Questions and Answers

            The more I have gone down the path of learning our native wild foods, the more I have realized the incredible abundance that nature produces! For some examples I recommend reading any of Sam Thayer’s books, linked in the resources tab. In his 3rd book Sam wrote an essay on the topic of Ecoculture. In it he points out that the land that is most productive of wild food is also prime agricultural land, most of which was converted to farmland long ago, skewing our understanding of the productivity of wild ecosystems. He says, “The potential of ecoculture cannot be reasonably evaluated until it is practiced” (Thayer, 2017). Another thing to consider is that natural ecosystems have a mix of layers and a wide range of harvest seasons. You might think that the most space efficient use of land is to grow a dense monoculture, but studies have shown that the 3-dimensionality of natural ecosystems, which often have a ground, shrub, and tree layer are more productive of calories per acre than ecosystems that have one layer like monocrops of corn. This is why many agroforestry projects are designed to mimic the oak savanna ecosystem, which optimizes this mix of layers (Shepard, 2013). Finally, economic viability is about more than how much revenue you can generate. It’s also about what your expenses are! Natural systems are far more self-perpetuating than our current agricultural systems are, and therefore can require far less cost inputs to the land, such as heavy machinery (which can be quite expensive), fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and seeds. Not to mention that many of these expenses have additional environmental costs associated with them.

So yes, I do believe that nature has the capacity to produce even greater abundance than our current systems do, however there is much room for us to expand our thinking as it relates to the economic viability of agriculture, which as it is already requires much support (from the government) to be financially sustainable.

            The question of economic viability was what got me started with this project. When presented with the question of whether one could yield enough to make this work, it occurred to me that there are businesses holding huge swaths of land which are not producing any economic product, yet they’ve achieved economic viability. They’re called land trusts.

            I’m not suggesting that forming a land trust is the panacea for ecoculture, but this was enough to expand my thinking and my confidence. If there is something that has value for humans and nature alike, then there is a way to make it a reality, even if that way hasn’t been illuminated yet. Don’t tell me I can’t make money growing wild food in natural systems, when thousands of businesses across the country make good money simply preserving the land!

            One roadblock to creating a successful ecoculture business in our modern economy is the fact that there aren’t many established markets for wild food, but mark my words, this line will be very outdated soon! There’s already an online market called Foraged which has opened up the possibility of export and import. Export may be crucial for rural ecoculturists. The direct-to-consumer model in suburban areas may be another great opportunity for ecoculture, which I will discuss later at length, but imagine a permit based “forage-your-own” preserve and consider the marketability of real foraging access.

            The underlying truth here is that economies are dynamic, and markets maneuver as culture changes. By the way, wild food culture is riding a bit of a wave at the moment. Foraging content producers are receiving millions of views on social media platforms, podcasts, books, YouTube, and TV shows. The Midwest Wild Harvest Festival, which is my Superbowl, has sold out faster and faster every year I’ve gone. The tickets sold out in about 1 hour this year (2024). Those who are in the wild food space can feel the momentum growing, though there has yet to be any large-scale market study to reveal this fact.

            Personally, living here in Philadelphia, I’ve seen more wild food tours, articles being written on wild food culture, and I had a funny experience that speaks to this. I was working at a CSA farm (which happened to be a program of a land trust), when one of our favorite volunteers came in. She is a retired lawyer who previously was nice enough to take an interest in my studies. She opened the floodgates for me to speak on wild food, patiently listening and considering what I had to say. This day however she was helping us sort through our arugula to pick out unwanted “weeds”. The funny thing about this is that, except for blades of grass, almost every weed we were pulling out was edible. Suddenly, she turns to me and asks, is this an edible plant? I looked at her hand which was holding Purslane. I said, yes in fact that is. Without skipping a beat or any encouragement from me she chomped it back! A look of delight came over her face. “Wow, not bad”, she said. We weren’t sorting long before she asked the same question again, this time holding Quick Weed. I said yup, and before I could get out the words, “but I prefer that cooked because it’s a bit fuzzy”, she tossed it back. “Wow, I like that”, she said. I laughed because she was even more gung-ho than me, who has been studying wild foods for years. This happened, no joke, 3 more times, with different plants. The next week she came in carrying the Philadelphia Magazine, which had an article on the wild food culture in the Philadelphia region, which to my surprise is even bigger than I realized.

People are yearning and craving everything that wildness has to offer as food and more! It’s a childlike scavenger hunt, healthy superfood, and outdoor exercise wrapped into one. It’s family friendly, soul nourishing, locally sourced fun. It’s putting our brains to work at the ancient task they are evolved for, plant identification. It’s a matter of time before the floodgates open.

There is sometimes a stigma around foraging in the conservation community. Many perceive it as abuse of the natural world and believe that it can’t be done sustainably. This world view often places stigma on hunting and fishing also. It is important to note here that each of these practices has been done by humans even before the arrival of the species Homo sapiens! In fairness though, it is also important to recognize that in recent years (relatively recent on the time scale of human history) traditional ecological practices have been disrupted by colonialism, and industrialized economies and societies have committed several reckless overharvests.

            These overharvests shouldn’t be taken out of context though. For example, the destruction of the Buffalo across North America following European settlement was the result of governmental policies aimed at destroying indigenous communities and meeting the demands of European industry (i.e., leather for motor belts), not subsistence hunting (Duncan & Burns, 2023). Similarly, the devastation of American Wild Ginseng (and Asian Wild Ginseng for that matter) happened for the most part during the colonial era when high demand for export to overseas markets, not personal or traditional use, led to reckless overharvest (Taylor, 2006).

            It is a false comparison to suggest that our current day systems for foraging, hunting, and fishing are necessarily destructive in the manner of these examples from early settlement. While imperfect, our current systems for managing hunting and fishing in North America are among the most accessible and sustainable in the world due to the work of wildlife biologists and practices of conscientious hunters and fishers. Foraging can be the same!

            The conservation movement was a response to colonial era destruction of ecosystems and subsequent consequences like flooding, depleted soils, massive wildfires, extinction, etc. Early conservation strategies were centered around one main tenet, which was the removal of bad tenants (meaning us). The first proponents of this conservation world view, like President Teddy Roosevelt, made major strides to preventing further damage and destruction, and in this way their contributions were invaluable. However, while the conservation movement did much to stem the bleeding and damage from the early colonial era, it is also important to recognize that the removal of human interaction from natural ecosystems is not a sustainable solution. In fact, this has led to a different and perhaps even greater problem: degradation due to neglect, destruction due to disconnect, and inefficient development (not often affordable housing).

Like a cast on a broken bone that has already healed, we need to remove the cast before the muscles degrade and then even worse damage occurs. The cast served its purpose to prevent further damage from happening, but it has become its own problem. Removing the cast means reconnecting human society and interests with the natural world. That is the sustainable solution we seek!

Something that Sam Thayer always says is, we need more foragers out on the landscape who love the species that they interact with and understand their ecology enough to protect them, as opposed to less. When you eat a plant, you feel something called gratitude, and gratitude is a powerful emotion, which leads to love and ultimately might transform you into a champion for that species.

It’s not inconceivable to imagine societies interacting in the world in this way. One example is described in the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013), in which she lays out the unwritten honorable harvest guidelines:

Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them.

Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.

Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer.

Never take the first. Never take the last.

Take only what you need.

Take only that which is given.

Never take more than half. Leave some for others.

Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.

Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken.

Share.

Give thanks for what you have been given.

Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken.

Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.

            I’d like to point out that the first guideline here is a call to ecoculture! Also notice how gratitude plays into the last few guidelines (Kimmerer, 2013).