The New York Times once described hippo meat as “lake cow bacon” while supporting a 1910 House bill that proposed introducing hippos to the bayous of Louisiana. In 1910, Congress seriously considered an extraordinary solution to Louisiana’s environmental and food problems: importing hippopotamuses into the state’s bayous. Supporters argued that hippos could eat invasive water hyacinths choking Southern waterways while providing Americans with a cheap new source of meat. The proposal, known as the American Hippo Bill, was championed by explorer and congressman Robert F. Broussard and supported by former President Theodore Roosevelt. During congressional hearings, USDA researcher William Newton Irwin claimed the plan could add up to one million tons of meat to America’s annual food supply. He even suggested importing other exotic animals, including rhinoceroses, African buffalo, Tibetan yaks, dik-diks, and Manchurian pigs. The bizarre proposal attracted national attention but ultimately went nowhere. Congress never approved the bill, and the Louisiana bayous remained hippo-free.(Historic Vids)