Lets Just Eat the Invasive Plants

Several weeks ago, my friend Stacey Cornelius and I were having a discussion on twitter about how we could control invasive plants if we just started eating them.

We know that the top reasons that wildlife are declining are habitat loss due to human action and the spread of invasive plants. Humans are really good at destroying things and we’ve done quite a number on the environment.

But maybe we can put our predilection for destruction to a positive use by controlling invasive plants by eating them. Invasive plants are a problem because they do not have any associated predators in their new location. Therefore they are able to spread out of control and destroy wildlife habitat.

This is totally a human-caused problem. These plants continue to be sold in our nurseries, and lately passionate advocates for their continued sale and use in our landscapes have been touting their “benefits” to wildlife. To see this first-hand, just check out the comments to this post: Invasive Plants Revisited.

But now there is a new movement, the invasivores, who want to use our penchant for destroying everything we touch to good use to control these plants and other invasive species by eating them. In essence, WE will become the predators these plants are lacking in their introduced environments.

Think about it. What if we could control the highly invasive Autumn Olive by eating it? That would be so awesome!

The New York Times is even taking up this cause in a recent article: Can’t Eliminate an Invasive Species? Try Eating It!

The Invasive Plant Atlas of New England has a great recipe page for many of our worst invasive plants. I just love this site! I find it highly amusing 🙂

Let’s all take a stand now. Let’s eat up the invasive plants!

Have you eaten any invasive plants? How were they prepared?

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