The lowest-fat red meat there is, which is acknowledged by the American Heart Association, is kangaroo. There's almost no visible fat to this wild game. What's holding up the true mainstreaming of exotic meat, importers and store managers say, isn't squeamishness but cost. No matter how heart-healthy these foods are, most people can't afford to purchase them on a regular basis. But as the demand goes up and the number of farms increases, he says, these foods will become more affordable.
Production is already on the upswing.
The Texas-based American Ostrich Association, for example, reports that its membership swelled from 400 farmers in 1988 to nearly 4000 in 1996. The platter is composed of whatever meat chef Russ Riseman currently has in stock. In the 1990 movie The Freshman, Marlon Brando hires Matthew Broderick as a courier for the Gourmet Club, an exclusive organization that hosts endangered-species feasts. Not everyone is eager to turn the tables on a lion. To stimulate new appetites for new kinds of meat flies in the face of enlightened public policy and responsible stewardship of the earth's resources.