the best… But there are people who at least have access to this type of food,” he said.
He also expressed cultural resistance to its consumption: “I don’t agree. I don’t think I want to eat a donkey. We’re used to eating beef. But if we have to take this in a different direction… Nobody likes to eat rabbit, but people have been eating it their whole lives.”
The initiative was launched by farmer Julio Cittadini, founder of the “Burros Patagones” project. According to him, demand exceeded expectations. “Everything we put up for sale sold out in a day. In a day and a half, there was nothing left,” he reported.
The venture has been authorized by the Chubut Ministry of Production and complies with health regulations, operating as a formal business within the agricultural sector.
They’re going to eat Milei. 
It didn’t take long for libertarianism to implode a country huh
They’re just lucky they don’t have bears. Look up libertarian city bears.
Are you talking about that infamous town that a bunch of libertarians bought that got overrun with bears because none of them wanted to pay taxes for garbage collection?
Lol yeah.
Fun fact! It’s also not just about libertarianism, it’s also about climate change and habitat destruction forcing the bears to scavenge in increasingly urbanised fringes of their original foraging grounds
If anyone wants a tour of Grafton, NH, I can serve as a guide
There’s not as many bears now, but the Libertarians are confused and irritable
Yeah, paying for food in the supermarkets was weird there. You could basically set up payment plans on the self checkout. Food was very expensive
I thought burro was butter in Spanish for a long time but it turns out I was thinking of Italian. Neither mantequilla nor burro really sound like butyrum (butter in Latin) but I was too drunk to deep dive etymology at the time.
Kind of a shitpost but this reminds me of a TikTok about all the words for butter
https://www.tiktok.com/@carlomalis/video/7038306668115021102
this reminds me of this sketch idea i had once. it went something like this:
some austrian aristocrats in a cushy room in some palace in vienna, having a drunken conversation:- i say, aristid my beloved, just thought of a splendid lark
- pray, what sort of prank, friend tassilo?
- what if we convinced the hungarians that their word for butter is … oh, i dont know, maybe “vaj”?
- pff, how could you possibly convince them of something like that?
a year passes, the two firends are once again at a party in vienna
- my god man, the absolute idiots believed us. an entire nation no longer using the obvious, proper word “butter” but this nonsense we made up! unbelievable
and i’m imagining the reaction like this:
admittedly, it needs work, but there’s something here.
Lmaoooo
Taking the phrase “eat my ass” literally.
Ha! Get it? Real knee slapper. Sorry. If I didn’t say it someone else would have. As a vegan I endorse metaphorical ass eating only.
Anyways, I would love to see the Argentinian people spit roasting Milei, and I mean that very literally.
Regarding donkey meat, Moreira acknowledged the role of this alternative in the face of necessity. “If it’s to meet daily needs, I’m not saying it’s the best… But there are people who at least have access to this type of food,” he said.
He also expressed cultural resistance to its consumption: “I don’t agree. I don’t think I want to eat a donkey. We’re used to eating beef. But if we have to take this in a different direction… Nobody likes to eat rabbit, but people have been eating it their whole lives.”
No one is considering a switch to plant-based proteins? Is tofu hard to get in Argentina? I wouldn’t think “eat the donkey” and “starve” were the only options.
You underestimate the stranglehold meat consumption has on Argentinian food culture. It reaches levels even Americans would think it’s a bit much.
Yeah lol, it’s part of their identity, Argentine BBQ and all that
Tofu is “woke” and “Chinese” as per right wingers. I’m not making the second one up.
isn’t eating non traditional meats also considered to be “chinese” by them? there’s a whole racist stereotype that all asians eat dogs and cats.
donkeys are a delicacy in southwest china (guizhou, yunnan, guangxi), the same areas where dogs are sometimes eaten. the second one is enough for western racists to go ballistic, the first is preferable to soymeat somehow?
come on Climate Stalin, make meat illegal before westerners start eating zoo animals
In the north east I heard 天上龙肉地上驴肉
“In the heavens they eat dragon meat, on earth donkey meat”
This is in praise of donkey meat
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Is tofu hard to get in Argentina?
3rd largest soybean producer in the world they produce twice of what china does
It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of carnivorsim.
Argentines are jingoistic about the fact that they eat so much beef, they probably rather would starve than not eat meat
I thought beef was the one thing they had an abundance of in Argentina.
It’s all probably owned privately by foreign companies and sold to McDonalds/USian companies.
Yeah isn’t it literally a country started for cattle ranching or did my years in the simulator fill me with lies
Well, for mining too. Lots and lots of gold and silver (of which the country is named after)
It’s more profitable to export, so people starve. Grapes of Wrath, etc
People are talking about the culture of eating meat in Argentina and that’s true. It’s just insufficient.
When chattle culture is that widespread, you have an entire complex system of expectations. People’s own understanding of nutrition is informed by the chattle culture. So, you can see, people first ate beef - which means they still had enough purchasing power to acquire ‘higher grade’ protein. Then they ate poultry and pork, which meant they had grown poor. Finally they resorted to eggs, the protein+nutrition combo that the poorest person you know resorts to.
Truth be told tofu isn’t the answer in this continent. It’s beans. Traditional recipes aren’t even vegan, they still have minimal amounts of animal products to them, to the point that south americans would feel ‘properly fed’. That feeling is what’s key. This perception that if you can’t eat animal products you aren’t properly fed is something that predates internet culture and american style ‘carnivores’.
Unlike the influencers people in this area of the world wouldn’t consider beans to be bad for you. On the contrary, black beans are what you eat when you have iron deprivation and anemia. It’s just that food is culture and the culture is that you need some kind of ‘protein’ (ie, meat), even when you’re eating legumes. Otherwise people feel like they aren’t doing the right thing.
NOT THAT KIND OF MEAT
I would have thought donkey meat to be more expensive, since they are smaller, there’s is less of em, and the ones there are already earmarked for other uses.
Edit, were I live most people can’t afford beef, even for me, beef is not worth it most of the time. People eat pork(I don’t) or chicken. Pork is cheap, because hogs are big, easy to feed and have litters of 6 vs a single calf. Also, if you don’t take care of the animals pork meat is still of a decent quality, while you have to invest a lot of effort in rasing a calf otherwise it’s meat is going to be much worse than the hog’s.
It’s fairly common in northern China since the Ming dynasty. The Yongle Emperor wanted the Chinese army to focus more on cavalry (both light and heavy) and less on heavy infantry (like from antiquity through to the Tang/Song) after overthrowing the Mongols, and even leading expeditions into Mongolia itself. Due to the fact that horses suddenly became much more valuable due to mandate, and donkeys using the same resource as horses (i.e.: grass), lots of donkeys became free game.
Another wave came after industrialization, where most remaining donkeys were released into the wild after trains were introduced, then during hard times, feral donkeys became easy protein.
Interesting, I appreciate your input, but I still think those cases are different, since the involve lots of suddenly surplus donkeys, in an environment were equines thrive, vs a case were there was not a culture of donkey raising.
I bring it up because there’s one common similarity between China and Argentina re: donkeys: feral populations. Spanish missionaries introduced a lot of donkeys into the Americas (I believe as an homage to Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem in the Bible), and were released into the wild with no consideration for the environment when technology improved. After a cursory search, feral donkeys are a problem in some parts of Argentina because they compete for the same food as the native llama but have fewer natural predators.
But yeah, China already had an established history of eating donkeys already when times got rough, and Argentinians are now eating donkeys because times got rough.
I didn’t know about the feral donkeys in argentina, this changes everything!
Also, pigs will eat basically anything and turn it into decent meat, meaning you can recycle for waste
That is correct, but I don’t think this is Argentina turning on a dime to pivot towards donkey all of a sudden, I think it’s Argentina turning towards feral population that has existed for over a hundred years. Argentina already had a feral donkey population but not an established donkey farming industry.
This is where I think is the deciding factor, feral pigs are omnivores and so they also eat meat. They’re likely to carry parasites/diseases/prions from what they ate, vs donkeys which are herbivores and so are less likely to carry parasites from what they ate.
If you must eat wild/feral animals, it’s always wiser to go for herbivores than omnivores.
indeed. this is a south american country. if there was a donkey industry it would be set up for exports.
