quote:

Programs like Field to Fork aim at younger adults with disposable income who never learned how to hunt. Hank Forester, 33, says he came up with the program over beers with Mr. Evans after being inspired by the bustling Athens farmers market where University of Georgia students and others flock for local produce.

His group handed out brochures with slogans like "HARVEST your own LOCAL MEAT" and "HUNTERS ARE THE ORIGINAL CONSERVATIONISTS."

We didn't lead with, 'Hey, do you want to go shoot a deer?' " says Mr. Forester, a hunting programs manager at the Quality Deer Management Association, the group that sponsors Field to Fork. "If you're talking about local, sustainable—I can't certify organic—you can't do better than white-tailed deer."

The program, which offers hunting and venison-cooking classes, now operates in eight states, Mr. Forester says.

...

David Kidd, 67, a retired owner of a landscape company near Athens, signed up to be a mentor because he saw friends and family, including his son, give up hunting. He says he learned that a hunter "doesn't have to look like me."

The program has bagged new hunters like Jennifer DeMoss, 40, who was a vegetarian several years in her 20s. She later concluded humans were omnivores who should eat meat ethically, so she began to eat roadkill meat. The anthropology grad student discovered Field to Fork at the farmers market and figured hunting, too, was ethical.

Her first kill, with her mentor in 2017, gave her a "familiar, comfortable, exhilarating feeling," she says, and gratitude the animal gave its life so she could eat. Now she heads to the forest as often as she can. "It's all I can think about."