I subscribe to a preparedness newsletter and one of the articles this past fall was about looting. As I started reading the article I was prepared to be offended because looting is bad – right? However, the article questioned the difference between looting, which I perceive to be bad, and foraging, which I perceive to be good and in fact a very desirable trait. I asked some friends about the two words and their meanings and my friends all came up with the difference between them being the person’s intent.
Looting after an NHL playoff game to celebrate or in anger at the result of the game, in my opinion should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It serves no purpose, only irresponsibility and willful destruction of property.
On the other hand an example of foraging can be found in the Hollywood blockbuster from 2004 “The Day After Tomorrow” where a young Jake Gyllenhall playing the character of Sam Hall sheltered with friends in the New York Public library after New York had both been flooded and then frozen solid by global storms that pulled cold air out of the higher levels of the atmosphere. To stay warm they gathered books from the library and tore them apart and burned them or stuffed them into their shirts to keep warm. Foraging or looting? Later in the movie, in an attempt to obtain penicillin to fight the infection of his sweetheart cut her leg, Gyllenhall as Sam Hall and two friends left the warmth of the library to search the ship that had floated through the flooded streets of New York and came to a rest in front of the library. They broke into the ship to search for the medicine they needed causing destruction to accomplish their task. Foraging or looting?
I liked the answer my friends gave – the difference between foraging and looting likely is intent and the result likely is quite different. You loot with no or little intent to use items in a life sustaining manner whereas you forage for exactly that reason. Some of the items on my foraging list may include (based on circumstances):
– Food, or more food than I have stored
– Wood or other flammable items for cooking and heat
– Medicines
– Shelter, tents or lean to or snow caves or such
What items are on your foraging list
This post by Deanna from Briden Solutions – Proudly helping Canadians obtain high quality Survival supplies.