Notes on Ethical Foraging

BY MARTA HANSON

Yes indeed there must be an agreed upon civic etiquette for urban foraging to work. I drafted five principles but haven’t yet published them in my column. For now I’ll post them here:

1) First ask yourself if you need permission before you pick. It isn’t cool to trespass on someone’s private property or corporately owned land. I know several friends who have more fruit than they can harvest and ask me to harvest for them. But you shouldn’t assume this is the case for strangers.

2) Only harvest what you can eat and process. Leave some produce for the wildlife and other urban foragers who will follow you.

3) Leave the sources in as good condition as you found it. You should pick selectively without damaging the source. You want to be able to return year after year. Or even next week!

4) Be aware of possible toxins. There may be pesticides, oil, paint chips, and other pollutants that have contaminated the produce.

5) Finally, make sure you wash whatever you have harvested before consuming.