While there are fears that people harvesting their food could put pressure on habitats, some ecologists suggest responsible foraging can boost conservation and biodiversity<\/p>\n
Angus Morton crouches behind a cricket pavilion in a London park to snip stinging nettles from an unkempt patch of greenery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re so abundant and they\u2019re so good,\u201d says Morton, a regenerative gardener who pops out once a week to forage bits for dinner. \u201cI use them in pesto, tea \u2026 I\u2019ve even seen someone putting them in croquetas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morton, who posts regularly about his foraging exploits online, is one of a growing number of people venturing into the wild in search of food. He says he shaves hundreds of pounds off his food bill each month, fermenting pine needles to carbonate drinks, picking ivy for soap and harvesting wild mushrooms for dinner.<\/p>\n
But as reports of an early heatwave-ripened blackberry crop flood social media, he offers a warning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important for this to thrive naturally,\u201d he says, as he pours hot water over the leaves he gathered to make nettle tea. \u201cAs humans we should be working with it and not taking advantage of it. Only take what you need \u2013 about 10% of what\u2019s there \u2013 so it has the chance to grow back. If you take more than you need, you\u2019re going to ruin it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The increased popularity of foraging has prompted concern that pickers could put pressure on habitats and green spaces by over-harvesting fungi, flowers and fruit. Conservation groups advise foragers to take only small quantities, avoid rare species and leave enough for wildlife to consume.<\/p>\n
Some have gone further by forbidding harvesting altogether. Last autumn, Surrey Wildlife Trust reminded visitors that mushroom picking was banned on its reserves to help protect fungi and the wildlife that depends on them. London Wildlife Trust also forbids picking at Walthamstow Wetlands, where wild plants, fruits and seeds provide food and habitat for birds and other animals.<\/p>\n
But some foragers and ecologists argue that responsible gathering of wild food can help biodiversity by teaching people to recognise the nature around them \u2013 and give them a reason to protect it.<\/p>\n
John Rensten, a foraging teacher and author of The Edible City: A Year of Wild Food, says foraging can be a biodiversity booster. \u201cI believe in getting people to interact with landscape in order to want to protect it,\u201d he says. \u201cYou feel connected towards it and you feel ownership of it and a desire to want to protect it and nurture it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foraging teaches people about their environment, says Rensten, and this is the first step in battling biodiversity loss. He has seen as much delivering foraging courses. \u201cThe best comment we ever get from anybody is the guy who says, \u2018I\u2019ve been coming here 25 years and I\u2019m never going to look at this place in the same way again.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the guy who\u2019s going to be protesting if they\u2019re trying to nibble away at the end of the park with the housing development. We\u2019ve taken thousands of people and made them become protectors of scruffy overgrown little bit of urban landscapes that they once wouldn\u2019t have cared less about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ecological studies suggest people with greater knowledge of local plants and wildlife are more likely to value green spaces and support their protection. \u201cThis is so important because we are living in a silent extinction of experience crisis,\u201d says Dr Ingo Kowarik, a former urban ecologist at the Technical University of Berlin.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people have decreasing context of nature,\u201d he says. \u201cThis feeds back to biodiversity conservation because we know that nature connectedness is positively linked to environmental behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n
The benefits can go beyond simply changing attitudes, says Mallika Sardeshpande, an ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science who has studied urban foraging in South African cities. She says incorporating edible plants into the design of public spaces can support wildlife.<\/p>\n