Encountering the Hidden Bounty of the Urban Forest: Community Foraging Practices and Policies in Canada

Urban foraging research has been growing in the past two decades. Likewise, trends in social practice are moving towards connecting with nature through activities that include urban foraging. While the global urban population increases, it brings into focus on food security issues and practices such as foraging are seen as one possible mitigation strategy to provide local, accessible food. In this chapter, we highlight the growing phenomenon of urban foraging globally and provide an overview of Canada’s current status and practices. Firstly, using grey literature, we unpack and synthesize existing urban foraging practices, and the status of legislative frameworks and by-laws that restrict the use of urban foraging across 16 Canadian municipalities (larger than 100,000 population). Then, we use a bibliometric analysis to review and synthesize the scholarly “urban foraging” literature to identify themes and trends in publication. The latter part of the chapter dives into a case study highlighting the historical importance and current status of urban fruit trees in the City of Toronto. Finally, we conclude the chapter by comparing urban foraging practices between the global north and south. We found Canadian urban foraging research is still in its early stages, while practices grow, conservation policies restrict and limit the activity on public lands.