Deer hunting as food security: The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on wild food harvesting trends throughout the Midwest

Keywords: Wild-foods provisioning, Global events, Midwest, Deer hunting, Food security
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Global human population threatens to overwhelm food systems, leaving billions without enough food to eat. Food provisioning from sources outside of human cultivation, wild foods, is one of the ways communities meet their nutritional needs. In the Global North however, wild food provisioning is an understudied topic. Previous research in Appalachia has shown significant levels of wild game harvesting that are unaccounted for in foodways research. Here I quantify the white-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) harvest in four midwestern states; Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin before and after the onset of the global Covid19 pandemic to determine how this event influenced wild food harvest rates in the region. Across this five-year period, more than 300 million pounds of deer was harvested from the region, and in all four states harvest of subsistence class deer – doe and juvenile bucks – increased immediately after the pandemic. Michigan had the largest increase with around 2.5 million pounds following the pandemic for the harvest of subsistence class deer in the region, with Wisconsin following right behind it at around 2 million pounds. This data suggests the pandemic and associated increased food insecurity during this time was correlated to increased subsistence hunting in the region, particularly in Michigan. These findings have significant implications for foodways research in the Global North.