Foraging food from nature is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. It's also a great way to explore new and unconventional flavours in the kitchen. Unfortunately, foraging can also have detrimental effects on ecosystems- especially in urban environments where the density of plant life is low. Even when practicing responsibly, harvesters remove seeds that allow plants to spread and steal food sources from wildlife. This can have devastating impacts on biodiversity. However, all these issues can be avoided if foragers harvest plants that the environment would be better off without.

I'm talking about invasives: weeds that grow practically everywhere, outcompete native and endangered species, and pose significant problems to human health and/or the economy. In many cases, invasive plants were first brought to their region for their edible properties. Due to their abundance and utility, eating these problem weeds is a slam dunk for the environment and foragers alike.