Rise of the forager - demise of the foraged?

Blackberries for jam, jelly, wine and crumbles

All kinds of influences have probably kindled the current interest in the collection of 'wild foods'.  Way back in the 70's it was Richard Mabey's book "Food for Free" (reissued in 2003), followed by Roger Phillips and his photographic guide to "Wild Food".  Mass media popularisation in the 1990s with Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall of course, and latterly the popularity of bushcraft with personalities such as Ray Mears and Bear Gryles (gulp!). I guess this has all been wrapped up against a backdrop of trends towards for local foods and "slow foods", urban harvest, community gardening and home growing, and an ever increasing appreciation of "what's out there in the wild".

Being an avid forager myself, and proud of these traditional connections between us and our British habitats and species, I should, should I not, be happy with this state of affairs?  Society, people, getting back in touch with cultural history, reconnecting with the environment.  However, I have to admit I'm getting more and more uneasy about it.  Why?  

Edible mushrooms - a special treat when you know what your'e doing

Having spent some time involved with forest-based livelihoods in countries around the globe, the emphasis then was on ensuring the sustainable use of the resource as much as the livelihoods of the collectors.  Looking at sustainable levels of harvesting and sustainable methods of "offtake" was an important part of this.  What bothers me is that we don't seem to be applying the same kind of logic to initiatives in the UK.  Apart from the odd cause celebre such as the mushroom collector in the New Forest or the recent problems in Epping Forest  there seems to be little concern about the non-commercial collection of wild species by the public.  The collation of evidence about levels of collection and the impacts this might be having on local ecologies and species resilience seems to be just about non-existent.  How do we know what the collection of bilberries or blackberries or hazle nuts by people might be on the local bird communities, particularly in seasons of scarcity?

Gorse flowers make a great wine

Food fashions come and go. Recreation and lifestyle "buzzes" come and go too. I guess this fad for wild food might pass as well.  But what about the impacts in the meantime? Should we keep on promoting the collection of woodland and hedgerow species?  Does it matter?  Does it matter of we are not looking at the impacts?  Publications such as  Natures Calender from the Woodland Trust are not much more than a standard field guide in factsheet format, and perhaps the impact on foraging behaviours might be minimal.  However, mobile technologies and social media have given rise to new opportunities and there are some emerging initiatives which seem to me to be much more troubling.  There is a proposed new app which includes a geo-referenced local wildfood hotspot finder. This is being developed as part of the Geovation project linked to the Wales Coastal Path.  I don't expect hoards of new wild food collectors to appear as a consequence, but still, isn't there the potential for local extinctions!  Am I being too melodramatic?

The final point of note perhaps, is the way in which the currently promoted ecosystems services frameworks have not yet found ways of valuing these "free" cultural services in any convincing way, nor of making connections with the positive and negative impacts on habitats and ecologies.