Goats are on the Front Lines in the Battle Against Invasive Plants

A particularly rampant invasive plant species in the southern U.S. is Kudzu (Pueraria montana), a vine introduced from Asia and widely planted to combat soil erosion. Unfortunately, it now covers 7 million acres and has buried native vegetation under a thick coat of vines, choking off much-needed sunlight.

So what’s the newest way people are combating the spread of Kudzu?

The answer: Goats.

Goat herds have been brought in to eat the pesky kudzu in several southern states, including Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. In addition to removing the vine without the cost or risk of pesticides, the goats will eventually help fulfill the growing demand for goat meat. The profitability of the enterprise has even led a former Wall Street businessman to make goat farming a fulltime job.

Of course he wasn’t the only one to recognize the business potential here; even in the Triangle area you can hire a goat herd to take care of the weed problem in your backyard.

It isn’t often that the solution to a serious environmental threat is such a win-win situation. And it begs the question: Are there other creative, beneficial solutions to environmental problems out there just waiting to be discovered?

This is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that breeds new innovation in science. Rather than trying to fully eradicate invasives, perhaps we should work to identify their benefits and then exploit them. In fact, fostering this kind of entrepreneurial thinking may the best way to deal with many of our biggest environmental challenges.