The Political Landscape of Foraging
Start: Saturday, October 11, 2025•11:00 AM
End: Saturday, October 11, 2025•01:00 PM
Host contact info nhv@scienceforthepeople.org
Foraging is, for many, an increasingly popular hobby done with friends, family, and local foraging clubs; for many others, foraging has long been a cultural tradition, a strategy for survival, and even a method of resistance.
Guided foraging walks and similar events are now commonplace in Connecticut and beyond, especially as foraging explodes in popularity across social media platforms. But while we explore the landscape of edible plants and fungi in our communities, we must also work to learn and understand the complex political landscape of foraging as well. Who is allowed or denied access to foraging? How have no-trespassing and private property laws historically been employed to dispossess Indigenous and Black communities in the so-called United States? How are anti-foraging laws disguised as environmental protection regulations currently being used by the zionist regime in Occupied Palestine to criminalize Indigenous Palestinian food practices and facilitate land grabbing? What does this say about capitalist and colonial control of our food systems?
From Turtle Island to Palestine, foraging has always been political. Join us for this joint discussion and guided walk event to explore these topics and our local environments!
In preparation for this event, we ask that all attendees review the resources linked below and engage in-depth with at least one of these resources. We have compiled a small set of written and video resources related to the political landscape of foraging, and our discussion will be guided by these.
Resources:
Foragers, a film by Jumana Manna
The main website with a description of the film and the trailer
The accompanying interview with the filmmaker in The Common Table
Focus on the section following the question “How does that thread of thought lead to the subject matter of your new film, Foragers, set in Palestine/Israel?”
Description: Foragers is a film by Palestinian artist and filmmaker Jumana Manna that blends documentary and fiction to tell the story of the criminalization of the picking of certain wild plants by the israeli regime and the Palestinian foragers who maintain these practices. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to watch the full film online, but the trailer provides a good overview, and in the accompanying interview, Jumana Manna speaks about the connection between Palestinians and their land and the act of foraging as resistance in the face of land dispossession.
The Honorable Harvest, an excerpt from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall-Kimmerer
Honorable Harvest, focus on pages 179-185 (5-11 of the pdf) for discussion, although the whole excerpt is relevant. Find a summary and Kimmerer speaking of the Honorable Harvest here: The Honorable Harvest (Robin Wall Kimmerer) — AllCreation.org
Description (adapted from an article by Robin Wall-Kimmerer): The canon of indigenous principles that govern the exchange of life for life is known as the Honorable Harvest. They are “rules” of sorts that govern our taking, so that the world is as rich for the seventh generation as it is for us. Though we live in a world made of gifts, we find ourselves harnessed to institutions and an economy that relentlessly ask, “What more can we take from the Earth?” In order for balance to occur, we cannot keep taking without replenishing. Don’t we need to ask, “What can we give?”. Western economies and institutions enmesh us all in a profoundly dishonorable harvest. Collectively, by assent or by inaction, we have chosen the policies we live by. We can choose again.
The awful TRUTH about “No Trespassing” laws, a short documentary by AJ+
Description: This short AJ+ documentary features the iconic Alexis Nikole Nelson (@blackforager on the socials) as she takes AJ+ host host Yara Elmjouie on a foraging walk as they also discuss the racist history of anti-foraging laws.
Food Law Gone Wild: The Law of Foraging, an article by Baylen J. Linnekin
Focus on the sections II (Foraging in Pre-modern America: From Pratice to Prohibition) and III (Modern American Foraging Regulations)
Description: This article provides a good brief overview of the emergence and development of anti-foraging regulations in the US, primarily through expansion of private property and no trespassing laws, as a method of dispossessing and oppressing Indigenous people, Black people, and the rural poor. It also presents a broad overview of the state of anti-foraging laws in the US today.
Science for the People
Interested in joining Science for the People? Head to scienceforthepeople.org/get-involved/ to fill out the org-wide onboarding form, chat with one of the event organizers or any of our chapter members in attendance today, or follow and DM us on Instagram @sftpnhv.
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Please be aware that this is an outdoor event and we will be walking/spending time in nature, so we can't guarantee accessibility and risk-free environment. We'll try our best to make this an accessible and safe event.