Guest Editor's Introduction to Special Issue on Wild Foods

Introduction and background

Food networks in developed economies have largely shifted to industrialized production of plants and animals as the primary means of feeding people. Yet wild foods obtained through foraging, fishing, and hunting have remained critical to both food networks and local economies in the United States (US) through intersecting pathways. Foraging and hunting remain essential sources of supplemental food, nutrition or income. They also play strong roles in cultural traditions, reinforcing place-based knowledge, and promoting physical and mental well-being for people across the socio-economic spectrum (Watson, Christian, Emery, Hurley, McLain and Wilmsen 2018). Activities including community oyster roasts and collecting wild mushrooms or ramps with family reinforce the social fabric while providing important opportunities for nature-connection and physical activity.

Wild foods have not received as much attention as other food movements— farm to table, locavore, slow foods—but this may be changing as people seek out non-industrial food, a trend tapped into by many chefs specializing in local foods. The 2018 James Beard Award for American cookbook was awarded to The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen (Sherman and Dooley 2017) which promotes the traditional Native American foods before European colonization and updates recipes to modern cooking methods. Another 2018 James Beard Award went to The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South (Twitty 2017) (see review by Passidomo, this issue). Michael Twitty documents his culinary journey as he explored his roots as a descendant predominantly of enslaved African Americans but also White slave-owners. Both award-winning authors recognize that wild foods no longer constitute a primary food source, but each seeks to reconnect with wild foods to reclaim cultural knowledge.

In developed countries, members of the wealthier classes may dine in restaurants serving wild foraged delicacies (e.g. European truffles or ramps) or engage in trophy game hunting that transforms the procurement of meat as sustenance to hunting as sport—a sport in which some hunters know only the enjoyment of marksmanship rather than of culinary consumption. The engagement of wealthier people with wild foods may disconnect knowledge of how to procure from the wild, since money can buy access and the local knowledge of others (e.g. fishing charters, guided trophy hunts, private lands which may be fenced).

Modern day industrial foodways and urbanization may be reinforcing the socio-economic divide of access to types of wild foods. A recent study of urban foraging in the northeastern US found that those engaged in foraging tended to have either the highest annual income (>$100,000 per year) or the lowest (<$24,000) (Arrington, Diemont, Phillips and Welty 2017), aligning with motivations of recreation or sustenance, respectively. Similar motivations appear in popular news media coverage. Sachdeva, Emery and Hurley (2018) found that the motivational framing in news media was influenced by the broader economic mood, with greater reference to sustenance during the Great Recession in the late 2000s.

Wild Foods as 'Tragedy of the Commons'?

Wild foods, particularly plants, fungi and certain fisheries, are typically conceived of as open-access or common pool resources (Ostrom 2008, Ticktin and Shackleton 2011). Access to public, common resources can be regulated formally by laws or informally by cultural traditions or social enforcement. In a landmark paper, Hardin (1968) argued that once "tribal wars, poaching and disease" (page 1244) are replaced by the "long-desired goal of social stability" (page 1244), then human populations will exceed the carrying capacity of the natural environment. If unrestricted access to communal natural resources continues then individuals acting out of self-interest will inevitably degrade the environment—a tragedy of the commons. Hardin argued that it was necessary to "exorcize the spirit of Adam Smith" (page 1244) and the premise that "decisions reached individually will in fact be the best for the entire society" (page 1244). Consequently, Hardin proposed restrictions on access to natural resources as well as "the necessity in abandoning the commons in breeding" (page 1248) to limit human population growth which he framed as a key root to the tragedy of the commons. Hardin's...