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.

“I’M NO TREE-HUGGER”: PERSISTING STEREOTYPES PREVENT THE FULL-ON ‘GREENING’ OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC

What comes to mind when someone says ‘environmentalist,’ or the oft synonymous word ‘tree-hugger?’ For many, these words conjure up a particular stereotype that has been traditionally associated with fringe groups. This has the unfortunate effect of marginalizing the idea of a ‘green’ way of life, and creating a perception among some groups in society that environmentalism is only for certain types of people.

But in this day and age, environmental problems exist on scales never before seen (e.g. climate change) and solving them will require that everyone adopt the ethos of the ‘hippie environmentalist,’ to some degree – a philosophy of harmony with nature and a low impact lifestyle. Regrettably, some major media outlets continue to perpetuate this stereotype, even as ‘going green’ becomes the new trend in American society.

Environmental issues have moved to being discussed in the sectors of business and finance, and the door has opened for a new type of environmental consciousness in the form of so-called ‘green consumerism’ – still the American consumer we know and love, but with a mind to making environmentally responsible choices with their purchasing power.

But the real challenge isn’t in getting people to buy ‘green,’ it’s in getting them to think ‘green.’

The question is: How do you go about changing people's perspectives?

The way to bring about large-scale, lasting change is to make environmental consciousness a truly mainstream phenomenon. When it becomes the norm for everyone to ‘think like an environmentalist,’ all sectors of society will change fundamentally...

...and we might finally see that being 'green' should be for everyone.