Abundant Geese, Coming Right Up

In the 1970s Holland’s wild geese were in serious trouble, so officials came up with a plan to grow their populations. Today, some 40 years later, the recovery plan has succeeded so wildly that the country has too many geese. So an Amsterdam food truck has hit the streets with an unusual plan for what to do with the excess: eat them.

Cofounders Nicolle Schatborn and Rob Hagenouw have been slinging Schipol Geese Croquettes at food fairs for years, and customers love them, NPR reports. Now they’ve brought them to their food truck, called “The Kitchen of the Unwanted Animal,” which also serves horse meat, deer, and muskrat. 

While the idea of eating overabundant creatures makes a certain amount of sense, it wouldn’t work in the United States, at least when it comes to birds, thanks to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).

It’s not for lack of overabundant animals—in North America, as in Holland, a once-rare bird, in this case the Snow Goose, “has grown beyond the ability of the hunting public to control the population,” says Robert Rockwell, an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History. And the population needs to be controlled—his research shows that in Arctic habitats and marshes, the geese destroy edible vegetation essential to a range of wildlife.  

“I like the idea of eating our way out of the problem,” says Rockwell. In fact, 25 years ago he helped draft a Snow Goose cookbook to teach hunters how to prepare the tough meat. Recipes include Snow Goose Jerky, Honey Garlic Snow Goose Sausage, and Jalapeno Snow Goose Breast Supreme.

But the MBTA makes it illegal to sell migratory bird species, so add goose croquettes to the list of illicit things you might have to travel to wide-open Amsterdam to enjoy. You can hunt Snow Geese in the United States, though, and invite all your friends to a Snow Goose feast. And in some states you can take the meat to food banks—charitable distribution is okay because no money changes hands.

Even if market hunting were legal, Rockwell isn’t convinced it would be an effective strategy in the long run. To make a living selling a wild animal commercially, hunters would need to guarantee delivery of a certain number each year, regardless of the population size. And this kind of a fixed harvest would risk driving the population to extinction, says Rockwell. “It’s not safe ecology.”

Right now, in 2015, the Snow Goose population might be able to take a hit for a while. But by allowing commercial hunting of the species, the overwhelming progress made with the geese could still unravel. ”You’re opening a Pandora’s box that you don’t want to open,” says Rockwell.

So even though you may not be savoring those goose croquettes anytime soon, you can still get a unique dining experience that’s good for the environment by trying one of these recipes that make use of invasive species.