Projects: Foraging

For 99% of human history we've been foragers. Our nomadic ancestors gathered and hunted for food. Gardening, farming, and animal raising are recent developments in human history going back only about 10,000 out of 3 million years of our evolution as hominids. While it's generally assumed that the foraging life was and is "nasty, brutish, and short," a revolution in understanding has been taking place in the field of Anthropology over the last few decades. Its now commonly known that the foraging mode of subsistence is in fact the healthiest, most abundant, most diverse, and most reliable.

Foraging cultures are now thought to be the original "affluent socieites" as all their wants and needs were met simply though the gathering and hunting of wild food resources. Of course the only way for true foraging to work is in small groups. What's left of wild nature cannot sustain the current human population so there is no possible "return to" pure foraging, though there can be a "return of" foraging.

As long as the sun shines there will be edible wild foods all over the planet. The more knowledge we have of the uses and locations of wild food sources, the more independent we can be of the industrial food system. We can also save money, eat organically, and develop a deeper connection with the ecology we find ourselves in. Not to mention it's totally fun.

The thrill of the score is evolutionarily hardwired into us, unfortunately climbing trees, stalking prey, diving for clams, and other high adrenaline activities have been replaced by mall shopping and fast food menus. There is no longer a "caloric cost" to obtain food and thus the energy input to output ratio is out of balance in industrial societies. Many of the most lethal modern diseases are caused directly by this pathological seperation from natural living.

Whatever we can do now to reclaim this birth-right is vital to health, well being, independence, and autonomy. Often the idea is scoffed at because its considered impractical and utopian but it need not be considered a prescription for saving the world overnight. Rather, foraging is a fun, healthy, and environmentally friendly practice so long as its done without causing strain on scarce or endangered species.

Due to the massive influx of invasive species in the last few hundred years of human-ecoological history there are edibles all over the place that actually need to be thinned or completely eradicated.

This project will focus on educating about the uses and locations of sustainably harvestable wild food sources.

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