Misty-Eyed

It is easy to be sceptical about the merits of ‘foraging’, especially as it is all the rage these days. It does have its advantages: to those who do not account for their time, it is a great deal cheaper than paying good money for one’s food and an excellent excuse for a walk. It also nourishes a nostalgia for our past as hunter-gatherers, just as the business of farming becomes, if not increasingly problematic, increasingly unromantic. However, implicit in some of the more extreme proponents of foraging there is the notion that wild food is intrinsically ‘better’ or ‘healthier’ than farmed.