Boston Public Radio Podcast

That deer in your garden? It might just be the most eco-friendly dinner to eat — provided you kill it yourself. Award-winning food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio on Thursday to discuss Washington Post columnist Tamar Haspell’s proposal that venison is “unequivocally the single most ecologically friendly food you can eat.” “If you get farm-raised venison in a restaurant, it’s not really addressing this [environmental] issue, because the only thing that’s legal to sell is farm-raised venison,” Kummer said. “You have to go out and kill it.” Haspell argued that due to invasive deer populations posing threats to native animals and plants, the spread of Lyme disease by deer ticks, and the greenhouse gas emissions deer produce, wild venison could be considered the most eco-friendly food to consume. In her piece, Haspell noted that a Connecticut town reversed its no-hunting ordinance in 2000 after being overrun by deer. Scientists who monitored the situation found that in the seven following years