Excerpt from Braiding Sweetgrass

“The Honorable Harvest” chapter in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass both asks the relevant questions and provides guidelines for us to use when making decisions about food (or anything else we consume):

If we are fully awake, a moral question arises as we extinguish the other lives around us on behalf of our own. Whether we are digging wild leeks or going to the mall, how do we consume in a way that does justice to the lives we take? [...]

The guidelines for the Honorable Harvest are not written down, or even consistently spoken of as a whole–they are reinforced in small acts of daily life. But if you were to list them, they might look something like this:

Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them.

Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life. Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer.

Never take the first. Never take the last. Take only what you need.

Take only that which is given.

Never take more than half. Leave some for others. Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.

Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken. Share.

Give thanks for what you have been given.

Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken.

Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.