Fat Head

There was an interesting story that appeared several months ago that I believe went largely unnoticed by the general public. It involved a gang in the Peruvian jungle that had been reported to be killing people for their fat. The local police were accusing the gang members of draining fat from the bodies and selling it on the black market for use in cosmetics. The suspects, who had confessed to killing five people, claimed that the fat was worth $80,000 a gallon.

The police stated that the gang members would cut off the victims’ heads, arms and legs, remove the organs, and then suspend the torsos from hooks above candles that warmed the flesh as the fat dripped into tubs below.


My wife Diana, had been in Peru on a photo shoot during the time the story had appeared in the NY Times. Although she had just traveled into the Amazon she was totally unaware of this gruesome incident.

Here’s my turning’’ lemons into lemonade’’ angle to this story.

With our economy in the pits and with over 60% of us obese or overweight, I’m proposing that our excess fat be declared a national resource. We could be the Saudi Arabia of fat in the global economy. To all the people who say that we don’t produce anything in this country anymore, I say, we have a virtual monopoly on this commodity. Most importantly, this resource is located in areas that have been impacted the most by this terrible recession, every small town in this country.