Foraging Law (The Outdoor Guide, July 2025)
You can read the original article here: https://theoutdoorguide.co.uk/blogs/tog-blog/foraging-july-2025-the-law-ox-eye-daisy-focaccia/
As a professional forager, you won’t be surprised to learn that I think that foraging for wild food is a good thing. Not only is foraging ultra-low impact on the environment when compared to farming, but the simple act of picking wild food involves an adventure and allows us a moment of mindfulness when selecting something for our basket. In short, it is superb for both our physical and mental health. All that being said, it is important to do it in the correct way - that’s safely, sustainably, ethically and legally.
UK law is a complicated beast. It has had many centuries to morph into its current form and continues to change, with new laws being introduced and older ones being updated as required. UK foraging law is around 800 years old and is still comparable to when it was first implemented all those years ago because, quite simply, it has never really been on the agenda - what a colossal waste of parliamentary time it would be to update foraging-related laws that affects such a tiny and relatively unimportant section of society.
There are some nuances, but I’m always amazed at how little my workshop guests know about the laws surrounding the gathering of wild food for personal consumption. Quite often, they are worried about whether or not they are even allowed to forage where they want to - perhaps why a culture of secrecy and discretion is so rife in the foraging world - with people so wary of getting caught when they are well within their rights to carry on collecting. Whilst modern societal trends might mean you feel embarrassed about being found with a basket of flowers and leaves (you really shouldn’t be though! What could be more incredible than being able to create a meal from your local hedgerow?!) you certainly should not feel naughty in doing so.
If this was a more earnest piece, I might transcribe the Countryside and Wildlife Act (1981) or Theft Act (1968). However, relevant as they are, they are pretty dry as documents go and don’t fully cover foraging with much comprehension or clarity. You also have to consider other laws in conjunction with them which would make this blog a jumbled mess. Instead, here is a nice summary and a perfect way in which to regard the laws surrounding foraging:
As a personal forager, if you are on land where you are not trespassing (e.g. public access space or your own land) you are perfectly welcome to gather wild food providing that it falls within the famous ‘Four Fs of Foraging’: Foliage, Fungi, Fruit and Flowers. You are not entitled to dig up any plants, nor are you allowed to collect timber*. Any red-listed, threatened or rare species should be left alone for both legal and conservation reasons. Picking for commercial purposes would require prior permission from the landowner**.
There are different rules if you are on a SSSI or nature reserve, but these tend to be specific to the site and actually are rarely enforceable - I suggest avoiding foraging in these spaces entirely. If you are at the coast, you can help yourself to seaweed as you would foliage, but there are often local laws surrounding shellfish landing sizes, so please research that before gathering anything with what you might call a ‘shell’, so that includes anything from limpets to lobsters.
The law doesn’t stop there. How’s this for an unfolding scenario? If you were able to prove that a plant or mushroom was growing wild on land where you did fancy a spot of trespassing, you would also be entitled to take it on the grounds that it has not been grown deliberately by the land owner and was indeed growing wild. Trespassing is only common law, after all. If the disgruntled land owner was then to take that wild species from your basket without your permission, that would essentially be a mugging, which is most certainly a criminal offence. That’s the messy legal nuances we could get bogged down with and, as always, I would encourage everyone to act in a civilised, considerate manner instead of testing the limits of a precedent-based legal system. Think of it like this: if a burglar enters your UK home with no damage or force, it would no doubt be a scary experience. However, in the heat of that moment, if you used a firearm to injure (or worse) the intruder, you yourself would be far more likely to feel the full force of the law. The best solution is to have prevented the burglar from entering in the first place. And maybe don’t keep a gun under the bed either.
There are other legal factors to consider. If you decide you want to make up a batch of japanese knotweed jam or three-cornered leek pesto, you would need to handle and transport that species correctly. These are just two examples of non-native invasive species - an official classification, not just referring to something that spreads rampantly in the garden like ground elder (also edible!) - and it is your legal responsibility to not encourage their spread. Failure to do so could result in prosecution, including massive fines. In the case of japanese knotweed, extreme care must be taken to heat-treat every last bit of it, and to not discard any of it in a green bin, compost heap or other similar fashion as this plant is especially good at propagating from even the smallest fibre. Himalayan balsam is a terrible blight on our woods and waterways due to its incredibly virile seeds and, whilst they are edible and delicious, you need to show the utmost care when gathering them for consumption. It is sadly the irresponsible actions of humans, not the plant species themselves, that spreads these ecological threats the farthest.
I could go on. There are many more fiddly bits to foraging law in the UK and I would love to have crowbarred in a few examples of organisations trying to stifle the rights of the landless common man, suffice to say that you don’t always need to follow the instructions given to you on a sign but often it is polite to do so. Instead, I think it is best to finish with this final thought:
Whilst you can help yourself to as much wild food as you so wish, you should always strive to do so in a way that is safe, legal, sustainable and ethical (i.e. is someone going to mind you picking wild food there?) If that is the case, go for it. Even armed with the knowledge of how the law works, you still might find life easier by avoiding the greyer areas and picking from somewhere you know that nobody will mind you doing so.
*amazingly, that also renders the gathering of sticks illegal for, say, a fire at home. I wonder if that also means your dog breaks the law when carrying a stick beyond the boundaries of the wood where it picked it up? The law works in mysterious ways.
**rather helpfully, this does not include teaching people about foraging. Were workshop guests to then sell what they find on their local farmers market or to their nearest posh restaurant, we might have an issue. But picking something under the watchful eye of an expert guide for your own consumption (as most foraging events are designed to be) is absolutely fine.
