Eating Aliens: Book Review
Eating Aliens challenges the conventional thinking surrounding hunting and the stereotypical hunter. Raised a vegetarian, Jackson Landers wished to transition to eating meat in the most environmentally sustainable way possible. Eating Aliens, is his journey to pursue and hunt invasive species which are negatively impacting the environment. Rather than the net negative impact on the environment caused by most modern agricultural practices, Jackson explores if hunting can help restore the natural balance.
In the book Jackson tells the tale of his hunts to pursue the following species as well as how they are wrecking havoc on the environment: Black Spiny-Tailed Iguanas, Green Iguanas, Feral Pigs, Armadillos, Lionfish, European Green Crab, Asian Carp, Nutria, Giant Canada Geese, Tilapia, Plecostomus, Armored Catfish, Snakeheads, Chinese Mystery Snails and also his experience with the game farms in Texas which recently have introduced African game such as Zebra and Antelope. The book chronicles his successes as well as failures, details how he prepared the meat, and closes each chapter with what he views the potential impact hunters may have in helping eradicate the species from their alien environment.
Overall the book is quite enjoyable to read and shouldn't take most readers long to finish. Length is 226 pages. The book is eye opening and again challenges what it means to eat meat and brings a remarkably fresh perspective to the question of environmentally sustainability. In fact the book was a large part of what persuaded me to personally take up hunting as a ethic. If you hunt, are considering hunting, are environmentally conscious or just looking for something out of the box to read pick up Eating Aliens, you won't be disappointed.
4 Comments:
I've heard of this book but never read it. Thanks for the review. I was talking with a friend about how many domestic food scares there have been. It seems like it increases every year. Bird flu, ecoli, etc. We were discussing in 10yrs or so is there going to be a demand for game meat or an increase in hunting. Unfortunately we are polluting the waters and cutting down forests so fast there might not be any healthy wild animals to support the demand.
It is a bit scary for sure, the quality of our domestic meat production seems very dubious at times, hence why I took up hunting myself to at least supplement my diet as much as possible. In addition for me, is the unethical production practices which accompany many of the products we are sold as well.
I may have to check that one out. Alien Cookbook interesting!
Kevin, yeah its a great read for sure. It doesn't so much have "recipes" in it as a cookbook would, but does talk about how he cooked the meal.
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