Food Word Friday: Invasivore

I have decided to do something new on Fridays.  Rather than posting a recipe, I will define a food-related word (and you will have the WHOLE weekend to work it into a conversation!).  It could be something really basic, like the name of a cooking technique, or it could be an awesome, probably-not-actually-a-word like the one I am giving you today!  The word of the day is...invasivore.

It is pretty interesting how we humans are disposed to grouping and categorizing things (and people).  As the interest in food has really picked up in recent years, there has been an explosion in the categorization of particular types of dietary choices.  In addition to vegetarians and vegans, we have pescetarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians, locavores, and so on and so forth.  Well, I was recently introduced to what I think might be the coolest food preference - the invasivores (sounds a little bit like a dinosaur, doesn't it?). 

Invasivores are people who eat invasive species as a means of controlling their populations and reducing their impact on the environment.  Since in most cases invasive species were introduced to their non-native habitats by humans, and subsequently caused havoc by reproducing in the absence of natural predators, eating these animals (and plants) is seen as a way to remedy their impacts.  Clearly, the relatively small ground of people that embrace these eating habits makes it difficult to have a significant impact on most of the invasive populations, but I think it is a fascinating idea.

I came across the term in the July issue of Food & Wine, in an article that specifically discusses lionfish and the people who catch and eat them.  Lionfish were introduced to the Atlantic by humans, and the fish reproduce very rapidly, eat native fish, and face no predators (other than, now, humans).  The article was actually very timely because, when I was in Bermuda earlier this summer, we saw lionfish (both in the acquarium and up-close-and-personal in the ocean!) and learned about them at the aquarium.  I did not get to eat one, however!  The article is great - it discusses the logistics of large-scale lionfish hunting as well as the marketing approaches that could be used to encourage people to eat these fish (whose spines are poisonous) and the impact that recreational scuba divers (/lionfish hunters) could have on the market.

I guess eating invasive species is one more consideration we can all keep in mind when making our food choices - or if we are looking for a little novelty!