France's frog leg delicacy stirs up controversy
More and more people in France are calling for a ban on cooking frog legs. As catching wild frogs is largely prohibited in the country, thousands of tons are imported each year.
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00:00 It's something of a cliché that frogs are a delicacy in France.
00:07 Star chef Paul Bocuse's restaurant near Lyon, for example, has frog legs as a fixture on the menu.
00:14 "Don't be afraid to season them well with salt and pepper before cooking.
00:22 You'll be tempted to eat them right then. Your mouth will start watering."
00:27 "Frogs' legs are synonymous with France. At some time we've all eaten them at a waterfront café.
00:36 It's a very popular dish."
00:43 But in France, serving wild frogs is all but forbidden.
00:47 Pesticides and shrinking wetlands are making these pond dwellers increasingly rare.
00:53 As a result, frogs like these are now imported to France on a massive scale, mainly from Southeast Asia.
01:00 Nearly 4,000 tons of frozen frogs annually.
01:08 Anna-Marie Ola is a biologist specializing in amphibians.
01:12 She says numerous Indonesian frog species are already threatened with extinction.
01:20 "France has very strict regulations, so we export the destruction of frog populations to other countries where there are no such laws.
01:30 We behave as if these resources were infinite."
01:39 The Paul Bocuse restaurant firmly refuses to serve frogs from Southeast Asia.
01:44 Executive chef Olivier Couvant is proud he's found an alternative.
01:51 "Gilles refused to serve frogs that didn't come from France, so we had to find someone who bred French frogs."
02:01 The restaurant buys its frogs from Europe's first commercial frog breeder, here in Rome, south of Lyon.
02:13 Patrice François now keeps 150,000 frogs in several dozen basins.
02:23 "From A to Z, from birth to slaughter."
02:30 François explains that the frogs are now killed more humanely than in the past.
02:35 They are submerged in ice water until they lose consciousness before being, as tradition dictates, dismembered alive.
02:43 "I wanted to establish this farm in France. It's much better if we can produce in France.
02:51 We're planning to double or triple the surface area of the ponds to meet demand."
03:01 In cooperation with the State Institute for Agricultural Research, Patrice François has bred a new species of frog
03:09 that feeds on granulate rather than live insects.
03:18 Resistance is stirring in Paris, though.
03:21 The Robas de Bois Environmental Protection Organization claims the frogs are not being kept under appropriate conditions.
03:28 The tradition, they argue, is no excuse.
03:34 "This no longer has anything to do with traditional subsistence farming.
03:39 I have no doubt that the French people can do without eating frog's legs.
03:43 It will not endanger our culture."
03:49 Some French people, it seems, can indeed forgo the pleasure of eating these amphibians.
03:56 "For me it's not part of French culture. I prefer snails."
04:02 "They taste really good, I must say.
04:05 I think it's a cliché to say that the French eat frogs because we don't eat them very often.
04:12 If they're locally sourced and have the least impact on biodiversity, then so much the better."
04:21 But some tourists regard frog legs as a must.
04:25 Visitors come from all over the world to eat the French delicacy here at the Paul Bocuse restaurant.
04:32 These Spanish visitors are very impressed by the frog's legs.
04:36 They take it as a culinary experience.
04:40 "We choose the frog legs because it's something really special in terms of texture,
04:48 especially texture, and also the contrast with the herbs.
04:53 So it's like an extraordinary dish."
04:58 France and the frog.
05:00 If the French no longer cherish the tradition, the tourists will.
05:04 The frog's legs mystique is unlikely to hop away from France any time soon.