Foraged and wild foods tell many “quiet and hidden” stories; they can tell us about the web of relations in which we find them, the history of ancestors who tended to them, and the state of our own cravings and desires. In this week’s episode of For The Wild, we are joined by Gina Rae La Cerva, who begins by prompting us to think about the ways in which wild foods are a common heritage that connects us to time and place. Gina reminds us that eating is an act of survival, love, and connectivity. 

But wild and foraged foods of today are also changing dramatically as they’ve become fetishized and commodified. The nuance and complexity of “wild foods” leave us to wonder, how does the wilderness become a luxury? What does a homogenized diet do to us? And how can we rekindle a wild relationship with food amidst the Anthropocene?

In conversation with Gina, we trace how colonization eradicated many wild foods, the status of wild foods in the global market, and how “feasting wild” not only awakens a central part of our being, but it is also an opportunity for foragers to lead the way in ecological restoration and conservation. Gina also shares stories that might not come to our minds intuitively, like how civil wars have fueled the extraction of wild meat or how the overconsumption of one species can change an entire ecosystem in the process.

Gina Rae La Cerva is an award-winning writer, geographer, and environmental anthropologist originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She holds degrees from Yale University, The University of Cambridge, and Vassar College. An avid adventurer, La Cerva has researched tsunamis in Indonesia, crossed the Pacific Ocean on a sailboat, and traced the wild meat trade from the forests of the Congo Basin to the streets of Paris. Her first book is Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food.

♫ Music by Eliza Edens and Jessica Moore

Episode References

Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food by Gina Rae La Cerva

Action Points from Gina

“Eating wild food is one of the most effective ways of reconnecting to the source of our health. And yet, we are so wholly disconnected from nature, it is hard to imagine how to begin. Can you name five wild foods in your immediate environs? Do you know how to prepare them? This kind of Indigenous knowledge is available to everyone and is right here in our backyards. While we think of “wild nature” as existing only in far-away, exotic places, the truth is that wild nature is everywhere: we merely have to open our eyes to the amazing biological abundance that surrounds us.”

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