You may have heard of locavores -- people who prefer to eat food grown or raised locally -- or freegans -- people who dine on wasted food. Now there's a new food movement that advocates curbing the growth of invasive species by eating them. Invasivors prey upon species that are taking over the established habitats of other animals. Jackson Landers is an adherent of this movement:
Link via Glenn Reynolds | Jackson Landers' Blog | Photo by Flickr user jon hanson used under Creative Commons license
As the Locavore Hunter, based in Virginia, he teaches urbanites how to hunt and butcher deer. He has branched out from the locavore life to invasives, and lionfish are one target. But as he has pushed the envelope of the invasivore approach, he has hunted and eaten feral pigs, two species of iguana, armadillos, starlings, pigeons and resident Canada geese. He says that all of these activities will be chronicled in a book, “Eating Aliens,” and perhaps a television show as well.
Mr. Landers, who grew up in a vegetarian household, taught himself to hunt. He believes that eating invasives can have a real effect. “When human beings decide that something tastes good, we can take them down pretty quickly,” he said. Our taste for passenger pigeon wiped that species out, he said. What if we developed a similar taste for starlings?
Link via Glenn Reynolds | Jackson Landers' Blog | Photo by Flickr user jon hanson used under Creative Commons license
The first definition, the most used, applies to non-indigenous species, or "non-native", plants or animals that adversely affect the habitats and bioregions they invade economically, environmentally, and/or ecologically. They disrupt by dominating a region, wilderness areas, particular habitats, and/or wildland-urban interface land from loss of natural controls (i.e.: predators or herbivores).
Sounds like we are talking about ourselves to me. That is unless your name is Tony Montana. Then, of course, the world is yours.