For many of us in modern society, access to grocery stores and restaurants has weakened our ancient connections to nature and the origins of our food.
However, there remain millions of citizens in the United States and Canada who embrace the opportunity to hunt and fish for their own food, and in doing so, contribute to the conservation of wildlife, wild lands and waters, the economy, and to their own food security and well-being. Wild food are typically shared throughout families and social circles, so the benefits reach not only the harvesters, but extend to many millions more.
The myriad benefits of harvesting and consuming wild fish and game have never been calculated at a large scale in North America. The Wild Harvest Initiative® will change that reality, providing the first complete assessment of the significance of hunting and angling to modern society, economically, socially, and ecologically.
We will widen the public discourse on hunting and angling by demonstrating how these traditions are linked to human health and economic prosperity. By doing so, we will define the totality of what we stand to lose, should hunting and angling cease to exist.
Our relational database is comprised of recent harvest data from jurisdictions across the United States and Canada. Analyses begin in summer 2017.