Most of us know that there’s been a trend over the last couple of years toward eating local and sustainable food.  As part of that movement, wild game meat has risen with a new popularity… evidenced in sites like Hank’s Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, Georgia Pelligrini’s eponymous site, and Jackson Landers’s The Locavore Hunter. 

Personally, I’m happy to see this movement and honestly hope it’s more than just another food fad.  It’s given a new life to hunting, bringing a new perspective on our sport and adding some very articulate voices to the community. 

At any rate, a hunting client and friend sent me a note yesterday morning that included a link to the New York Times Sustainable Eating section, and James Gorman’s latest column.  Gorman shines a light on a potential new offshoot of the locavore movement.  “Invasivores” build a menu from invasive species, both vegetable and animal. 

The column was partially in jest, and partially serious… my favorite kind of column… and points to the wide variety of invasive species which can be converted to the table.  He starts out with a piece about the diving clubs in Florida and their lionfish derby. 

For those who don’t know, the lionfish, native to the south Pacific, has shown up in great numbers along the reefs from the Caribbean to North Carolina.  It’s an aggressive, invasive species with seriously negative implications to native reef fish.  It’s also extremely venomous, and has few natural predators… especially in its new environment. At first, the divers were just going to collect and eradicate as many of the fish as they could find.  However, someone came up with the idea of having local chefs find ways to cook the spiny little bastards, and the event took on a whole new life.

A similar derby is held up in the Great Lakes states that have recently been impacted by the Asian (flying) carp.  Whether or not the derbies make a significant impact on the growing populations of these invasive species remains to be seen, but the idea of turning them into food has become a valid concept. 

It’s definitely not just about carnivores, either.  There are innumerable edible invasive plants growing all over the countryside… urban, suburban, and rural.  Kudzu, nasturtium, field mustard, wild fennel, etc.  I’m not the great forager here, but for the motivated individual, the possibilities run on and on. 

To tie this all into the main topic of my blog, of course wild hogs are a perfect example of an invasive, non-native species that has huge food potential.  In Texas (where I am right now), feral hogs are trapped and sent to packing houses where they are slaughtered and butchered for market.  While the FDA and USFWS don’t allow hunters to sell their game, wild pigs are finding their way to tables all over the country anyway. 

The ground floor of a new movement?  I dunno.  But  it’s all an interesting thought.

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