The Role of Wild Food in Fostering Healthy, Sustainable, and Equitable Food Systems

In this paper, we provide an overview of the research and literature on wild foods (i.e., edible plants that grow without human cultivation and/or animals harvested from their natural habit, i.e., food sourced from “hunting and gathering”) and their ability to assist food systems in becoming more sustainable and equitable. We begin with a discussion on the green revolution and the global capitalist food system that has been created and is dominated by large agribusinesses. Next, we turn to a brief discussion of how homogenizing the food system, as large agribusinesses have, leads to a corresponding loss of local culture. We then provide an overview of the main areas of wild food research, including nutrition, reducing food insecurity, the importance of cultural and shared knowledge, and sustainability. Our discussion stresses how focusing too heavily on the dichotomy of cultivated vs. wild food is problematic. Rather, lessons regarding health, sustainability, and equity can be learned from foragers, hunters and gathers.