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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]

The golden jackal (Canis aureus) has rapidly expanded its range in Europe, prompting questions about its ecological impact and management. The species' expansion strategy differs from other European countries. Despite its presence demonstrated for thirty years, it still has a limited presence in Austria; its successful reproduction has just recently been confirmed. Our study provides the first comprehensive insights into the dietary habits of jackals in Austria. The analysed jackal stomachs, with 48 food items, revealed a diverse diet. The primary foods were wild ungulates, mostly from scavenging, mostly cervids and partially wild boar, making up nearly half of their diet. Domestic animals and household food comprised secondary sources, while plant matter had tertiary importance. The consumption of small mammals, birds, and invertebrates had little importance. We detected the consumption of a smaller carnivore, a marten. Our findings align with observations from other central-southeastern European regions, indicating that jackals exhibit diverse and opportunistic foraging behavior. This adaptability will likely contribute to their continued expansion in Austria and Europe. Further research is needed to explore potential ecological implications. Addressing the golden jackal's expansion requires coordinated conservation and management to balance its coexistence with humans and local biodiversity preservation. [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]

The Caborn-Welborn phase identifies late precontact and early postcontact (ca. AD 1400–1700) peoples of the lower Ohio River valley in Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois who coalesced following the collapse of the Angel chiefdom. Our current understanding of Caborn-Welborn foodways is that they, like their contemporaries in other parts of eastern North America, subsisted largely on maize and wild game, supplemented by a wide range of other wild and cultivated foods. While technically accurate, this generic picture of late precontact diets does not do justice to the many microclimatological and cultural nuances that characterized local native southeastern and midwestern diets. Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) is a method to understand diet by analyzing the microscopic scratches and pits left on teeth during mastication. Combining DMTA with other lines of evidence, we confirm previous studies that indicate that at least some Caborn-Welborn peoples consumed less maize than their ancestors living at the Angel site. Rather than understanding Caborn-Welborn peoples as practicing a generic late precontact subsistence strategy, our study highlights how Caborn-Welborn peoples chose to eat less maize and consume more hard wild foods such as nuts compared with their contemporaries. [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]

Rice (Oryza sativa) serves as a staple food for more than one-third of the global population. However, its journey from a wild gathered food to domestication remains enigmatic, sparking ongoing debates in the biological and anthropological fields. Here, we present evidence of rice phytoliths sampled from two archaeological sites in China, Shangshan and Hehuashan, near the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. We demonstrate the growth of wild rice at least 100,000 years before present, its initial exploitation as a gathered resource at about 24,000 years before present, its predomestication cultivation at about 13,000 years before present, and eventually its domestication at about 11,000 years before present. These developmental stages illuminate a protracted process of rice domestication in East Asia and extend the continuous records of cereal evolution beyond the Fertile Crescent. [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]

The sedentarization of Pygmies in the Congo Basin has triggered a profound transformation in their traditional lifestyles, particularly affecting dietary habits and food consumption. We employed 24-hour dietary recalls in 10 sedentarized Baka Pygmy villages in southeastern Cameroon, gathering data on diet composition, diversity (Household Dietary Diversity Score, HDDS), and nutrient intake per adult male equivalent (AME) from 67 homes (28% of all households). Our findings revealed that 62% of consumed foods were agricultural produce, 29% were locally produced or purchased products, and the remaining 9% comprised items sourced or hunted from the wild. The average HDDS per village was low (4.1±1.56) and mean total energy intake was 1734.9±1,031.8 kcal/AME, with significant contributions from cultivated foods. There was a negative correlation between the consumption of cultivated and wild foods. Moreover, a considerable proportion of households (78.7%, ranging from 22.4% to 97%) exhibited nutrient consumption below the lower 95% uncertainty interval found in a Cameroonian nutrient supply study. Additionally, 78.3% of respondents fell below WHO/FAO recommendations for 21 nutrients, even after adjusting for the Baka's shorter stature. This high prevalence of insufficient nutrient intake underscores the urgent need for targeted interventions to address nutritional deficiencies within this population. We show Baka households rely more on cultivated foods and are less dependent on wild sources. Understanding the profound transformation in dietary patterns and its repercussions on the health and overall well-being of the studied marginalized Indigenous communities is pivotal in devising strategies to enhance their survival. This shift in dietary profiles often stems from complex factors, including socioeconomic challenges, environmental changes, and cultural shifts. To address these issues effectively, a comprehensive approach that integrates cultural sensitivity, community engagement, and sustainable practices is imperative. [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 entry into and uptake of information in social groups is critical for behavioral adaptation by long-lived species in rapidly changing environments. We exposed five groups of wild vervet monkeys to a novel food to investigate the innovation of processing and consuming it. We report that immigrant males innovated in two groups, and an infant innovated in one group. In two other groups, immigrant males imported the innovation from their previous groups. We compared uptake between groups with respect to the initial innovator to examine the extent to which dispersing males could introduce an innovation into groups. Uptake of the novel food was faster in groups where immigrant males ate first rather than the infants. Younger individuals were more likely overall, and faster, to subsequently acquire the novel food. We also investigated the role of muzzle contact behavior in information seeking around the novel food. Muzzle contacts decreased in frequency over repeated exposures to the novel food. Muzzle contacts were initiated the most by naïve individuals, high rankers, and juveniles; and were targeted most towards knowledgeable individuals and high rankers, and the least towards infants. We highlight the potential importance of dispersers in rapidly exploiting novel resources among populations. [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]

Food environments, or interfaces between consumers and their food systems, are a useful lens for assessing global dietary change. Growing inclusivity of nature-dependent societies in lower-and middle-income countries is driving recent developments in food environment frameworks. Downs et al. (2020) propose a food environment typology that includes: wild, cultivated, informal and formal market environments, where wild and cultivated are “natural food environments.” Drawing from transdisciplinary perspectives, this paper argues that wild and cultivated food environments are not dichotomous, but rather exist across diverse landscapes under varying levels of human management and alteration. The adapted typology is applied to a case study of Indigenous Pgaz K’Nyau food environments in San Din Daeng village, Thailand, using the Gallup Poll’s Thailand-adapted Diet Quality Questionnaire with additional food source questions. Wild-cultivated food environments, as classified by local participants, were the source of more food items than any other type of food environment (37% of reported food items). The case of Indigenous Pgaz K’Nyau food environments demonstrates the importance of understanding natural food environments along a continuum from wild to cultivated.

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]

This article investigates Indigenous persistence within Mission Santa Clara de Asís in central California through the analysis of animal food remains. The Spanish colonial mission system within Alta California had a profound social and ecological impact on Indigenous peoples, altering traditional subsistence strategies and foodway patterns. Past research has highlighted the continued use of precolonial foods within the Alta California mission system alongside the daily consumption of colonial-style beef stews. This article expands on that literature to consider how Indigenous and colonial residents differentially acquired ingredients and prepared daily meals within the Alta California colonial mission system. This assessment demonstrates a sharp divergence between Indigenous and colonists’ daily diet, manifested in the continued use of wild food resources by Indigenous people as well as the maintenance of precolonial culinary practices in the preparation of cattle meat for daily stews. These findings complicate our understanding of foodways within the Spanish mission system and expand our understanding of Indigenous autonomy within conditions of colonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how dictator giving varies by social context and worthiness of the recipient. We conduct lab-in-the-field experiments in Kamchatka, Russia, and Western Alaska, as well as a lab experiment with university students, in which we vary social distance and recipient characteristics across treatments. We ask what motivates individuals to share and whether offers from a dictator game, where dictators give from own-earnings, can tell us something more fundamental about social norms and sharing. Results indicate that subjects living in rural Indigenous communities, in both Russia and Alaska, who depend heavily on wild food harvests and possess strong sharing norms, are significantly more likely to give positive amounts compared to university students. We also find that in Indigenous communities, family relations and financial needs are prioritized in giving decisions. We suggest that treatment differences correspond to social norm differences in our study areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]