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Background : Global food systems are essential to sustain life; however, unhealthy diets are the leading cause of poor health and death worldwide. Natural food environments are a critical source of healthful food such as fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meat and aquatic foods, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and Indigenous food systems. Understanding and monitoring natural food environments is critical to protecting the supply of healthy food, and the land and water it comes from, for current and future generations. Methods: A scoping review was applied to classify and summarise empirical methods and measures used for characterising natural food environments. The ways in which food environment characteristics are conceptualised and measured for natural (wild and cultivated) food environments were explored. Data were extracted from the included studies using the following fields: study country, aim/objective(s), type of natural food environment (wild vs. cultivated), method or measure used to measure the food environment, key food environment characteristic/s (up to four) measured and key findings in relation to the food environment measurement. Results: One hundred forty seven studies were found to be relevant in this review. Most studies investigated food environments in LMICs, with almost two-thirds of all studies focussing on middle-income countries (n = 89, 61%). There was a strong focus on food security and home-based agriculture from studies that measured the cultivated food environment in LMICs, while the majority of studies on the cultivated food environment from high-income countries focussed on urban and community gardening. In addition to the most common survey-based methodological approaches, our review yielded a broad range of both qualitative and quantitative methods for measuring natural food environments, such as geospatial analysis; biochemical analysis of food, soil and water; citizen science; photovoice and food availability calendars. Conclusions: Our review demonstrated that the concept and characteristics of the food environment are a promising conceptualization for measuring natural food environments, particularly in relation to food availability, healthiness and food security. Mapping the currently used methods and measures to assess natural food environments is important to help identify critical leverage points for strengthening policy interventions, and monitoring and evaluation of progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesocarnivores fill important roles in ecological communities globally, but their distribution and abundance are often understudied. Many species have historically been regarded as vermin and subject to lethal control due to their role in livestock predation. Identifying the factors influencing mesocarnivore populations can help disentangle their relationship within ecological communities and inform conflict mitigation and conservation priorities. To help identify these factors, we used camera traps to study the community of medium and large mammals in four communal conservancies of northeastern Namibia covering the wet and dry seasons using 99 and 97 camera trap stations, respectively. We modelled black-backed jackal (Lupulella mesomelas) abundance using the robust Royle-Nichols model. Black-backed jackal were widespread, with a mean per site abundance of 2.01 (SD=0.66) in the wet season and 2.41 (SD=0.49) in the dry season. Black-backed jackal showed seasonally contrasting covariate associations, with lower abundance in areas with medium and large-sized wild prey during the wet season, and higher abundance in areas with more villages and close to African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) dens in the dry season. We identified localized hotspots of black-backed jackal abundance during the dry season, which may indicate that when resources are scarce, black-backed jackals rely on anthropogenic food sources despite an elevated risk for conflict, and on carcass remains from African wild dog kills. These findings highlight potential drivers of mesocarnivore abundance that would be obscured in a conventional occurrence modelling framework, and illustrate how local abundance may be influenced by seasonal variability, wild and anthropogenic food sources, and a likely facilitative relationship with a large carnivore. Further investigations in areas with more complex carnivore guilds and higher density of dominant predators are needed to understand black-backed jackal-African wild dog interactions and impacts on population dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this longitudinal study we explore how changes in food environments have shaped the acquisition and consumption of wild foods among people living near forests. Our study conceptually improves food environment frameworks by including evidence on changes in wild food consumption. We used data collected in both the dry and rainy seasons in 2009 and 2021/2022 in four villages in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania. Across data collections, we conducted qualitative interviews, focus groups and repeated household surveys, including questions on dietary intake, food sources, agricultural practices, and use of wild resources. We found that the proportion of people who collected wild foods within the past seven days had declined from 90 to 61% in the dry season and from 99 to 72% in the wet season. The main reasons were 1) decreased availability caused by, for example, loss of biodiversity, 2) lack of access due to government forest regulations, and 3) increased desirability towards marked-based foods. Our results show how changes in both availability, access and desirability of wild foods have shifted dietary choices from wild foods towards cultivated and purchased foods. Also, we see less widespread consumption of sentinel food groups such as dark green leafy vegetables. Our results highlight the need for an additional dimension in existing food environment frameworks: "Legal access to wild resources" that would cover access to wild foods. This dimension is important as loss of legal access and declining consumption can have negative dietary implications, since the most commonly consumed wild foods, such as leafy vegetables, are nutritionally important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquatic foods are highly traded, with nearly 60 million tonnes exported in 2020, representing 11% of global agriculture trade by value. Despite the vast scale, basic characteristics of aquatic food trade, including species, origin, and farmed vs wild sourcing, are largely unknown due to the reporting of trade data. Consequently, we have a coarse picture of aquatic food trade and consumption patterns. Here, we present results from a database on species trade that aligns production, conversion factors, and trade to compute apparent consumption for all farmed and wild aquatic foods from 1996 to 2020. Over this period, aquatic foods became increasingly globalized, with the share of production exported increasing by 40%. Importantly, trends differ across aquatic food sectors. Global consumption also increased by 19.4% despite declining marine capture consumption, and some regions became increasingly reliant on foreign-sourced aquatic foods. To identify sustainable diet opportunities among aquatic foods, our findings, and underlying database enable a greater understanding of the role of trade in rapidly evolving aquatic food systems. Despite high levels of trade, the basic characteristics of the aquatic food trade are largely unknown. Here, the authors present a global seafood trade database showing the increasing globalization of farmed and wild aquatic foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite (or perhaps because of) the staggering scale and pace of global change, the concept of the Anthropocene eludes discrete classification. There is widespread consensus that conditions associated with the Anthropocene, including rapid biodiversity loss and climate change, must be addressed if we are to enjoy ongoing and rich experiences. At the crux of human impacts is urban living as of 2024 nearly 60% of people live in cities. Human societies are tightly interconnected with each other and surrounding ecosystems, but for citydwellers, these connections may seem abstract. A failure to appreciate and foster such connections can have human and environmental health repercussions. We present a concept for a meal featuring local wild foods that could only be appropriately served under regionally ameliorated Anthropocene conditions. By presenting this hypothetical "solution", we seek a common ground that spans human (and non-human) cultures and behaviors, and a concept that can be extended to any community. The simplicity of the "Anthropocene meal" belies three primary challenges: improvements to urban design, maintenance of ecosystem health, and shifting cultural attitudes. However, these barriers are quantifiable and may be addressed within annual to decadal timelines, making the Anthropocene meal a broadly achievable goal, and thus a valid source of optimism in a time of great uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global biodiversity that underpins wild food systems--including fisheries--is rapidly declining. Yet, we often have only a limited understanding of how households use and benefit from biodiversity in the ecosystems surrounding them. Explicating these relationships is critical to forestall and mitigate the effects of biodiversity declines on food and nutrition security. Here, we quantify how biodiversity filters from ecosystems to household harvest, consumption, and sale, and how ecological traits and household characteristics shape these relationships. We used a unique, integrated ecological (40 sites, quarterly data collection) and household survey (n = 414, every 2 mo data collection) dataset collected over 3 y in rice field fisheries surrounding Cambodia's Tonlé Sap, one of Earth's most productive and diverse freshwater systems. While ecosystem biodiversity was positively associated with household catch, consumption, and sold biodiversity, households consumed an average of 43% of the species present in the ecosystem and sold only 9%. Larger, less nutritious, and more common species were disproportionally rep-resented in portfolios of commercially traded species, while consumed species mirrored catches. The relationship between ecosystem and consumed biodiversity was remarkably consistent across variation in household fishing effort, demographics, and distance to nearest markets. Poorer households also consumed more species, underscoring how wild food systems may most benefit the vulnerable. Our findings amplify concerns about the impacts of biodiversity loss on our global food systems and highlight that utilization of biodiversity for consumption may far exceed what is commercially traded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural resource governance challenges are often highly complex, particularly in Indigenous contexts. These challenges involve numerous landscape-level interactions, spanning jurisdictional, disciplinary, social, and ecological boundaries. In Eeyou Istchee, the James Bay Cree Territory of northern Quebec, Canada, traditional livelihoods depend on wild food species like moose. However, these species are increasingly being impacted by forestry and other resource development projects. The complex relationships between moose, resource development, and Cree livelihoods can limit shared understandings and the ability of diverse actors to respond to these pressures. Contributing to this complexity are the different knowledge systems held by governance actors who, while not always aligned, have broadly shared species conservation and sustainable development goals. This paper presents fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) as a methodological approach used to help elicit and interpret the knowledge of land-users concerning the impacts of forest management on moose habitat in Eeyou Istchee. We explore the difficulties of weaving this knowledge together with the results of moose GPS collar analysis and the knowledges of scientists and government agencies. The ways in which participatory, relational mapping approaches can be applied in practice, and what they offer to pluralistic natural resource governance research more widely, are then addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western European societies, ecologies, and economies were significantly impacted by industrialization after WWII. Steadily increasing urbanization and the abandonment of traditional agricultural activities led to a rapid erosion of local environmental knowledge (LEK). We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews in Padua, one of the most industrialized areas of Italy, to identify changes and drivers of change in plant foraging. We documented the use of 56 plant, fungal, and animal taxa, including the most foraged Humulus lupulus, Silene vulgaris, and Papaver rhoeas. These are mainly prepared in risottos, frittatas, and boiled mixtures. During their lifetime, 68% of the interviewees redirected their foraging area, 25% completely abandoned their foraging practice, and 7% abandoned foraging but resumed it after retirement. Changes in the foraging area and foraging abandonment were mainly driven by increased pollution and lack of land accessibility, as well as partially related lifestyle changes and (micro)climate change. In the face of such changes and with the aim of re-establishing the connection between peri-urban communities and their land, some local committees are struggling to take back the unused spaces of the industrial area and prevent future loss of land accessibility and consequent loss of LEK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foraging, the gathering of wild edibles for food and medicinal use, opens opportunities to connect with local environments and pursue sustainability and food sovereignty. We engage with insights from semi-structured qualitative interviews, participant observation, and site visits with individuals identifying as foragers and wildcrafters across Oklahoma to better understand foragers' interactions with local wild food and foodscapes. We ask: Why do individuals in Oklahoma forage and/or wildcraft? How do foraging practices provide a pathway to support the creation of imagined foodways and foodscapes? We review the literature on foraging and foodways to situate foraging within alternative food systems and consider dimensions of sustainability and sovereignty within foodscapes. Foragers and wildcrafters reveal that their practices foster both tangible and non-tangible benefits, including deep connections with place and nature in the process of procuring wild edibles. While participants come to foraging in various ways, their strategies include engagement with sustainable practices and greater control and agency in food access. Building on the concept of 'imagined foodways,' we introduce 'imagined foodscapes' to illustrate foragers' ability to create food practices and spaces based on their ideal methods of procuring and connecting with food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agroecology frameworks do not explicitly include nutrition, but nutrition is an outcome of many principles of agroecology, with growing evidence that agroecological interventions improve diet quality and nutrition. In this paper, we argue that more explicit attention to the importance of wild foods from diverse agroecological landscapes will further enhance the nutrition outcomes associated with agroecology. In rural landscapes around the world, wild foods provide nutrient-dense and culturally important foods that make significant contributions to the diet in some contexts and are culturally important and highly valued delicacies in others. Agroecological principles, science, and practice already support the maintenance of wild foods in food systems by highlighting ecological principles. These include low or no use of pesticides, landscape diversity, and maintenance of biodiversity, alongside social principles such as traditional knowledge and cultural practices. The focus in agroecology on working with traditional knowledge and cultural practices supports the preservation of traditional knowledge required to responsibly harvest and prepare wild foods. Centering landscape diversity and nutrition as outcomes of agroecology supports the continued use of wild foods and cultural knowledge, especially in rural communities around the globe. More explicit attention to wild foods in agroecological systems will further contribute to associated nutrition outcomes, while simultaneously promoting the maintenance of landscape diversity, biodiversity, preservation of cultural knowledge, and other ecological sound and socially just agricultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wild boar Sus scrofa is increasing in numbers and extending its distribution across Europe and is difficult to control due to high reproductive potential. Dietary quality is a main determinant of wild boar population dynamics, and the extent to which they rely on human‐provided food provide a key to limit their distribution. Yet, we lack data on wild boar diet from northern Europe. Here we use DNA‐metabarcoding of faecal samples (n = 50) to determine wild boar diet during fall and winter in Norway. We mainly aimed to quantify the extent to which wild boar relies on natural or human‐provided food sources. A secondary aim was to determine whether diet varies with individual characteristics (sex, age or weight), season (winter or fall), and between the two regions with wild boar in Norway. We found a high degree of diet variability between individuals. Individuals consuming high amounts of edible fungi consumed low amounts of plant material. The (heavier) male wild boars consumed 50% more human provided food than the (lighter) female wild boars. There was no clear effect of age, season (winter versus fall), or region on diet with the sample size available. The negative correlation between plants and fungi in each sample suggests that using multiple primers targeting different taxa can provide quantitative diet information, and points to an important role of fungi (truffles) during winter and fall. The large individual variation in diet may reflect opportunistic feeding tactics in Scandinavian boreal forests, driven by a lack of acorns and few crops. Our study has relevance for understanding limitations of wild boars at their northern distribution range in Europe, and thus also provides important information for management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dalmatian Zagora has experienced significant depopulation trends over recent decades. The area is very interesting because of its rich biodiversity of species as well as its history of the use of wild foods. Since there is a danger of permanent loss of knowledge on the use of wild edibles, we focused our research on recording traditions local to this area. Methods: We conducted interviews with 180 residents. Results: A record was made of 136 species of wild food plants and 22 species of edible mushrooms gathered in the area. The most frequently collected species are Rubus ulmifolius Schott, Cornus mas L., Portulaca oleracea L., Asparagus acutifolius L., Sonchus spp., Morus spp., Taraxacum spp., Amaranthus retroflexus L., Cichorium intybus L., and Dioscorea communis (L.) Caddick & Wilkin. Conclusions: The list of taxa used is typical for other (sub-)Mediterranean parts of Croatia; however, more fungi species are used. The most important finding of the paper is probably the recording of Legousia speculum-veneris (L.) Chaix, a wild vegetable used in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesia is home to the greatest area of mangroves globally, which provide an essential source of livelihoods and food for millions of people. Despite this, there is a gap in the empirical evidence on the role mangroves play as a food system and the diversity of species they provide. This study aimed to examine mangroves as a gendered food system through the knowledge of community mangrove resource users in West Kalimantan. The research applied a case study approach, using gendered focus group discussions and a participatory seasonal food mapping method in two villages. The research identified participants' extensive local knowledge of 276 species across 12 food groups sourced seasonally from mangroves primarily for food and as a source of income. Barriers to utilizing mangroves for women were influenced by socio-cultural norms, including but not limited to gender roles and access to fishing infrastructure, while men alone faced political and institutional challenges to mangrove utilisation. This study found that mangroves are an important local food system in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and argues for greater consideration of the contribution mangroves make to local food and nutrition security. This study contributes to a growing global discourse of gendered food systems and inclusion of local knowledges in natural resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Concurrent losses in biodiversity and human dietary diversity are evident in Madagascar and across many food systems globally. Wild food harvest can mitigate nutrition insecurities but may also pose species conservation concerns. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the association of wild plant and animal species consumption during hunger season with diet diversity and child growth near the Alandraza-Agnalavelo protected forest in Southwestern Madagascar. Second, we studied the conservation status of the consumed wild plants. Methods: Methods from public health nutrition (24-h recall dietary intake, anthropometry using World Health Organization [WHO] Growth Standards), ethnobotany, and forest ecology (ecologic studies of abundance, habitat preference, associated species, food chemistry assays, and species richness) were applied. Results: Malnutrition in children (n = 305) was highly prevalent: stunting (32.3%); wasting (18.8%); and low-dietary diversity (4% meeting WHO minimum dietary diversity threshold). Animal foods were consumed in small quantities, providing <10% of Dietary Reference Intakes for all limiting nutrients. Twenty-two wild plant species were consumed during hunger season, prominently tubers (Dioscoreaceae), and leafy greens (Asteraceae, Blechnaceae, Portulacaceae, and Solanaceae). Eight of the 9 target species were identified as abundant and "Least Concern," whereas Amorphophollus taurostigma was abundant and "Vulnerable." Regression modeling showed wild food consumption was associated with an increased household dietary diversity score [β = 0.29 (0.06 standard error); P < 0.001], and total wild animal foods positively correlated with height-for-age Z score [β = 0.14 (0.07 standard error); P = 0.04]. Conclusions: Wild plant and animal foods may be an important element of food systems to support human nutrition while maintaining ecosystem viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern Mexico is particularly rich in natural resources, yet unemployment has risen to 8% during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effect of the pandemic on the use and abundance of Tabasco's wild resources was examined through personal surveys. By using Microsoft Forms® with cell phones 1,963 surveys were collected. Cronbach's alpha, Z-value, and chi2 were calculated using the MAXQDA Analytics Pro program. A higher abundance of wild resources before the pandemic than today (57% vs. 11%) was observed. During the pandemic, people referred more to a high use (28%) of resources than to a low use (20%). This caused the low abundance or scarcity of wild products to be greater during the pandemic than before the pandemic (43% vs. 4%). Wild foods and timber were the most used products. The pandemic has produced a greater use of natural resources probably due to the high unemployment rate in rural areas. Future studies of wild products should address the relevant products in the locality and their even sampling. Finding suitable respondents is highly recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanisation and food system transformation in Africa have been accompanied by growing food insecurity, reduced dietary diversity, and an epidemic of non-communicable disease. While the contribution of wild and indigenous foods (WIF) to the quality of rural household diets has been the subject of longstanding attention, research on their consumption and role among urban households is more recent. This paper provides a case study of the consumption of WIF in the urban corridor of northern Namibia with close ties to the surrounding rural agricultural areas. The research methodology involved a representative household food security survey of 851 urban households using tablets and ODK Collect. The key methods for data analysis included descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regression. The main findings of the analysis included the fact that WIFs are consumed by most households, but with markedly different frequencies. Frequent consumers of WIF are most likely to be female-centred households, in the lowest income quintiles, and with the highest lived poverty. Frequent consumption is not related to food security, but is higher in households with low dietary diversity. Infrequent or occasional consumers tend to be higher-income households with low lived poverty and higher levels of food security. We conclude that frequent consumers use WIF to diversify their diets and that occasional consumers eat WIF more for reasons of cultural preference and taste than necessity. Recommendations for future research include the nature of the supply chains that bring WIF to urban consumers, intra-household consumption of WIF, and in-depth interviews about the reasons for household consumption of WIF and preferences for certain types of wild food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The populations living around Djebel Aissa National Park are dependent on the non-timber forest products (NTFPs) offered by the park. The objective of this study is to identify and improve knowledge of the different NTFPs used by the populations of Ain Sefra, Tiout, and Mekalis. In this context, structured questionnaires were carried out with 520 participants residing in the selected zones.The results obtained reveal that 33 plants belonging to 16 families and 29 genera are used in traditional medicine, 11 species distributed in 10 genera and 9 families are wild edibles and only one species is considered an artisanal species.In terms of medicinal plants, the Lamiaceae (16.67%), Asteraceae (11.11%) and Fabaceae (11.11%) families are the most represented. The leaves and aerial parts are the most used with respectively 42.42 and 36.36%. Decoction is the most frequent preparation method (66,67%). The oral form is the only frequent use method (100%). Rosmarinus officinalis L (FC = 100%), Artemisia herba-alba Asso (FC = 90.83%), Thymus algeriensis Boiss Et Reut (FC = 85%), Juniperus phoenicea L. (FC = 62.50%), Pistacia atlantica Desf (CF=46.67%) are the plants with highest frequency citation. The ethnobotanical use value (VUs) varies from 0.83% to 3.33%.For wild edibles, the leaves are the most consumed (54.55%). The consumption of the plant parts is done by steaming, eating fresh, and grinding. The relative level of village knowledge (Cr%) varies from 20 to 100%, the best-known wild edibles are Quercus ilex subsp. Ballota (Desf.) Samp, Ziziphus lotus (L.) Lam, Rosmarinus officinalis L, Ceratonia silliqua L. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The lack of adequate knowledge of the culinary and sensory properties of most indigenous and wild foods hampers their promotion in human diets and the market. In the present study, 80 Burkinabe volunteers evaluated the sensory appeal and attributes of three selected Senegalia seed species (Zamnè, pseudoZamnè or Kumatiya, and S. erythrocalyx) and their food formulae (traditionally cooked, harvested as green and fresh legumes, and fermented as tempeh) using the nine-point hedonic scale and check-all-that-apply questionnaire. They found that the traditionally cooked Zamnè, pseudoZamnè or Kumatiya, and derived tempeh had good sensory appeal (scoring between 5 and 7) and subtle alkaline and nutty tastes. However, an appreciable number (32%) of the participants were unaccustomed to tempeh and gave very low scores (2.5–3.4) for all the tempeh products. In contrast, the traditionally cooked seeds of Senegalia erythrocalyx and the green and fresh Zamnè evoked bitter and sour off-tastes, respectively, and were not much appreciated (scoring 4). The present study provides unprecedented insight into consumers' non-sensory perceptions and the culinary and sensory properties of Senegalia seed foods, which will be essential for their valorization, branding, and marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of wild edible plants and fungi in human diets and their role in food systems. While industrial agriculture and globalization have led to a decrease in the consumption of wild species in developed societies, rural communities and some developed countries still rely on wild edibles. The article emphasizes the need for research and understanding of these species, including their nutritional and medicinal properties, conservation, and sustainable use. The Special Issue of Foods presents various studies on wild edible plants and mushrooms, highlighting their potential as food ingredients and sources of income. [Extracted from the article]

Pollinators in agricultural landscapes are facing global decline and the main pressures include food scarcity and pesticide usage. Intensive agricultural landscapes may provide important food resources for wild pollinators via mass flowering crops. However, these are monofloral, short-term, and may contain pesticide residues. We explored how the landscape composition with a different proportion of oilseed rape (6–65%) around Osmia bicornis nests affects floral diversity, contamination with pesticides, and energetic value of provisions collected by this species of wild bees as food for their offspring. Altogether, the bees collected pollen from 28 plant taxa (6–15 per nest) and provisions were dominated by Brassica napus (6.0–54.2%, median 44.4%, 12 nests), Quercus sp. (1.2–19.4%, median 5.2%, 12 nests), Ranunculus sp. (0.4–42.7%, median 4.7%, 12 nests), Poaceae (1.2–59.9%, median 5.8%, 11 nests) and Acer sp. (0.6–42%, median 18.0%, 8 nests). Residues of 12 pesticides were found in provisions, with acetamiprid, azoxystrobin, boscalid, and dimethoate being the most frequently detected at concentrations up to 1.2, 198.4, 16.9 and 17.8 ng/g (median 0.3, 10.6, 11.3, 4.4 ng/g), respectively. Floral diversity and energetic value of provisions, but not the Pesticide Risk Index depended on landscape structure. Moreover, pollen diversity decreased, and energetic value increased with landscape diversity. Thus, even a structurally simple landscape may provide diverse food for O. bicornis if the nest is located close to a single but resource-diverse patch. Both B. napus and non-crop pollen were correlated with pesticide concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim was two-fold: to characterise the risks of lead (Pb) in Agaricus bitorquis collected in the city of Leicester (England), and to evaluate its presence in urban topsoils. Pb was monitored by ICP-MS in twenty-two homogenised mushroom samples (caps and stipes) mineralised with HNO3/H2O2 [LoD = 0.872 mg/kg dry weight (dw)]. Moreover, 450 topsoil samples were collected from 18 urban parks across Leicester; Pb was also measured by ICP-MS after appropriate digestion (LoD = 0.698 mg/kg). Levels were significantly higher in the mushroom caps (p-value = 3 × 10−5); median and ranges are provided in mg/kg dw: 2.461 (1.806–6.664) vs. 1.579 (0.988–4.223). Concentrations were much higher than those reported in sixteen A. bisporus (median < 1.0 mg/kg DW) specifically cultivated in high-traffic areas in the inner city of Berlin, suggesting some contamination by Pb. All caps monitored exceeded the established maximum concentration limit for Pb in cultivated mushrooms in the European Union (3 mg/kg dw), in line with the high accumulative metal capability described in the literature for Agaricus spp. Although non-carcinogenic risks characterised for Pb were negligible in the monitored mushrooms, a high consumption of wild green edibles in Leicester's city should be limited as there are multiple additional sources of Pb and other metals, and they should be substituted by cultivated edibles where possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream development thinking suggests that increasing agricultural production will increase wealth and lead to improved diets. However, in Burkina Faso, even better off rural areas are still experiencing widespread nutrition insecurity. Wild plants play a key role in rural diets and serve as a nutritional safety net. This research investigates the use of wild plants for dietary diversity among women rice farmers and their households in southwestern Burkina Faso. We use data collected through semi-structured interviews with 131 women over the 2016–2020 period. We find that wild foods are important for dietary diversity, especially for poor households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some fungi have been domesticated for food production, with genetic differentiation between populations from food and wild environments, and food populations often acquiring beneficial traits through horizontal gene transfers (HGTs). Studying their adaptation to human‐made substrates is of fundamental and applied importance for understanding adaptation processes and for further strain improvement. We studied here the population structures and phenotypes of two distantly related Penicillium species used for dry‐cured meat production, P. nalgiovense, the most common species in the dry‐cured meat food industry, and P. salamii, used locally by farms. Both species displayed low genetic diversity, lacking differentiation between strains isolated from dry‐cured meat and those from other environments. Nevertheless, the strains collected from dry‐cured meat within each species displayed slower proteolysis and lipolysis than their wild conspecifics, and those of P. nalgiovense were whiter. Phenotypically, the non‐dry‐cured meat strains were more similar to their sister species than to their conspecific dry‐cured meat strains, indicating an evolution of specific phenotypes in dry‐cured meat strains. A comparison of available Penicillium genomes from various environments revealed HGTs, particularly between P. nalgiovense and P. salamii (representing almost 1.5 Mb of cumulative length). HGTs additionally involved P. biforme, also found in dry‐cured meat products. We further detected positive selection based on amino acid changes. Our findings suggest that selection by humans has shaped the P. salamii and P. nalgiovense populations used for dry‐cured meat production, which constitutes domestication. Several genetic and phenotypic changes were similar in P. salamii, P. nalgiovense and P. biforme, indicating convergent adaptation to the same human‐made environment. Our findings have implications for fundamental knowledge on adaptation and for the food industry: the discovery of different phenotypes and of two mating types paves the way for strain improvement by conventional breeding, to elucidate the genomic bases of beneficial phenotypes and to generate diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinators in agricultural landscapes are facing global decline and the main pressures include food scarcity and pesticide usage. Intensive agricultural landscapes may provide important food resources for wild pollinators via mass flowering crops. However, these are monofloral, short-term, and may contain pesticide residues. We explored how the landscape composition with a different proportion of oilseed rape (6–65%) around Osmia bicornis nests affects floral diversity, contamination with pesticides, and energetic value of provisions collected by this species of wild bees as food for their offspring. Altogether, the bees collected pollen from 28 plant taxa (6–15 per nest) and provisions were dominated by Brassica napus (6.0–54.2%, median 44.4%, 12 nests), Quercus sp. (1.2–19.4%, median 5.2%, 12 nests), Ranunculus sp. (0.4–42.7%, median 4.7%, 12 nests), Poaceae (1.2–59.9%, median 5.8%, 11 nests) and Acer sp. (0.6–42%, median 18.0%, 8 nests). Residues of 12 pesticides were found in provisions, with acetamiprid, azoxystrobin, boscalid, and dimethoate being the most frequently detected at concentrations up to 1.2, 198.4, 16.9 and 17.8 ng/g (median 0.3, 10.6, 11.3, 4.4 ng/g), respectively. Floral diversity and energetic value of provisions, but not the Pesticide Risk Index depended on landscape structure. Moreover, pollen diversity decreased, and energetic value increased with landscape diversity. Thus, even a structurally simple landscape may provide diverse food for O. bicornis if the nest is located close to a single but resource-diverse patch. Both B. napus and non-crop pollen were correlated with pesticide concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study employs a strengths-based approach to assess food access in remote Alaska during the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying both the negative consequences of the pandemic on store-bought and subsistence/traditional food access and compensatory strategies used. Design: As a part of a larger study on the impacts of COVID-19 on daily life remote Alaskan communities, study data presented here were collected through key informant interviews (KII) and state-wide online surveys from 21 September 2020 to 31 March 2021 among remote Alaska community members. Setting: This study was conducted with residents of remote communities in Alaska, defined as those off the road system. Remote communities often have small or no grocery stores and rely on subsistence or traditional sources of food. Participants: KII participants (n 36) were majority female (78 %) and Alaska Native (57 %). Survey participants (n 615) were also majority female, 25–54 years old and most had had some post-secondary education or training. Results: Survey and interview data revealed that the pandemic had significant negative impacts on store-bought food access in remote Alaskan communities. Individuals also shared that locally available and wild harvested foods acted as a buffer to some of the loss of access to these store-bought foods, with some people sharing that the harvesting of wild and traditional foods served as a coping strategy during times of pandemic-related stress. Conclusions: The results from this study demonstrate that the remoteness of some Alaskan communities has been both a source of vulnerability and protection in terms of food access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wild food gathering activities (i.e., foraging practices) played an important role in securing food in the past. Nowadays, these resources and the knowledge around their use are experiencing a process of erosion. This article aims to identify the factors explaining the abandonment or, on the other hand, the preservation of foraging practices in Europe. The second aim is to analyze how these practices contribute to the economic and social development of local communities and to the sustainability of land management. A systematic review of the literature on European foraging practices was performed to answer these research questions. Following this approach, 111 publications were selected and analyzed. The results highlight that the reasons for the abandonment of foraging practices are related to socio-economic changes as well as changes in the environment such as reduced availability and land-use change. On the other hand, heritagization processes of these resources, such as wild plants sold as traditional local products, in restaurants, or as eco-tourism experiences, are emerging. The sustainability of these practices has not been widely evaluated in the literature. Efficient management strategies of wild food resources could help foster all three dimensions of sustainability at the local level, as well as help preserve traditional knowledge. This systematic review thus contributes to highlighting the framework in which the sustainability of these practices should be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographical and environmental factors influence the food availability and diet of orangutans. Moreover, tree phenology affects productivity and food availability in orangutan habitats. As a result, orangutans must be able to adapt to their food availability in the wild. This study aims to analyse the daily activity patterns and eating behaviour of the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) and their relationship to food availability through the fruit availability index (FAI) and phenology at Soraya Research Station (SRS), Aceh. From the 648 hours of observation on five orangutans' daily activities, we found that resting is the activity with the highest percentage (48%), followed by feeding (22.5%) and moving (21.8%). The high percentage of resting activity might correlate with its low FAI in SRS (1.01%). The resting activity limits orangutans' energy expenditure. Furthermore, barks, fruits, and other plants (including lianas, ferns, and epiphytes) were the main type of diet of Sumatran orangutans in SRS with a frequency of 40.6%, 28.9%, and 15.6%, respectively. The high bark consumption by the orangutans acts as their fallback diet at SRS and is thought to be a form of adaptation to the low fruit availability. This study showed the orangutan adaptation to low fruit availability in SRS through their daily activity and diet patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In rural livelihoods, wild foods are important assets for complementing main foods, safeguarding food safety, and providing nutritional variation. These plants are used as dietary supplements and as a means of survival during times of food shortages. The objectives of this study were to record, collect, classify, and analyze the native uses and management of wild edible plants by the local semi-pastoralist people in SuroBarguda District, west Guji Zone, Ethiopia. Ethnobotanical data collection was conducted on various groups of 10 kebeles (the smallest administrative units of Ethiopia) households within the district. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, guided field walks, field observations, and discussions. A total of 70 species of edible wild plants belonging to 50 genera and 36 angiosperm families were identified by local residents. Most (80%) of edible plants were consumed to compensate for regular food shortages during March-April (rainy season) when the stock of edible plants gradually decreased. The research region is endowed with a variety of wild edible plants that are used by the local people as food sources and for other reasons, helping them to address their problems with food insecurity. Unquestionably, the preservation of wild edible plants is important for ensuring household food security and dietary variety, both of which support the continued occurrence of biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal exposure doses from 134Cs and 137Cs by domestic consumption of edible wild plants in the former evacuation zone in 2022 and 2045 were estimated based on deposition data from airborne survey and aggregated transfer factors for 11 species. On the assumption that annual consumption of edible wild plants is about 6 kg, the internal exposure doses in 2022 and 2045 are 0.3–139.0 μSv/y and 0.1–78.7 μSv/y, respectively, which are less than 53 μSv/y in more than 90% of the areas in 2022 and less than 30 μSv/y in 2045. Even considering the different scenarios for the intake of Koshiabura (Chengiopanax sciadophylloides), which has a high radioactivity level, the exposure dose did not change significantly and was only a few percent of the upper limit of 1 mSv/y for the additional exposure dose from foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental impact of food products is significantly affected by their packaging. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the effect of PLA (polylactic acid) film, as an alternative to petroleum-based bags, on the shelf-life of fresh-cut wild rocket and sea fennel grown in a cascade cropping system (CCS). To this end, wild rocket (main crop) was cultivated using either peat or compost as a growing medium. Sea fennel (secondary crop) was subsequently grown in a floating system with leachates from the primary crop as a nutrient solution. The leaves of both crops were harvested and packaged in OPP- (oriented polypropylene) or PLA-based bags and stored for 7 days at 4 °C. The leaves of wild rocket and sea fennel showed lower dehydration and lower respiration when compost was used as a growing medium or leachate. Wild rocket in compost increased in nitrate and vitamin C contents at harvest while leachates had scarce influence on their contents in sea fennel. After storage, regardless of the crop, no relevant detrimental changes were observed on leaves packaged with PLA, being a product microbiologically safer when compared to OPP. The bag type had almost no influence on most relevant phytochemical compounds. In conclusion, the use of a PLA-based film on minimally processed wild rocket and sea fennel leaves is a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastic for a short food supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Gut microbiota is crucial to primate survival. Data on the gut microbiota of captive and wild animals can provide a physiological and ecological basis for the conservation of rare and endangered species. To study the effect of captivity on the gut microbiota, we examine the difference in the gut microbiota composition between captive and wild Francois' langurs (Trachypithecus francoisi), using 16S rRNA sequencing technology. The results showed that the composition of the gut microbiota of captive and wild langurs was characterized by Firmicutes (51.93 ± 10.07% vs. 76.15 ± 8.37%) and Bacteroidetes (32.43 ± 10.00% vs. 4.82 ± 1.41%) at the phylum level and was characterized by Oscillospiraceae (15.80 ± 5.19% vs. 30.21 ± 4.87%) at the family level. The alpha diversity of gut microbiota in captive langurs was higher than those in wild, such as the Shannon index (4.45 ± 0.33 vs. 3.98 ± 0.19, P < 0.001) and invSimpson index (35.11 ± 15.63 vs. 19.02 ± 4.87, P < 0.001). Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) results showed significant differences in the composition of gut microbiota between captive and wild langurs at both the phylum and family levels (weight UniFrac algorithm, phylum level: R2 = 0.748, P = 0.001; family level: R2 = 0.685, P = 0.001). The relative abundance of Firmicutes (51.93 ± 10.07%) in captive langurs was lower than that of wild langurs (76.15 ± 8.37%), and the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes (32.43 ± 10.00%) in captive langurs was higher than that of wild (4.82 ± 1.41%). Our study concludes that dietary composition could be a crucial determinant in shaping the gut microbiota of langurs because more fiber-rich foods used by the wild langurs could increase the abundance of Firmicutes, and more simple carbohydrate-rich foods consumed by the captive langurs increase the abundance of Bacteroidetes. We highlight the importance of captivity on the gut microbiota and the need to consider the gut microbiota in animal provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]