Foraging

This project, still in its planning stages, examines the contributions of foraging for wild foods to material and cultural resilience in refugee communities in the greater Burlington area. While only some individuals forage, the significance of these practices extend to a larger community as wild foods are distributed, prepared, sold and consumed within and beyond families that include foragers. Thus, we seek to understand foraging by refugees as a system, which encompasses all material and cultural practices from preparations to forage through consumption of wild foods, as well as the spatial patterns of foraging and strategies used to negotiate access to wild foods. Further, these practices may change through time and we seek to understand their temporal dynamics.  Findings from the research will have implications for urban green space planning, community organizing for food resiliency and management at local, state, and national levels, including (but not limited to) regulations governing uses of public lands and choice of species in urban landscaping.  I am collaborating on this project with Dr. Marla Emery of the US Forest Service.