🍃 🍂 🍁 Urban Foraging 🍁 🍂 🍃
What is foraging?
Ever walk down the street and spot a particularly delicious looking
weed growing in the pavement? No? Then maybe it's time to rethink how
you interact with your urban landscape.
Urban foraging is the practice of identifying and collecting the wild
foods (think tree nuts, plant roots, mushrooms, and even flowers)
growing freely around your city. It might also be one of the easiest
ways for consumers to start engaging with larger discussions of
environmental land use, food justice, and the effects of climate change.
The practice is accessible to everyone, and doesn't require leaving your
neighbourhood. You just need keen senses and a brave stomach.
Credit: Ian Moore
Marla R. Emery, research geographer for the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, has documented the practice of urban foraging in various communities for a decade, and has studied its role in Baltimore, Black communities in Atlanta, and immigrant communities around the world. "Foraging is basically a universal and ubiquitous practice," Emery said. "And that includes foraging in cities. We've identified [foraging] basically on every continent."
Getting Involved
Whether out of nutritional need, curiosity, or the desire to become more
environmentally attuned, foraging is an accessible way to start thinking
about how and why we eat the foods we do.
Here's how you can get started.