Gleaning: A Community Harvest

We’ve all seen fruit on neighborhood trees that no one uses, falling to the ground and rotting. Most of us with gardens havehad surpluses of zucchini we couldn’t use or even give away. But did you know that every year in the United States alone, it is estimated that at least 27 percent of the food we produce here is lost before it’s eaten? That’s at least 96 billion pounds of food that goes to waste. (1, 2).

While much of that estimate is made up of food waste from schools, restaurants, stores and factories, spoilage due to improper packaging and shipment techniques, and discarded food scraps, a good portion of that food is lost right at the source: on the farm, where it’s never even harvested. In California alone, millions of tons of fruit and vegetables rot in fields and orchards or are plowed over each year, and this pattern is reflected across the country wherever crop are grown. Some of these edible crops are left behind because they are imperfectly shaped or oddly colored; other crops are never harvested because of market fluctuations. (3)  The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) estimates that 20 percent of all food loss occurs in the fresh fruit and vegetable category. Just think what this food could do for the estimated 35 million people in the U.S. who suffer from hunger:

“[The USDA Economic Research Service] does not know the share of these losses that are recoverable. However, we can get an idea of the significance of loss by calculating the potential benefit of recovery. On average, each American consumes about 3 pounds of food each day. If even 5 percent of the 96 billion pounds were recovered, that quantity would represent the equivalent of a day’s food for each of 4 million people. Recovery rates of 10 percent and 25 percent would provide enough food for the equivalent of 8 million and 20 million people, respectively.” ⁴

The problem is, in the midst of such plenty, most hungry people are unaware of how and where to get to the food. This brings us to the practice of harvesting the leftover crops in the fields after the first round of harvesting is finished. Participating in this second harvest is called “gleaning”.

Gleaning references can be seen through history from biblical times, when farmers were instructed not to harvest all of the food in their fields, but to leave some for poor people and travelers; to old England, where gleaning the manor fields was considered to be a right of the cottage-dwelling class; to modern times, where, although not as common as in previous eras, gleaning is still practiced, often by charitable groups as a means to distribute food to the poor, or by people who simply enjoy picking their own food from the source!

While farmers aren’t obliged to leave food in the field for the poor anymore, modern harvesting methods mean that the gleanings are often richer than they have been in the past. Modern farm workers may not take imperfect or fully ripe fruits or vegetables that won’t store, package, ship or sell as well, and mechanical harvesters may only take crops of a certain size or shape; in the case of a market-driven decision not to harvest, the entire crop might be allowed to rot in the field because the farmer can’t make a profit by selling it. And modern gleaners are well aware of this bounty: there are many groups that specialize in gathering unwanted food either for the use by the gleaners themselves, or to redistribute to those who need it.

If you are interested trying out gleaning, whether you’re looking for a way to give back to your community, to get involved in your local agricultural scene, to enjoy the fun of the harvest, to figure out how to feed your family for less – or all of the above! --- there’s a wealth of information and possibilities available. Click a tab above to see a list of organizations and websites devoted to the practice of gleaning; you can also check with local farms, farmers markets, food banks, churches and charitable organizations, and stores to see if they have gleaning programs that aren’t listed here. Also, click here to send us your gleaning stories and pictures!

Happy Harvesting!

References:
1 = Kantor, L.S., K. Lipton, A. Manchester, and V. Oliveria. 1997. Estimating and addressing America’s food losses. Food Review 20 (1): 2–12.
2 = http://www.endhunger.org/food_waste.html
3= http://californiawatch.org/health-and-welfare/food-waste-remains-persistent-problem-farms-grocery-stories-and-restaurants
4= USDA

Gleaning Resources

Are you interested in getting involved in a gleaning project in your region? Or maybe start agleaning project of your own? Do you have a farm or garden you want gleaners to harvest? Check out the list of resoures below!

We'll add more to the list as we find them, and if you have a good source for gleaning and gleaners that you don't see here, please send it to us so we can share it with other readers!

GleaningStories

Share your gleaning experiences with other people interested the gleaning movement sending us your gleaning stories and pictures!