Officials urge residents to embrace previously overlooked meat: 'We have excess supply'

Leaders on Hawaiʻi Island are encouraging residents to take a fresh look at an abundant and often overlooked food source: feral pigs.

Big Island Now reported that wild pigs have long roamed the island, particularly in the Puna district. Now, community advocates are urging people to address the issue in a practical way by putting it on the menu.

While hunting has always been part of life in many Hawaiʻi communities, leaders say more residents — including restaurants and home cooks — could help reduce environmental pressure by embracing wild pork.

Invasive species such as wild pigs are a nuisance for communities and a threat to the ecosystem. Farmers often see them damage fencing and crops in their search for food. They uproot native plants, accelerate soil erosion, and create shallow water breeding grounds for mosquitoes. These effects ripple across the ecosystem, affecting wildlife, food webs, and residents.

By increasing demand for wild pig meat, advocates hope to reduce populations in ways that support local hunters, reduce food imports, and protect native habitats. It's a strategy that aligns conservation with community resilience — tackling environmental harm while strengthening local food systems.

This isn't the only invasive species Hawaiians can enjoy on their plates. Locals have also shared recipes for invasive fish species such as blacktail snapper and Ta'ape (or bluestripe snapper).

To promote smart wild pig management, nonprofit organization Mālama O Puna has taken steps such as constructing traps, designating local hunters in the Puna area, and developing a hunter's code of conduct. It's lobbying officials to adjust rules by increasing bag limits and extending hunting to seven days a week. The group also raises public awareness with educational information for the community.

Pāhoa Lava Zone Museum and Mālama O Puna are also working together to expand a local facility into a "cut-and-wrap" location that would offer packaged wild pork cuts for sale. The museum's mobile kitchen, Pōhaku Cafe, also serves wild pork on its menu.

Mālama O Puna director Eileen O'Hara, director of the Pāhoa Lava Zone Museum Amedeo Markoff, and county councilmember Ashley Kierkiewicz created the 4-Point Feral Pig Control Project to promote feral pigs as food. That led to the first annual Smoke It Up Festival, a cook-off bringing together local chefs to showcase what can be done with feral pig meat — from smoked carnitas to sausage croquettes and sausage mac and cheese bites.

While there are some challenges, such as increasing mobile slaughter and meat-processing facilities, these advocates have set the ball rolling toward a larger-scale wild-pork industry in Hawaiʻi.

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"Everyone loves a competition, especially with a cook-off," said Kierkiewicz. "The festival showed us that we can strengthen food security and use our problems as opportunities."

"We have excess supply on this island, and we need to ramp up demand," said O'Hara. "A lot of meat is being wasted, and we have many food-insecure communities."

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