Hunters Were the First Locavores
Image from iStockphoto.com
A terrific, provocative op-ed piece in the New York Times today argues that hunters were locavores before anyone had coined the term. Writer Steven Rinella, author of The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine, is an avid hunter and, apparently, a serious environmentalist as well:
While many people will never give up their opposition to killing Bambi, others may change their minds when they realize that destroying a deer's reproductive abilities or relying on the automobile for population control is really no less wasteful than tossing fresh produce into a landfill....
Hunters need to push a new public image based on deeper traditions: we are stewards of the land, hunting on ground that we know and love, collecting indigenous, environmentally sustainable food for ourselves and our families.
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16 Comments:
Great article. To me there is an important ethical difference between hunting for sport and hunting for food.
jamieforrest at 2:09PM on 12/14/07
First off, I am not a hunter.
Is there a difference between hunting for sport and for food? I don't think there is.I believe all the meat is used when one hunts for "sport".
Sport hunting is part of wildlife management.
Last month's National Geographic had an excellent article about how hunters are actually land and wildlife conservationists.
ttp://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-11/hunters/poole-text.html
ebpizza at 3:32PM on 12/14/07
typo. was missing the "h"
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-11/hunters/poole-text.html
ebpizza at 3:34PM on 12/14/07
I'm not a hunter either, and you might be right that all the meat is used when one hunts for sport.
jamieforrest at 3:36PM on 12/14/07
might be? probably. I doubt there are any hunters that just leave the meat in the woods.
ebpizza at 3:52PM on 12/14/07
I am a hunter, and sadly I can tell you that many hunters don't eat all their kill. Lots of my fellow duck hunters "breast out" birds, leaving the rest. This is illegal and is frowned on by the rest of us, but it is not uncommon. Deer hunters in areas where whitetail deer live often kill so many (they are wildly prolific now) that they leave meat in the field. Again, illegal and considered poor form by most hunters.
I have to say this article - and the NatGeo one - really speaks to what some of us are trying to do. I don't buy industrial meat, and I waste almost nothing anymore because of my choice. When you don't know if you will get another goose or duck or rabbit, you a loathe to let anything go into the trash bin.
If you haven't read Rinella's book, it's a scream: He tries to do a three-day Escoffier feast totally sourced by hand, which requires a heckuva lot of hunting and fishing to achieve. Oh, by the way, it's the "Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine." The original post mislabeled it.
HunterAnglerGardenerCook at 4:08PM on 12/14/07
Thanks for your perspective, HunterAnglerGardenerCook. It is really helping me understand this issue.
Ed Levine at 4:47PM on 12/14/07
No problem, Ed. I used to live in NYC, too, and hunting can seem pretty remote when you're deciding which brand of ventresca to buy at Agata & Valentina...
HunterAnglerGardenerCook at 4:58PM on 12/14/07
any "hunter" that leaves meat in the field is pure lazy! Even if they cant use it their are plenty of ways to make sure that meat isnt wasted. I know the NRA sponsors many programs that will use that meat to help feed the hungry through food banks around the country. For Shame on anyone that is that wasteful, lazy and disrespectful! I'm just very glad, most hunters are much more conscientious than that!
huney_bumper at 6:21PM on 12/14/07
All the men in my family hunt (except for my husband---and even he did as a boy). I have always had problems with this, but I've never wanted to deny it to myself or others for several reasons: everyone in our family has done it as far back as the18th century, every animal is eaten, my mother tried to prevent my father from doing it, and then there is the squeamishness of my omnivore friends---meat is alright if someone anonymous killed the animal and it's safely behind cellophane. Reasons 3 & 4 just make me peckish and rebellious. So when the subject comes up, I say, "My brother hunts. I like duck, and I like venison." I'm still not comfortable with my position, but maybe that's just the right place to be.
islandexile at 10:34PM on 12/14/07
If you haven't read Rinella's book, it's a scream: He tries to do a three-day Escoffier feast totally sourced by hand, which requires a heckuva lot of hunting and fishing to achieve. Oh, by the way, it's the "Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine." The original post mislabeled it.
HunterAnglerGardenerCook at 4:08PM on 12/14/07
As someone who has been a chef along the lines of the Escoffier-based style-made-modern with additional experience in foraging and fishing, I second your advice to read this book. I also second it as someone who is often bored by food-writing, and I read a lot of it. Absolutely fan tas tic book.
Karen Resta at 11:58AM on 12/15/07
Hunters need to push a new public image based on deeper traditions: we are stewards of the land, hunting on ground that we know and love, collecting indigenous, environmentally sustainable food for ourselves and our families.
I'm from Wisconsin and nearly everyone I grew up with hunted. This is what hunters have been saying for years. They don't need a public image, they need media organs like the Times to stop pushing the stereotype that they are all red-neck gun nuts.
SAMiller at 11:21PM on 12/15/07
Meat left in the field is more efficiently utilized, (and more appreciated), than the meat processed and eaten by humans.
srhcb at 11:21PM on 12/15/07
I'm not recommending it, but one way to look at leaving meat in the field is "feeding scavengers a little early".
gustoct at 8:01AM on 12/16/07
That's true... I've found deer that were hunted purely for their racks and the scavengers enjoyed them. However, for others it turns into an addiction
Even for those who once were an admirable hunter.
Journal Entry Back
Second Iowa Man Pleads Guilty in Federal Court to Poaching Trophy Deer and Elk in Iowa and Colorado
Midwest Region, December 29, 2003
http://www.fws.gov/arsnew/regmap.cfm?arskey=11103
Purenvy at 10:37AM on 12/16/07
I had some thoughts on the piece, and the reaction, that are a bit bulky for this space, but they are here:
http://thegurglingcod.typepad.com/thegurglingcod/2007/12/bullet-points.html
The Gurgling Cod at 2:07PM on 12/17/07