The benefits and risks of foraging your own food

On an unseasonably warm April evening, I stand on a beach in southern England, lifting a soggy lump of seaweed to my nose. It smells sharp and tangy. The hard, flat fronds are logged with tufts of green vegetation, sea water and sand.

Apparently, this one is best fried.

I am taking part in a seaweed foraging course on the Jurassic Coast, and as we clamber along the shoreline, with the Sun taking us into golden hour and mist forming above the sand dunes, our guide Dan Scott gives us some more cooking advice. "This one becomes mucilagenous – snotlike, a great word – when you cook it," he says, brandishing another sandy specimen.

As I pick the dry clumps of seaweed from some small rocks, then squeal in unison with a handful of the other course participants as we tease razor clams out from the sand with salt (and later release them), I ponder the bigger picture. Does foraging help us reconnect with nature? I've always assumed so. And what about the flip side? Is foraging good for the planet?

Via Reasons to be Cheerful

The benefits and risks of foraging your own food

Foraging gives people access to unusual foods as well as the experience of harvesting them directly from nature. But could it be doing more harm than good?

^{Matilda Welin (BBC)}