Once even the alternative sources of food had been devoured, people, in their despair, turned to the inedible, including cattle feed, linseed oil and leather belts. Soon the belts, which people ate out of desperation, were considered a luxury. Furniture glue and wallpaper paste, both of which contained animal fat, were scrapped off and boiled. People ate the soil from around the Badayev warehouses for the traces of charred sugar found within.
