“Black Folks Do Forage”: Examining Wild Food Gathering in Southeast Atlanta Communities

Abstract

Concerns about food sovereignty in western nations have increased in recent years, as incidents of food-bornepathogens are highlighted in the popular press, and calls for locally-sourced food have increased. Wild foodforaging has emerged as a response by some segments of the population under the twin rubrics of food sovereigntyand food justice. However, virtually all studies looking at these activities focus outside of the U.S. Southand contain little information on African American involvement. We investigate both perceptions and participationin urban foraging by African Americans in Atlanta’s Browns Mill-Lakewood community and smallersections of adjacent communities, with attention to the role of collective efficacy as a predictor of foraging andforaging as a precursor of collective efficacy. A modified proportionate, census guided, systematic randomsampling method was used to administer a door-to-door, household survey in the study area to gather these data.Twenty percent of the nearly all African American sample indicated that they had foraged in their neighborhoodin the past five years, but not being aware of wild food locations was the most-cited barrier to participating.Results from ordered, logistic regression models also indicated that women were significantly less likely thanmen to forage, other factors equal; and those who foraged were more likely to have higher collective efficacyscores. Recommendations are made for increasing awareness of wild food locations in southeast Atlanta communities.This involves partnering with a local foraging non-profit group, Concrete Jungle.

Citation

Johnson Gaither, C.; Aragón, A.; Madden, M.; Alford, S.; Wynn, M., Emery, M. 2020. “Black folks do forage”: Examining wild food gathering in SoutheastAtlanta Communities. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. 56: 126860. 9 p. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126860.