Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Fried Armadillo, Your New Favorite...

Hunting down the local overrun squirrel population for dinner? Seems fit only for an uneducated backwoods hillbilly at first glance... but this is exactly what is proposed in this New York times feature discussing  invasivores. These invasivores, along with so-called locavores, look to those invasive species such as armadillos, lionfish, pigeons, and others that they can find and hunt locally.
Now I personally feel that my vegetarianism is enough change to my sustainable diet, but, for those who wish to eat meat... this doesn't seem so crazy. All that roadkill may as well not go to waste. And if people were to eat locally hunted  food it would be that much less supply wasted raising live stock for human consumption.
Whatever helps. Just make sure before heading out with your shot gun that you research local pollutants that could potentially ruin your delectable grackle stir fry.

4 comments:

  1. This is the first entry of anyone's I've seen that tells me about something absolutely unknown to me. Way to go! That picture is also super attention-grabbing and creepy.

    You should consider (though you probably already have) writing about freegans. I saw an article recently (http://www.nerve.com/advice/sex-advice-from/sex-advice-from-freegans) all about freegan sex advice. How relevant is this to your blog? I have no idea, but you might find it interesting.

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  2. Don't armadillos have leprosy? Despite this, what an interesting concept. I actually have a letter from my grandmother to an aunt from the 1940's describing that they had skinned, cooked and ate an opossum. I'm glad everyone is getting back to their roots!

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  3. I think backwoods hillbilly is ok, but "uneducated" is kinda classist. I get what you're saying but there are less offensive ways to say it than to insinuate that only uneducated mountain-country folk are crazy enough to eat roadkill. I'm sure some of those folks know how to fend for themselves in the wild, something that they're neither uneducated nor as "backwoodsy" as the phrase suggests. Nitpicky, yes, but it's important to be aware of the stereotypes, presumed values, and possible offense our words can cause.

    The sentence defining the word "invasivore" is kinda wonky: "These invasivores, along with so-called locavores, look to those invasive species such as armadillos, lionfish, pigeons, and others that they can find and hunt locally." Would you say this in a conversation? Probably not. How could you have re-worked it to make more sense and flow more conversationally?

    Remember to break your large text block up by formatting the text into smaller paragraphs and to eliminate passive voice. I found five examples of it in your short post:

    - this is exactly
    - what is proposed
    - my vegetarianism is enough
    - were to eat
    - would be that much less

    How might you have re-worded those sentences to us active verbs. Not to pick on your story, but working on these areas will help empower your writing, especially in the short form.

    I read somewhere that cricket farms are less environmentally wasteful than chicken farms in terms of require food and energy, provide smaller farmers a chance to become big local food partners, and provide more protein than chicken flesh per weight. But the article's author also doubted that Americans would stomach such an dish.

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  4. hmmmm this is kinda funny but a totally valid point lol. Road kill shouldn't go to waste, but I'll leave that to the other people.

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