THROUGH a FORAGING LENS Legal, Economic and Social Change in E N G L a N D Jennifer Lane Lee
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THROUGH A FORAGING LENS Legal, Economic and Social Change in E n g l a n d Jennifer Lane Lee Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Liverpool Copyright: J. L. Lee i Abstract Foraging is a popular modern pastime, as evidenced by the growing number of books, television programmes and websites dedicated to wild foods. Yet foraging - that quintessential activity of early man - is no longer relevant to our survival, nor is it even of peripheral importance to our social and economic system. It may still hold meaning for our psychosocial wellbeing, but only in ways that illustrate our disassociation from the past, rather than our connection to it. This thesis begins by examining the biological imperatives that once drove foraging behaviours but that now have a negligible effect on most of humanity. It then moves to examine the legal and historical contexts in which the harvests take place and the life experiences of the people who have gathered wild foods. Today, we still cling to the long-established ideal that wild foods are ‘inherently public property,’ or free for all to gather for personal use. The environment in which the process takes place, however, is profoundly changed: the institutional setting is hostile and there has been a wholesale loss of general knowledge as to the location and use of foods that were once core to our diet. Those foraging today - often middle aged, well educated women – continue to gather for a complex array of personal reasons, and do so irrespective of prevailing laws and in spite of conservation issues. This research finds that the wild harvest today is a socially and culturally negotiated symbol tied to perceptions of the self, identity and sense of place. The transformation of the symbolic meaning of foraging is highlighted via an analysis of the social history of the bilberry harvest and through the narratives of bilberry gatherers and heath land wardens, both of which reveal the unravelling of the social nexus in which the harvest once occurred. The thesis concludes with a call for a food culture that suits our landscape and ecology and that reconnects us with the food that sustains us. ii Acknowledgements My wholehearted thanks go to my supervisors, Dr. Supriya Garikipati and Dr. Jude Robinson. They showed me that I had even more to learn than I ever realized and provided the right support when it was most needed. Thanks also to the examiners for their interest and welcome feedback. My heartfelt appreciation also goes to those who have directly assisted me in the completion of this research including: Professor John Love of Exeter University; Dr. Andrew Jasper, Dr. Andrew Ormerod, Dan Ryan and Kevin Frediani of the Eden Project for their kind and generous support throughout the completion and publication of the Survey; David Morris, Nick Critchley and David Shiel for helping me to understand the complexities of heath land management and for being so generous with their time; Alison Dyke for being a true scholar of foraging as well as very generous with her knowledge and contacts; John Wright of The River Cottage for helping me to pilot my original survey questionnaire and providing numerous helpful suggestions. Thanks also to all of those who have helped provide me with archival material, anecdotes, etc., including (in no particular order!): Steven Hobbs, Hon. Archivist at Hartland Abbey, Devon; David Hill; Raymond Jones; Jennifer and Mike Kennerley; Hilary Cordwell; Amanda Griffiths; Clive Woodward; Shirley Walls; Sue Dymond; Geoff Tudor; Anne Woodward; Bob and Georgie Rundle; Ann and John Radford; Russ Medlen; Mike Moser; G. Tudor; Sandra Bond; Kay Haw; Helen Bravey; Christopher Pilkington; Shirley Morris. I also benefitted, directly or indirectly from the assistance of: Jennifer Trehane, A.M. Culhane, Miles Irving, Professor David Hojman, Lucy Siegel and especially Alys Fowler. But above all, thanks as ever to my husband who got this all started over a pint of cider in a pub in Hay-on-Wye. After all of these years of research, I still find this topic – and him - fascinating. iii List of Tables 3.1 Components of the Initial OFT Model 3.2 General Field Test for Purposeful Foraging 3.3 Field Test for Purposeful Foraging – Moel Famau 3.4 Field Test for Purposeful Foraging – Bickerton 3.5 Different Currencies Used in Optimality Models 3.6 Summary of Constraint Assumptions for the Modern Forager 3.7 A Modern Optimal Foraging Model for the Purposeful Forager 3.8 A Modern Optimal Foraging Model for the Opportunistic Forager 5.1 ‘Wild Foods” Weekend Visitor Survey Responses 5.2 Components of the Combined Data Set 5.3 Gender of Respondents 5.4 Age Distribution in Comparison with Census Data 5.5 Variety of Foraged Wild Foods 5.6 Photos of Most Popular Foraged Foods in Combined Survey 5.7 Most Popular Foraged Items Compared with Scottish Wild Harvest Report 5.8 Percentage of Respondents Declaring Awareness of a Particular Law 5.9 Reasons for Foraging 6.1 Regional Names for the Berries of Vaccinium Myrtillus 6.2 Medicinal Uses of Bilberries 6.3 Reference Grid – Narrative Participants 6.4 My Reflexive Assessment 6.5 Broad Groupings of Phenomena Discovered in the Data 6.6 Time Series Survey of Heathland Bilberry Sites on Dartmoor List of Figures 3.1 Indifference Curves (Nuts and Berries – a) 3.2 Indifference Curves (Nuts and Berries – b) 5.1 Educational Attainment of Respondents 5.2 Geographic Distribution of Respondents 5.3 Do you know who owns the property where you pick? 5.4 Permission to Gather 5.5 General Knowledge of the Law 5.6 Common Law of Trespass 5.7 Theft 5.8 Knowledge of the Law of Theft - by Age 5.9 Knowledge of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 5.10 Knowledge of the Countryside Rights of Way Act 2000 5.11 Knowledge of Applicable Bye Laws 5.12 Knowledge of Applicable Bye Laws - by Age 5.13 Number of Respondents Knowing 5 Laws - by Age 6.1 Average Hand Picking Rates 6.2 Rate Comparison 6.3 Origin of Blueberries Sold at English Grocers (2007- 2010) 7 N-gram Evaluation of Trend in Use of Term ‘Forag*’ in Articles and Books iv List of Photos and Illustrations 6.1 The First of the Summer Bilberries (July 2009) 6.2 Bilberry Heath on Bickerton Hill – above Heather Wood (2009) 6.3 Postcard: Bilberry Picking on Bickerton Hill (1908) 6.4 Dense Growth of Bracken at Ringleshutts on Dartmoor (2007) 6.5 ‘Cuts’ on Moel Famau, N. Wales (2009) 6.6 Bilberry Bushes on Bickerton Hill (July 2009) 6.7 Cattle on Bickerton Hill (2009) 6.8 Bilberry ‘Scoop’ being used on Bickerton Hill (July 2010) 6.9 Birch Tree Felling at Maiden Castle (2010) 7.1 Author on ‘The One Show’ (August 2008) 7.2 Private Eye Cartoon (2010) v Table of Contents THROUGH A FORAGING LENS ............................................. i Legal, Economic and Social Change in E n g l a n d ....................................................................................................... i Jennifer Lane Lee ........................................................................................... i Abstract ................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... iii List of Tables ......................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ........................................................................................................ iv List of Photos and Illustrations ............................................................................... v Table of Contents .................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION........................................................................ 9 1.1 GATHERING UNDERSTANDING ....................................................................................................... 9 1.2 FORAGING: PEOPLE, PLANTS AND SOCIETY ..................................................................11 CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH PARADIGMS, PERSPECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY ...... 14 2.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................14 2.2 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM AS A RESEARCH PARADIGM ...................................15 2.2.1 The Origin of Symbolic Interactionism .................................................................................. 16 2.2.2 Foraging - A Tableau of Socially Constructed Meaning .................................................. 17 2.3 A MIXED METHODS RESEARCH STRATEGY ....................................................................18 2.4 THE METHODS DEPLOYED AND THE THESIS STRUCTURE ...................................20 2.5 LIMITATIONS AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS..........................................................22 CHAPTER THREE: FORAGING BEHAVIOURS, THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL .... 25 3.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................25 3.2 AN OVERVIEW AND CRITIQUE OF OPTIMAL FORAGING THEORY .....................27 3.2.1 The Irrational Gatherer .................................................................................................................. 29 3.2.2 A Complicated Process .................................................................................................................... 31 3.3 MODERN FORAGING BEHAVIOUR – IN THEORY ..........................................................33