The importance of wild edible foods: Function, transmission, and threats

 森林四 B 94605094 何玉清

Plant and Civilization.  Final Report.``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Introduction:

 I grew up in the countryside, by a forest bordered with fields both cultivated and wild. I spent a lot of my youth playing around them but except maybe from a few basic plants, I never came to learn the names of the plants that surrounded me or learn how to differentiate what may be a medicinal plant, an edible root, a poisonous herb. No one actually taught me.

Why? Maybe because my parents did not have the knowledge, or this knowledge was hardly valued in the western society I grew up in. Or simply because we did not relate to these plants through any of our daily needs. They were not part of our subsistence or medicinal scheme, we never experienced food shortage and no one seemed to think that one day they might. These were plants that I took for granted, herbs and grasses to play in, nothing intimate and vital. However I do remember the happiness of harvesting wild berries, the pleasure of eating some fruits on the spot growing there on the forest floor or in the field edges, picking up fallen chestnuts in the forest in autumn to cook them in the chimney fire.

My grandfather had a very different approach to these plants. Although he never went to school, he had a great botanical knowledge. As one of many children of Italian migrants to France, he had grown in an environment where this knowledge was valued because part of the subsistence and of the culinary tradition. During his whole life he cultivated a garden while harvesting wild mushrooms in the woods for his family consumption but also to sell when money was short. This knowledge was already eroding with his own children. He transmitted some to his daughters although my mother never developed any great affinities with growing or harvesting plants. My aunt and my uncle know a bit more but neither of them taught me.

The transmission seems to have been greater from father to son, but then my uncle had 3 daughters that were not interested in this particular knowledge either. So here we are, my generation, a lot of us largely ignorant of the plant world. We haven’t been taught to build a strong intimacy with the kingdom that sustains our life.

The desire to know came late, very late. The consciousness of the preciousness of such a knowledge and the vital aspect of it, the dramatic erosion of biodiversity, the loss of specificities that participates in making a culture what it is, the food, the culinary tradition, the ways of healing.

Although I may be the product of a standard western way of life cut from its environment, many people and cultures still depend greatly on their Traditional Botanical Knowledge. It is part of their daily life, a key for survival. Harvesting wild plants is still widely practiced in societies that have a long history of sedentarily and farming. In many countries, even in industrialized ones, there are many people who still rely heavily on wild plants.

However, as bio-cultural diversity is being lost, as people migrate to growing urban centers and as children are cut from their traditional environment through standardized schooling, the knowledge transmission about wild plants decrease or is disrupted while a lot of these wild plants are being lost as ecosystems lose their complexity.

In recent years there has been an increasing literature published on wild food plants. They have been increasingly recognized as key components for food security and biodiversity. There has been at the same time a serious worry about the loss of knowledge about these plants and an overall decrease in their use even among populations that have a long tradition of harvesting and relying on these plants as a main part of their diet.

In this report, through the review of recent articles on the subject, I am going to present what we define as wild food plants, how they are classified as well as their use and values in different cultures. I will then turn to how the knowledge about these wild plants is transmitted to children. After that, I will expose the threats that both the plants and knowledge are facing as well as the causes. As a conclusion, I will stress the importance of keeping both the plants and bio-cultural knowledge alive, and what are the solutions that have been proposed to ensure that there is a continuation in the transmission of this precious knowledge.

 

A. Definition of Wild Food Plants (WFPs) and their Functions

 

There has been different definitions given to WFPs across the literature on the subject. These definitions are very similar and the differences lay more in the width of the scope of the plants considered. Some articles refer only to wild plants that have been harvested in human disturbed environment and are usually a product of a co-evolution between managed habitat and the plants (often referred as weeds in this case), and authors who have focus on wild plants that are being harvested in wilder areas, i.e. places that have not been or only very slightly disturbed by human management.

 

a. What are WFPs and where are they commonly harvested:

 

        In his FAO report, Gari sums up the definition of what WFPs are and where they are gathered. The scope of the places considered for WFPs harvest change with the study area and the biophysical conditions, as well as cultural practices and the place of WFPs in the daily diet.

        Gari defines WFPs as “wild food plants [that] grow in natural conditions and are harvested for their human food and nutrition value”. He precises that they grow in a wide range of places, “some located in bushes or in specific natural habitats [while] some grow close to the fields or in anthropogenic ecosystems”. In the latter case, these plants may have co-evolved with human agricultural systems.

        In their case study in Ethiopia (2000), Guinand and Lemessa restrict their scope “to all plant resources, which are harvested or collected for the purpose of human consumption outside agricultural areas in forests, savannah and other bush land areas.”

        However, they acknowledge the fact that generally, WFPs are also gathered and harvested in areas that have been managed by humans.

        In other studies, such as in Northeast Thailand (Setalaphruk and Price 2007), and India (Cruz. 2006), the WFPs are gathered in both more natural environments and in anthropogenic ecosystems. In their study case in NE Thailand, the authors are concerned with WFPs that are harvested from the agricultural landscape (field / ditches / pathways).

        In his case study of the subsistence agriculturalists Tarahumara Indians in Mexico (1981 in Minnis 206), Robert A. Bye, Jr. shows that the availability of wild green edibles that are an important part of the diet is highly correlated to human management practices. In that case, the wild plants are not cultivated nor domesticated but made available by the maintenance of a particular succession stage of the surrounding ecosystem. The plant communities that are maintained to obtain the desired wild green edibles are places such as cultivated fields, field-fence margins, dwelling sites, corrals and trailsides.

 

b. Functions of WFP:

 

In a FAO report of 2003, entitled Agrobiodiversity strategies to combat food insecurity and HIV/AIDS impact in rural Africa, the author J.A. Gari have proposed a list of the various uses that WFPs are usually assuming. This exhaustive list sums up quite well the various attributes that have been listed in the literature. However, each area or culture may not use WFPs for all their listed attributes. Their importance in people’s daily life depends on the type of biophysical environment they live in but also socio-cultural factors. The examples we will come across in this report all come from rural areas but with different livelihood circumstances.

As the FAO report puts it “WFPs represent a versatile agrobiodiversity resource, providing different benefits and opportunities depending on the agroecological conditions, food security dynamics, nutritional needs, cultural dimensions, and other circumstances” (Gari, FAO, 2003).

Here are the main attributes of WFPs:

-         Supplementary food source, adding nutritional quality and food variety .

-         Supply of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals)

-         Food source during shortage period, such as times of drought, crop failure, political instability (also called “Famine foods” by some authors / Emergency food )

-         Inexpensive and easy food source (low labour inputs)

-         Vital ingredients in food habits and culinary practices.

-         Source of income in case they are marketable and there is a demand for them.

 

In his list, Gari does not mention specifically medicinal use although these WFPs often are used as medicines also. In this case, the WFPs may be referred as neutral-ceuticals in the literature or medicinal foods (functional foods). He, however, mentions how WFPs may be important food complements and help in mitigating AIDS impact especially among rural poor.

 

In a study on famine foods in Ethiopia by Guinand and Lemessa (2000) for the UN, they adopt a much more detailed classification of the wild plants. Here, harvest of wild food plants, although they can be used in the daily diet mixed with staple food, happens mainly in times of shortage due to droughts. Only children will consume fruits and berries on a regular basis when available. The climatic and political conditions of Ethiopia are factors that contribute to regard WFPs as mainly “crisis” food. Here, we have to mention that the authors have restricted their study mostly to plants harvested in areas that are not usually human-managed.

The authors divide these WFPs into 4 categories, such as “Typical famine-food plants”, “Wild food plants with famine food components”, “Wild food plants attracting additional consumers during food shortage periods”, “On farm crops with famine food components”.

This categorization is based on the plants functions and characteristics but also social values. For example, a typical famine food plant would be characterized as being drought tolerant and can stay intact in the soil for a long time. The leafy ones are the ones that would be commonly called “weeds”. Their main properties is that they flourish and sprouts after rains and mature very quickly.

 

Most of so called “famine-food plants” have adverse effects (due to plant chemicals such as tannin that decreases their digestibility, or they have side effects, or due to their physical attributes such as spines). The category “wild food attracting additional consumers” refers to plants that are usually eaten only by children. In fact, wild fruits and berries add crucial vitamins to the normally vitamin deficient Ethiopian cereal diet, particularly for children and may be eaten by adults only in times of important food shortage..

 

In another study (Ali-Shtayeh M.S. and al., 2008) on WFPs conducted in Palestine (North West Bank), the main purpose for harvesting wild plants is not to cop with food shortage but rather is an important part of the culinary tradition although it also has a “medicinal” purpose since the most harvested families of plants (Lamiaceae and Asteraceae) all exhibit some medicinal properties. The authors emphasizes that in any case, in traditional societies culinary traditions there is often no strict separation between food and medicine, the 2 domains overlap much of the time. The ideas of wild plants being healthy and medicinal is also a criteria that is often given by mothers in a study in the Wayanad, India (Cruz, 2006).

 

In Palestine (Mediterranean culture), leaves and stems are the parts of the plants that are the most widely used. The plants are prepared and consumed in different ways but they are most often eaten raw and fresh after harvest. The 20 most significant wild plant species harvested are fruits, seasonings, herbal teas (digestive), and vegetables. Species used as vegetables are very important.

 

        In the study conducted in Wayanad, India (Cruz, 2006), a biodiversity hotspot, wild food plants are also an important part of the daily diet but may also be used as famine foods and medicines. The people whose diet depends on WFPs are often landless tribal and poor non-tribal people. As the authors mention, WFPs provide essentials sources of nutrients and Vitamin A, and seasonal variety but are nonetheless important to cultural identity.

 

        An early study of Robert A. Bye,Jr (1981, in Minnis 2006) on “Quelites”, wild green edibles, used by the Tarahumara people, a group of subsistence agriculturalists, in Mexico shows that a significant portion of the diet is based on plants that are gathered. Usually the gathered plants are herbaceous plants whose young leaves and tender tips are consumed, as well as some underdeveloped inflorescences. They are often consumed fresh although they can be dried for conservation and used later in the year.

 

B. Threats on WFPs

         In the words of Gari (FAO 2003), “wild food plants suffer large neglect, disregard and erosion”. The reasons for a decrease in the use of WFPs are many. Moreover the trend is global and affects people whose survival depends on these plants. There are two main causes to this trend which can further be decomposed into categories that may be specific to a certain area or culture. In any case, these two main causes are highly related to the perverse effect of economic globalization and the global environmental crisis. Depending on the area concerned, the main cause may be political, economic, climatic, cultural. However, we have to keep in mind that all these causes are tightly inter-related and interdependently co-arising.

        The main two causes that we will describe in this report are the biological one and the socio-cultural one. Actually both go hand in hand: biodiversity loss and acculturation are usually symptoms that can be observed together, being each-others cause and effect, but both being the result of broader global forces that disrupt local systems.

 

a. Loss of biological diversity.

         In the case study in Wayanad, India (Cruz 2006), the mothers interviewed about the decrease in gathering WFPs propose that the main problem resides in the decrease in WFPs availability.

        The different studies I have reviewed cover various geographical areas and different politico-socio-economic or ethnic characteristics. However, the authors of the studies seem to be unanimous about the increasing threat of biodiversity loss and decreasing availability of wild plants associated with specific agroecological landscapes or neighboring natural environments

Gari (FAO 2003) notes that “the expansion of farming land and the intensification of unsustainable practices of natural resource management are further constraining the space available for some wild food plants”.

This is echoed in the case study in Ethiopia (Guinand and Lemessa 2000) where the authors note that the increase in population density has led to environmental degradation of many areas which were formerly biodiversely rich ecosystems. A lot of wild food plants growing as trees or shrubs have been replaced by fast growing species such as Eucalyptus trees.

The result is that people have to travel much further because of extensive destruction of bushes and forests for arable lands. In the region Guinand and Lemessa studied, lowland savannah is “the last remaining cradle of wild food plants.”

A similar account is given in the study conducted in Palestine (Ali-Shtayeh M.S. and al., 2008). Their study revealed that while almost half of the wild plants were gathered from natural shrub lands, then 1/3 from agricultural fields, and a small proportion from roadsides or natural forests, most wild plants are facing threats in their natural habitats. These threats are all correlated to various human activities. Again agricultural expansion is one important threat as  are also over-grazing or over-harvesting.

The growth of extensive/ intensive modern agriculture is often a major threat as well as the replacement of landraces or mixed crops systems by monocultures which have an adverse impact on the overall diversity of the agroecosystem.

In their study in Ethiopia, Guinand and Lemessa (2000) note that some weeds that are in normal times removed from the field are nevertheless important famine-food plants that would be harvested in times of crop failure. Therefore, the use of pesticides and herbicides are also major factors in the disappearance of some weeds that would otherwise be gathered in time of crisis. Many weeds are actually used as complements or medicine and their loss contribute to the decrease in availability and choice of WFPs.

 

b. Transmission of TBK about WFPs and erosion or loss of knowledge about WFPs

As noted by Setalaphruk and Price (2006), Traditional Ecological Knowledge in general is a “tacit and implicit knowledge that people know but do not usually express”. They also point out that “Transmission of TEK is demanding and requires engaging in activities”. The transmission of knowledge of wild-food plants is no exception. Therefore, when socio-cultural practices are lost or when family and social networks weaken, the transmission may be disrupted and subsequent knowledge erosion occurs. Across the literature on wild-food plants knowledge, there is a common agreement on the fact that the knowledge is eroding. I will first briefly introduce how in the different case studies the authors assume the knowledge of wild-food plants is transmitted to the children. Then, I will give some of the causes that have been proposed to account for the erosion of WFPs knowledge.

 

1. How knowledge about WFPs is transmitted?

         In most studies that I have reviewed women are key components in WFPs gathering and consumption and it is often through them at first that the knowledge is transmitted to the children. As Gari (FAO 2003) notes rural women in general are the ones who kow where (localisation) and when (seasons) the WFPs are available. They often also have a knowledge about their properties for medicinal use, how to preserve them and cook them.

This is the cases for Ethiopia, Thailand, India, and Palestine.

       

In the study conducted in Ethiopia (Guinand & Lemessa 2000), the authors point out that usually the women will collect wild-food plants when on their way to other duties such as fetching water, collecting fire-wood or walking to and from the fileds. This is also a common practice among women in India (Cruz 2006). In these tasks, women are often accompanied with younger children- often the girls (Thailand study 2007)- who help them collect meanwhile learning about the plants and their location.

       

The role of processing and cooking is also very important. Women are the ones who preserve and cook the wild-food plants and therefore transmit values through the culinary traditions. Cooking and eating reinforces the knowledge of these plants since they are part of the daily life and important for subsistence.

 

        While for children, as suggested in the Northern Thailand study (Setalaphruk and Price 2007), taste and texture are important criteria for their food selection (Cruz 2006), the mothers will transmit values concerning the healthy quality of these foods (vitamins and no pesticides).

       

In the study in Ethiopia (2000), children are the most involved in informal collecting of wild-food plants. Usually children will target fruits and palatable wild edibles. The proximity of the plants plays also a very important role in determining their choice of plants collected and consumed.

       

In the study conducted in Northern Thailand (Setalaphruk &Price, 2007), the authors emphasize that while adults are an important vector of knowledge transmission in the early childhood, other channels of learning are non-negligible. They observed that as children grow up and play or do things together, they will continue to collect these wild edibles and the transmission thus happens also through the peer group (intra-generational transmission). They note that this particular channel of transmission was also observed by Rogoff and Cruz in India and Kenya.

       

As a conclusion for this section, I will emphasize that all of the studies presented here agree on the fact that “women and children are the main actors concerning the collection, preparation and consumption of wild-food plants. (Guinand and Lemessa, 2000)” . Women can be either mothers, grandmothers, other relatives or neighbours. Therefore, in many cases, botanical knowledge transmission of WFPs seems to be greatly determined through women (Setalaphruk & Price, 2007).

        The values attached to these plants however seem to be weighed by different factors and levels. The children carry their own set of values based on their personal experience with plants. It can either be a subjective judgement often based on palatability but also it may be determined by external factors such as the proximity of the plants location, their relative easiness to be harvested.

        On top of this more personal set of values, other values conveyed by the women, the group as a whole (larger community) as well as the greater environment perception of these practices (mainstream social values / dominant culture values) play also an important role in the continuation of harvesting and eating WFPs.

We will discuss these aspects more in the next section concerning cultural threats in the transmission of WFPs knowledge and practices.

 

2. Why is Traditional Botanical Knowledge about WFPs and the practice of harvesting these plants is eroding / decreasing?

         We have already presented the bio-environmental factors that contribute to the erosion of TBK. Now, I will focus on a more cultural aspect.

       

One important factor that seems to permeate through the different studies is the devaluation of WFPs by the dominant culture or by a certain class of the population resulting in a feeling of shame associated with the collection or consumption of WFPs. In many cases, practices associated with WFPs are equated to low social status and poverty and sometimes coupled with ethnic prejudices.

        In the study conducted in Ethiopia by Guinand and Lemessa (2000), they report that wild-food consumption is a source of shame. It is considered as a food that reflects a low social status. In normal times, that is when there is no food shortage, only children and the poorest families would be involved in the collection of the WFPs. They report that the 10 WFPs collected usually will be consumed by the all population only in times of crisis.

       

This aspect of WFPs being associated with low status and therefore a source of shame is also found in the Wayanad study, India (Cruz 2006). The author points out that mothers will transmit a kind of dual values concerning the collection and consumption of WFPs. These plants are seen as healthy meanwhile being synonymous of a low social status and of ethnic discrimination. The author notes an increase stigmatization around WFPs that are often consolidated through the mainstream schooling system that in many circumstances competes with other cultural values and habits.

In Palestine, the authors have noted that many middle-aged people asscoiate the consumption of WFPs with poverty of the past. Hence collecting and consuming WFPs although still done is a practice considered as “ageing”.

        In many cases, when concerned with indigenous or native cultures, schooling have been regarded as a major source of loss of TBK and other traditional knowledge. It is also the reason why children spend less time with their mothers or outside with their peers, therefore not getting to know their environment and the plants as well. The author from the study in Wayanad, India, reports that half of the women now collect the WFPs alone. One reason given by the mothers is that children do not have time to engage in such practices with them anymore, therefore not allowing the transmission of knowledge to be as strong as before and contributing to its overall erosion.

       

Another important factor that is reported in many studies, like in Thailand, India and Palestine is the greater socio-economic changes that affect rural populations in industrializing societies. These changes are mainly two-folds, and once again highly inter-related. One concerns the rural exodus and the growing urbanization that contribute to disrupt the household structure and social networks which could likely result in the creation of generational gaps (parents leaving for the city and children staying with the grand-parents or other relatives) (Setalaphruk and Price, 2007). The second one is the change in the life style with its corollary of growing availability of processed market foods. This usually is accompanied by newly acquired tastes. The introduction of modern food is considered by the elders as an important factor in contributing to the loss of WFPs consumption. The children may not be willing to discover new tastes or dismiss wild plant tastes in favor of processed food. This situation has been noted in the studies conducted in Thailand and India.

        In their study in Palestine, the authors point out that “with change in nutritional habits and the influence of contemporary western life style, younger generation has lost the traditional knowledge necessary to identify, gather and process these species.” (Citation: Ali Shtayeh M.S, and al. 2008).

       

Other causes may be worth mentioning such as the status of women and gender inequalities within a given society. Since the botanical knowledge about WFPs is often associated with women, their devaluated status may contribute to a subsequent devaluation of their knowledge which may therefore not be considered worth being transmitted to the next generations. (Gari, 2003)

        Another reason may be the religious practices that are current in a particular culture. In the case of Ethiopia, Guinand and Lemessa suggests that “Religion, particularly of the Christian Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, represents a major non-negligible constraint to the use and consumption of wild plants and animals. Strong traditions, beliefs and religious taboos still obstruct people’s psychological and mental willingness to domesticate and cultivate wild-food plants”.(citation)

 

Conclusion: The importance of wild foods and how to protect this heritage

 

        All the studies that I have reviewed here seem to point out that accelerated processes of modernization and acculturation are leading to the erosion of knowledge and cultural values associated with wild food plant use (Cruz 2006).

        Socio-economic conditions, modern agricultural practices, access to processed food, social stigmatization, rural exodus towards growing urban centers, the increase need for cash due to the incorporation of farmers in the global economy are all contributing factors to the erosion or loss of knowledge about WFPs happening in many different countries and among several cultures.

        For Guinand and Lemessa it is important to recognize the value of wild plants that farmers have managed, so that they can be preserved often through more traditional agricultural practices. Although they point out that WFPs cannot be considered as being able to replace staple food crops, they are nonetheless an important supplement to the diet. They also argue that the promotion and propagation of wild food may be “an alternative to modern and artificial ways of boosting food availability such as using gene-technology, for instance, to increase crop yields and enhance production.” They argue that this alternative would be much more sustainable, cheap and local. It will also allow the continuation and valuation of transmission of plants knowledge which is of great importance for food security but also to preserve bio-cultural diversity.

        The preservation of the knowledge and its transmission can be enhanced by multiple approaches such as counteracting social stigmas, valuing the role and position of women so that their importance as knowledge holders and actors of transmission are recognized.

Educational projects such as the one developed in the Wayanad region, India and sponsored by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation,that is oriented towards creating awareness among children of cultural identity and local biological resources, can encourage learning about WFPs among children of all ages and socio-cultural groups so as to stimulate non-tribal children to learn from tribes. (cf: Cruz 2006)

        Gari in the 2003 FAO report gives some recommendations to help the promotion WFPs and the subsequent inter-generational transmission that would follow. His suggestions are:

-         Promote WFPs as valuable resources to improve household food security, nutrition and income.

-         Incorporate WFPs in agricultural development programs.

-         Initiatives to transmit and improve indigenous practices and knowledge for processing and preserving WFPs.

-         Participatory surveys on WFPs.

-         Community management systems for conservation and sustainable use.

 

In this report, I have reviewed different studies concerning WFPs and the transmission of knowledge associated with them.

I have tried to point out their great importance for all of us at a time when the loss of biodiversity and bio-cultural practices, socio-cultural stigmatization of WFPs, gender issues, modernization and standardization of lifestyles are all leading to the erosion of such vital knowledge and subsequently its transmission are severe threats to WFPs and associated knowledge transmission.

However, there are ways to reverse this situation which involve a better understanding of WFPs culturally and ecologically, cross-cultural cooperation and the valuation of WFPs and associated TEK bodies at the individual, social and global levels.

 

 

References:

 - Wild-food Plants in Southern Ethiopia: Reflections on the role of ‘famine-foods’ at a time of drought, Yves Guinand and Dechassa Lemessa, UN-Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia, 2000.

 - Children’s TEK of wild food resources: case study in a rural village in Northeast Thailand. Chantita Setalaphruk and Lisa Leimar Price, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedecine 3:33, 2007.

 - The mother child-nexus. Knowledge and valuation of wild food plants in Wayanad, Western Ghats, India, Gisela Susana Cruz Garcia, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedecine 2:39, 2006.

 - Traditional knowledge of wild edible plants used in Palestine (Northern West Bank): A comparative study, Ali-Shtayeh M.S. and al., Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedecine 4:13, May 2008.

 - Agrobiodiversity strategies to combat food insecurity and HIV/AIDS impact in rural Africa, J.A. Garí, FAO, 2003. PDF.