Hey everyone! It’s time to take a break from entomophagy and get to talking about the namesake of my blog: frogs.

Frog legs are not only eaten in Southeast Asia, but also in France, China, USA, and beyond. However, some say our appetite for frogs could be leading to its downfall.

Firstly, about frogs! In the last few decades, the disappearance of frogs has come to the attention of scientists. There are many reasons attributed to this, such as habitat loss, contamination of ecosystems due to chemicals, infectious diseases (I’ll get to this in another entry!) and what I’m focusing on today: unsustainable wild frog harvesting.

Frogs are harvested from the wild for the pet trade and for food. In the past, I couldn’t fathom that the world had such a demand for frog legs that the collection of frogs could leave a dent in their disappearance. I mean, I knew that in Singapore, frog leg porridge is a common dish, but the scale of the trade and also the inherent vulnerabilities frogs and other amphibians face which exacerbate the problem was a shocking realisation to me.

In terms of numbers, Indonesia is the world’s top exporter of frog legs, at around 5000 tons a year. Most of the frogs in the global frog leg market is harvested from the wild instead of farmed, because frog farming has largely been unsuccesful. Some reasons include their ease of catching illnesses, instances of cannabilism, and their long hibernation periods in temperate countries.

It is this collection from the wild that is problematic. Currently, there is very little data on the global trade of frogs in terms of amount and the species caught. Data on domestic consumption of frog is also scarce, Indonesia for example is thought to consume 2-7 times as many frogs as it sends abroad, so the numbers reported are being harvested is likely an underestimation. The legs are usually seperated from the body and skinned (since many infectious pathogens are from the skin) so it is difficult to identify the exact species of frog that was caught, so whether the frog was an endangered or a non-native frog (like the American Bullfrog which is invasive to many regions now) is a mystery.

In my opinion, eating frog legs isn’t inherently bad. It’s the lack of data, regulations, and expertise for efficient frog farming that creates the demand for frog legs one that is problematic. I think what prevents these issues from being addressed and having a sustainable edible frog market is that these issues are hard to tackle. Wild harvesting is difficult to track, especially in Southeast Asia where frogs are collected just for household consumption, and although there are frog farms around the world who can supply frog legs (like Singapore’s Jurong Frog Farm), there has been many controversies around frog farms because of their unsanitary practices or unethical treatment of the frogs.

Maybe it’s the “gross” factor of frogs that leaves them little sympathy from the masses. More attention should be given to frogs – at least so we do not avert our eyes away from the ugly truths we have yet to uncover about our eating.