Foraging for a Diet that is Sustainable, Healthy… and Free?
Dumpster diving, urban gardening, and hydroponics: hot buzzwords in the food-world on how to be eco-chic while reducing environmental impact in an ever-changing world. A new buzzword is coming to light which takes lessons from human history’s past: foraging.
Prior to about 10,000 B.C., when permanent agricultural communities began to appear, human relatives subsisted primarily through hunting and gathering according to the editors of HISTORY.com. In hunter-gatherer societies, humans were very knowledgeable in their interactions with their local environment, having astute awareness of the plants and animals they could rely on for sustenance.
As agricultural practices began to grow rapidly, many societies lost touch of their interactions with their local ecosystems. These societies began relying on food sources that over time became domesticated and can now be grown in other areas of the world as explained by archaeologist Matthew Mason in his EnvironmentalScience.org article. Some indigenous communities maintain sustainable hunting and gathering practices, which often explains the success of their ecosystems. At the same time, in other parts of the world, mass agriculture and development have caused a plethora of cultural knowledge and significant biodiversity to be lost over time.
But a new trend toward foraging is surfacing, mimicking the gathering practices of many indigenous communities, where people are beginning to gather food that grows wildly in our own backyards, often even in urban areas. This new trend of foraging stems from a desire to have diets that are socially conscious, environmentally friendly, healthy, and often even free a according to Journal for Urban Ecology.
Social Impact
Diets based on foraging often help shift the goal of food security toward the goal of food sovereignty.
According to Change for Children, “Food security does not distinguish where food comes from, or the conditions under which it is produced and distributed,” while “[f]ood sovereignty emphasizes ecologically appropriate production, distribution and consumption, social-economic justice, and local food systems… guaranteeing sustainable food security for all peoples.”
A study from University of Delaware researcher Palaniappa Krishnan shows that food is often produced in environmentally destructive manners and exploitative conditions in order to meet the goal of food security. While foraging involves gathering food sources from a local environment. In doing so, foraging works toward the goals of food sovereignty in maintaining culturally relevant, local harvesting practices. Local foraging may also de-emphasize the demand for food produced in areas that may otherwise have exploitative work conditions.
Environmental Impact
By working toward the goals of food sovereignty, foraging also may help create a positive environmental impact by reducing large-scale habitat destruction. Through eating as local and as wild as possible, foraging encourages habitat conservation abroad and also decreases emissions associated with food cultivation and transportation. It also can promote local biodiversity by increasing the value and demand for a resource in a local area if done correctly.
However, foraging can have an opposite effect when a wild resource is over-harvested. As reported in Edible DC, Chef Drew Adams said it is important to only take 10% of what you see when foraging to ensure the food source is not depleted in the region and can continue to prosper.
Foraging foods that are considered non-native or invasive, like weeds, helps restore the balance of native plants that often are displaced by non-native species, thereby improving the health of local ecosystems according to Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. Such food sources also do not need to be treated, tended to, or packaged like in normal agriculture, so they are hassle-free and waste-free.
Health Impact
It’s fairly easy to understand why local food is more nutritious: it’s fresh and not processed. When plants are harvested at peak ripeness and freshness, they have more nutrients than store-bought vegetables that are harvested long before ripening according to a Harvard Health Blog post by Executive Editor Heidi Godman. A Civil Eats article explains that number of foods often foraged in urban areas are packed with vital nutrients and have inherent health benefits, like lambsquarter, purslane, dandelion greens, watercress, and various berries. Foraging for food also can be a great way to get outdoors and be active.
At the same time, depending on where the foraging is occurring, there may be some pollution impact on the food foraged like heavy metals in the soil or water contamination. Whether or not the food is impacted by such pollution is critical to health considerations.
Financial Impact
Foraging also can help you save money on your grocery bill because it can be free. However, it is important to be aware of the applicable laws based on where and what you are foraging, because you may be trespassing or picking a species that is otherwise protected. To avoid these risks, a guide might be a good option, but just confirm that they have done their research. While not as cost-effective, going with a guide can also hedge other risks like accidentally harvesting and consuming a non-edible or toxic plants according to an article by Greater Greater Washington.
If you do decide to try foraging on your own, check out resources like fallingfruit.org, which has mapped more than 500,000 sources of free food for foragers around the world including trees, plants, fungi, and even dumpsters. According to an NPR article, some cities have even begun to promote urban foraging like Seattle which started a 1.75-acre public food forest called “Beacon Food Forest.”
Realistically, can everyone live off a foraged diet? Likely no, especially given our ever-growing population. But, while foraging might not be a feasible solution for everyone, starting the trend in a sustainable way may create the demand needed to encourage land conservation for long-term sustainability of the planet and people.
