Getting your own food: what is foraging

Let's begin to delve into this terrain

If I told you that in the inventory of edible materials for humans we find algae it wouldn't seem so strange to you, but what if I mentioned mosses, barks and lichens?

Even foraging has undergone a bit of standardization in the field of food culture.

Research on the recognition of edible plants is making a comeback, but sometimes the use of only a few ingredients goes too far. Coming, on the one hand, to lose the vision of the philosophy that accompanies the relationship with the wild, on the other to create environmental damage in some cases.

Tell us more about what you mean by environmental damage

Ecosystems are not fragile per se, but are linked to dense systems of interrelationships between plants, animals, climate, soil, water, human presence.

If in a specific area you focus on harvesting only a few plants - especially if you don't know the methods of harvesting to lead to revegetation - the risk is to lead to the disappearance of that plant.

I can give an example, one of the most collected alpine plants is the Cicerbita Alpina: by collecting its newly sprouted shoots in large quantities, the plant is not given time to grow and propagate, making it almost of extinction.

To avoid causing damage to the environment, how do you approach foraging?

I started dealing with foraging many years ago and I immediately became aware that we needed a new way of understanding harvesting and the reacquisition of this attitude.

Overcoming the concept of tradition and learning to be more fluid in channeling this knowledge towards contemporary environmental needs. For this I define my approach to conservative foraging. No longer linked to a theme of subsistence but of protection and cooperation with the natural environment.

I began to deal with the chemical-nutritional cataloging of botanical species mainly from South America or Asia to move to other areas of the world.

This is because species considered invasive have often traveled from these places and then become a threat to native species.

An example? The lotus plant, considered sacred in Asia but whose root, flower, bud and leaf are used for food. It was introduced in Italy at the end of the 19th century on the course of the Mincio River, once its cultivation was interrupted it became a weed with damage to biodiversity and modifying the habitat not only for other plants but also for fauna.

Starting from these botanical studies and catalogues, I have introduced a type of foraging that does not create environmental damage but rather creates benefits for the environment.

The human being therefore becomes an ally of nature, tell us a little about your vision

I believe that there is a transcendent relationship with Nature. This theme is part of my DNA: my mother's family is of Sami origin.

The Sami are a population that has lived in a nomadic way between the Kola peninsula in Russia up to central Norway including also the northernmost regions of Finland and Sweden, in the Lapland region.

In 1922 many, including my grandparents, emigrated due to a persecution that the Swedish government had implemented against the entire Sami population.

It was my grandmother who passed on to me the sensitivity and knowledge on the issues of foraging and on a relationship with the biosphere: in many cultures, for millennia, the planet was represented with a spirit, celebrated and venerated as a Goddess .

In this disgeno of the world, the human being was strongly connected to natural habitats, he was part of nature not placed above. It is time to question this approach: reconnecting human beings to nature by giving them back an active role.

The human being therefore becomes an ally of nature, tell us a little about your vision

I believe that there is a transcendent relationship with Nature. This theme is part of my DNA: my mother's family is of Sami origin.

The Sami are a population that has lived in a nomadic way between the Kola peninsula in Russia up to central Norway including also the northernmost regions of Finland and Sweden, in the Lapland region.

In 1922 many, including my grandparents, emigrated due to a persecution that the Swedish government had implemented against the entire Sami population.

It was my grandmother who passed on to me the sensitivity and knowledge on the issues of foraging and on a relationship with the biosphere: in many cultures, for millennia, the planet was represented with a spirit, celebrated and revered as a Goddess.

In this disgeno of the world, the human being was strongly connected to natural habitats, he was part of nature not placed above. It is time to question this approach: reconnecting human beings to nature by giving them back an active role.