Don't eat your children

Dear Andy: Jonathan Swift suggested in an essay from 1729 that he "recommends that Ireland's poor escape their poverty by selling their children as food to the rich." Noting, "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food...” While a shocking prospect, I wonder what your thoughts are on the subject. Thanks for your work. - Stacey in unincorporated Whatcom County

Dear Stacy: This is one of the most misquoted statements of the early 1700s. You see, it’s a little known fact that Mr. Swift grew up a chicken farmer. Some even say he was still secretly breeding chickens at the time of his death in 1745. His original essay encouraged Ireland’s poor to sell their chickens, not their children. It is believed that Mr. Swift was encouraging the poor to sell their fowl so he could secretly build his own chicken monopoly. In March of 1730 the local chicken farmers caught wind of his scheme. In an effort to cover his tracks, he rewrote the essay to refer to children. Now you know the truth.