Main content

Foraging: Pleasure or profit?

Should we be worried about money changing hands for wild ingredients?

Most of us have no need to hunt in the wild for our food, so why is foraging seeing a resurgence in some parts of the world?

Emily Thomas speaks to professional foragers in Peru, Sweden and England to find out the appeal of combing rocky shores for seaweed or trekking up mountains for rare fruits. Is it the love of a freebie, the thrill of the chase, or simply a sense of wonder at our natural world?

We hear about the rules governing what, where and how much you can harvest from the wild, and that the forager鈥檚 freedoms can be extensive.

But as wild finds become increasingly visible on the menus of top restaurants and sometimes end up on our supermarket shelves, could natural habitats become threatened, and does something integral get lost when money changes hands?

Producers: Marijke Peters and Simon Tulett.

(Photo: John Wright picking seaweed. Credit: 麻豆社)

Available now

26 minutes

Last on

Sun 8 Sep 2019 07:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Thu 5 Sep 2019 02:32GMT
  • Thu 5 Sep 2019 03:32GMT
  • Thu 5 Sep 2019 04:32GMT
  • Thu 5 Sep 2019 10:32GMT
  • Thu 5 Sep 2019 17:32GMT
  • Thu 5 Sep 2019 21:32GMT
  • Thu 5 Sep 2019 22:32GMT
  • Sun 8 Sep 2019 07:32GMT

Food Chain highlights

Tea, coffee, spices, chillies ... snack on a selection of programme highlights

Podcast