Does foraging damage the countryside?

Andy Hamilton – ex of ‘Self-sufficientish’ has written books on foraging, and his new book New Wild Order is out now. Here’s his take on whether foraging is bad for the countryside and wildlife:

“Your lot will strip the countryside bare”. My mate looked at me in the eye, a flash of anger passed across his face. I wager he’d been waiting to say this to me for some time and was now itching for a fight. “Is that what you think”? I retorted and changed the subject, swiftly.

I’ve referred to myself a forager for around 20 years now and this little chestnut of a comment feels like it will never go away. I recently saw an article about how great foraging was, with the headline: “Excessive foraging prompts ban”.

More often than not, the idea is too solidified in the mind of the arguer and they are not ready to listen to a reasoned response. That’s what a thousand years of conditioning will do.

The idea that foragers are an inherent evil, I think started with the Norman invasion. A way to keep the hoi polloi, aka the indigenous British, off your newly acquired land. It certainly gathered pace during the enclosures. It was a way to undermine an act of defiance that saw the natives exercising their right to pick food for the table at no cost to themselves.

Self-provisioning as a political act is to be free of the state and state rule. The easiest way to control a population is through their stomachs. If you can’t access game and forage food you can’t put food on the table. You have to work, if you have to work you have to abide by the rules of your employer – you are no longer a free (wo)man.

If you then head to the supermarket to get your food, the money you spend goes back into a chain that supports low wages, high-yield mono-cropping and cripples local businesses.

I pick from the same small area frequently. I live in a city so many others also pick in the same area too. The local wildlife has not diminished because of our activity. We will naturally leave enough food, berries and nuts, they are the ones we can’t reach. These are enough for the birds. We inevitably, drop the occasional berry which will help feed small mammals and grow new plants in new areas.

I also look out for moth and butterfly eggs on the underside of leaves. I sprinkle the seed of local plants in areas that have been made barren by dog walker’s feet or the wheels of mountain bikes. I tread a path through wild garlic areas that doesn’t disturb the first shoots. If I see ground nesting birds I’ll leave that area well alone until I know the birds have fledged.

When picking mushrooms I leave the bigger ones to spore, and the smaller ones to grow. I leave ones that are particularly filled with maggots as these maggots become hoverflies.

There are other human activities happening in the area. The effects of social distancing (remember that delight), are still being felt as the dirt paths grew wider and plants got trampled. These paths, at least near me, never shrank back down. Then you have building work. Whole areas are being cut up and turned into offices that remain empty. Road building and cars parking on verges have an impact too.

Lastly, there is the incessant tidying up of areas. Just as the blackberries were about to fruit in a wild spot near our kids school, someone decided to chop them all down and “clean up” the area. Birds became homeless and parents bought plastic wrapped sweets and crisps from the shop to make up for the lost free snacks. Our own hedge and grass verge at the back of our house is frequently cut, which means fewer grasshoppers and crickets and less food for the hedgehogs.

I know all this as I tend to pick locally and have an intimate relationship with the land within a half mile from my house. I can see where tarmacked driveways and the building of outbuildings have caused ground water to swell. How badly thought-out pathways and the chopping down of trees also cause local floods.

This is why I teach foraging and think it’s important. I want to give freedom to people. I want to see a system that supports the environment and the people within it. I want to see people actively engaged with their environment, falling in love with it and eating healthily. It’s hard to get all that across over a pint in a busy pub but perhaps you’ll read this. Perhaps then I can simply say, most foragers love what they pick in ways difficult to understand. So no, we don’t strip the countryside bare – but your lifestyle might.

Now, shall we have a foraged beer each for the next round?