Save the World. Eat More Lionfish and Green Crabs.

Lobster is considered a luxury food today, with high prices to prove it, but it wasn’t always this way. Lobster was once cheap and plentiful, and seen as a poor man’s food. Its evolution to our tables and its prestige are largely thanks to the combined efforts of chefs and marketers. Today there is a large movement underway to try and accomplish something similar with several invasive species of that are threatening local plants and animals. A recent Modern Farmer article points to efforts to promote lionfish, green crabs, and Black mustard seeds as culinary treats. The goal is to “eat our way out of the invasive species problem.”

This is an underappreciated sector of the sustainability world. We could all do more to help this movement succeed, from actively ordering menu items at restaurants trying to add these foods to talking about it more with people who may not be familiar with just how good for the world it could be to buy and consume these species.