Is your fridge starting to look bare as the week draws to a
close? Before your next trip to the supermarket why don’t you take a leaf out
of conservation biologist Joe Roman’s book and stock up on edible invasive
species instead?
The idea behind this campaign is simple: to protect our vulnerable ecosystem against invasives, we can proactively contribute towards reducing population sizes by eating them! This can even be done without your taste buds even noticing, for example trading the type of venison meat that you eat from Red or Roe deer to Sika deer. But if you’re feeling a little more adventurous you could even make a spicy curry using the Himalayan balsam (mentioned in the previous post).
If this whets your appetite and you’re intrigued to find out
more then check out these websites where some tasty recipes await you!
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| eattheinvaders.org |
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| invasivore.org |
I can certainly see the pros of
eating invasives, and feeling like you’re making a positive contribution
to biodiversity may bring a rewarding meal to the table. However personally, I am slightly apprehensive to promote
eating of invasive species without further evidence that it has causes a decline in the spread of species around the globe. I feel that a large proportion of
the population would have to be on board this idea in order for it to be a sustainable
method of population control. If countries gets an appetite for invasive
species, it will no doubt increase the demand for the species, and to ensure
that the supply meets the demand we will ultimately be doing a U-turn. Before we
know it we will be farming invasive species, defeating the whole object!
On that note I’ll leave you to ponder
whether you’ll be replacing Friday nights fish and chips with crayfish and
chips?
What a cool idea! Will we be having London foraging events at the weekends? You do however make a very good point that it could be a potentially dangerous endeavor! Squirrel and chips anyone?
ReplyDeleteHaha I know, I wouldn't be surprised if people are already organising events! There also seem to be quite a few people that are vegetarians, but will eat the meat of invasive species!
DeleteInteresting idea! Never even thought about that... Even better if the invasive species would be insects and the whole world could cut down on meat consumption that way! However I'm not sure how many will be craving for a grasshopper-burger...(a bit of biased here due to my latest post)
ReplyDeleteInsects probably wont be a crowd pleaser! But there are certainly enough species of invasive fish to at least make a start on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting concept, I also hadn't heard of it! I agree with you Elena, that if demand increases for these species, this could in fact result in a complete U-turn on the intention of the campaign.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, crayfish was actually on the menu at a restaurant I recently visited in Scotland!
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DeleteThat's pretty cool! There's a guy called "crayfish bob" who runs pop up restaurants around Scotland and England to try and encourage people to eat it! He does say that they are striving for a future without crayfish, but even if his restaurant stops if/when the species is removed, the british public will still want more!
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