This would be a hard answer to find, considering snake meat is not always legal to resell, and much of it may go unreported.

While I don't think this statistic has ever been tracked other than in part through specific rattlesnake meat vendors in the U.S., some deduction can lead to a reasonably good estimate on the degree of magnitude.

According to one article - http://www.wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1517903 which lists a number of well established culinary meats consumed in the U.S., Americans consume an average of 1lb of lamb/mutton per person. Consider that the assumed accuracy of those statistics and the perceived unlikelihood for average Americans to eat snake meat on a regular basis (compared to lamb/mutton) would put the average snake meat consumption well below 1lb - perhaps 2% of that amount.

Given the common knowledge that there are approximately 300 million persons living in the U.S., multiply by 0.02lb/person, and you have 6 million pounds (3,000 tons, the denomination in which such statistics are usually reported).

Permalink | Report