Wikipedia

Gleaning

This article is about the agricultural process. For the bird feeding behaviour, seeGleaning (birds).
"Glean" redirects here. For the album by They Might Be Giants, seeGlean (album).

Gleaningis the act of collecting leftover crops in the field after harvest. During harvest, there is food that is left or missed often because it does not meet store standards for uniformity. Sometimes, fields are left because they were not economically profitable to harvest.[1][2]In modern times, gleaning is used to provide fresh foods to those in need. "Dumpster diving",when done for food or culinary ingredients, is seen as a similar form offood recovery.[3]There are multiple organizations that support gleaning, including theGleaning Networkin the UK, and the National Gleaning Project in the United States.[4][5]Both organizations have worked on national networks to connect modern gleaning and food recovery organizations.[4][5]

The GleanersbyJean-François Millet,1857

History

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The termgleanwas first used in English in the 14th Century, and meant both "to gather grain or other produce left by reapers" and "to gather information or material bit by bit".[6]It has roots in Middle English (glenen),Anglo-French (glener), and Late Latin (glen(n)ō( “make a collection).[6]Gleaning is referred to throughout history, including biblical references in the books ofLeviticusandDeuteronomy.[2]Gleaning has long been a part of agricultural calendar and process, and was practiced widely by the rural poor during the 16th and 17th Centuries. Additionally, as much as one-eight of labour-based households' annual earnings came from gleaning in the 18th and 19th Centuries.[2]Technology of the mid-19th Century would heavily reduce gleaning globally.

In the Bible

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According to the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, farmers should leave the edges of their fields unharvested (pe'ah), should not pick up that which was dropped (gleanings), and should notharvestany overlooked produce that had been forgotten when they harvested the majority of a field.[7][8][9]On one of the two occasions that this is stated in Leviticus, it adds that invineyards,some grapes should be left ungathered,[10]a statement also found in Deuteronomy.[11]

These verses additionally command that olive trees should not be beaten on multiple occasions, and whatever remains from the first set of beatings should be left.[12]According to Leviticus, these things should be left forthe poorand for strangers,[8][10]and Deuteronomy commands that it should be left for widows, strangers, and paternal orphans.[9][11][12]TheBook of Ruthtells of gleaning by the widow Ruth to provide for herself and her mother-in-law, Naomi, who was also a widow.[13]

Rabbinical view

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Inclassical rabbinic literature,it was argued that the biblical regulations concerning left-overs only applied to grain fields,orchards,and vineyards.[14]The farmer was not permitted to benefit from the gleanings, and was not permitted to discriminate among the poor, nor try to frighten them away with dogs or lions;[15][16][17]the farmer was not even allowed to help one of the poor to gather the left-overs.[15][16][17]However, it was also argued that the law was only applicable inCanaan,[18]although many classical rabbinic writers, who were based inBabylon,applied the laws there too;[19][20]it was also seen as only applying to Jewish paupers, but poorgentileswere allowed to benefit for the sake of civil peace.[21]

Historic European practice

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GleaningbyArthur Hughes

In many parts of Europe, including England and France, the Biblically derived right to glean the fields was reserved for the poor; a right, enforceable by law, that continued in parts of Europe into modern times.[2][22]

In 18th century England, gleaning was a legal right for "cottagers", or landless residents. In a smallvillagethesextonwould often ring a church bell at eight o'clock in the morning and again at seven in the evening to tell the gleaners when to begin and end work.[23]This legal right effectively ended after theSteel v Houghtondecision in 1788.

Modern times

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Impoverished Germans gleaning in 1956

Gleaning events occur wherever food is in excess. In addition to supermarkets, gleaning can also occur at farms in the field. Volunteers, called gleaners, visit a farm where the farmer donates what is left in their fields to collect and donate to a food bank. In New York State in 2010, this form of gleaning alone rescued 3.6 million pounds of fruits and vegetables.[24]

When people glean and distribute food, they do so at their peril; in the Soviet Union, theLaw of Spikelets(sometimes translated "law on gleaning" )[25]criminalised gleaning, under penalty of death, or 10 years of forced labour in exceptional circumstances.[26]In the U.S., theBill Emerson Good Samaritan Act of 1996limited the liability of donors to instances of gross negligence or intentional misconduct, alleviating gleaning from much of the risk that was allegedly hampering the delivery of surplus food from restaurants and dining facilities to emergency food centers. The law preempts stateGood Samaritan Acts,that provide less protection.[27]

TheShulchan Aruchargues that Jewish farmers are no longer obliged to obey the biblical rule.[28]Nevertheless, in modernIsrael,rabbis of Orthodox Judaism insist that Jews allowgleaningsto be consumed by the poor and by strangers duringSabbatical years.[29]On the island of Bali, traditional law allows fruit from a tree to be picked by the passerby from the ground—even if the tree is on privately owned land.[citation needed]

Currently, gleaning is often practiced byhumanitarianand social groups[30]which distribute the gleaned food to the poor and hungry; in a modern context, this can include the collection of food fromsupermarketsat the end of the day that would otherwise be thrown away. There are a number of organizations that practice gleaning to resolve issues of societal hunger; theSociety of St. Andrewand theBoston Area Gleaners,for example.[31][32]

In the United States there are also laws that support and sanction gleaning and the National Gleaning Project, created by the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems atVermont Law and Graduate Schoolconnected modern gleaning and food recovery organizations across the United States while providing related policy and law resources, and examples of handbooks, waivers, and other documents organizations may utilize.[5]These laws allow corporations to receive grants for the use of gleaning, mandates the agriculture sector to financially sustain gleaning nationally, and sanctions the distribution of the vegetables harvested from gleaning.[5]In 2020, there were 143 gleaning organizations in the United States and Canada combined, harvesting anywhere from 163,000-5.2 million pounds of food gleaned in the year.[33]

Gleaning in art

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Gleaning was a popular subject in art, especially in the nineteenth century. Gleaning in rural France has been represented in the paintingsDes Glaneuses(1857) byJean-François MilletandLe rappel des glaneuses(1859) byJules Breton,and explored in a 2000 documentary/experimental film,The Gleaners and I,byAgnès Varda.[34]Vincent van Gogh's sketch of aPeasant Woman GleaninginNuenen,The Netherlands (1885) is in theCharles Clorecollection.[35]

Woolgathering

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"Woolgatherer" redirects here. For the play by William Mastrosimone, seeThe Woolgatherer.
"Woolgathering" redirects here. For the book by Patti Smith, seeWoolgathering (book).
Gathering WoolbyHenry Herbert La Thangue

Woolgathering is a practice similar to gleaning, but for wool. The practice was of collecting bits of wool that had gotten caught on bushes and fences or fallen on the ground as sheep passed by. The meandering perambulations of a woolgatherer give rise to the idiomatic sense of the word as meaning aimless wandering of the mind.[36]

Fishing

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Gleaning in aseagrass meadow[37]

Along marine coastlines, gleaning has been defined as "fishing with basic gear, including bare hands, in shallow water not deeper than that one can stand".[38]Invertebrategleaning (walking) fisheries are common within coastal (intertidal) ecosystems globally, contributing to the food supply of coastal communities.[37][39][40][41][42]

Ecological gleaning

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The term gleaning is also applied to modes of feeding which involve taking food from surfaces. For example, in Australia pardalotes (small songbirds) are renowned for their feeding on lerps, scale insects onEucalyptussp. leaves.

Many fish forage by picking off small food items from hard surfaces, another example of ecological gleaning.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Sands, Crystal (2022-09-30)."'Tis the Season For Gleaning ".Modern Farmer.Retrieved2024-11-22.
  2. ^abcdHussey, Stephen (1997). "'The Last Survivor of an Ancient Race': The Changing Face of Essex Gleaning ".The Agricultural History Review.45(1): 61–72.JSTOR40275132.
  3. ^Marshman, Jennifer; Scott, Steffanie (January 2019)."Gleaning in the 21st century: Urban food recovery and community food security in Ontario, Canada".Canadian Food Studies.6(1): 100–119.doi:10.15353/cfs-rcea.v6i1.264.hdl:10012/9736.Retrieved1 December2020.
  4. ^ab"About".Gleaning Network.Retrieved2024-11-22.
  5. ^abcd"Laws, Resources, & Organizations for Gleaning & Food Recovery - National Gleaning Project".National Gleaning Project | Gleaning-related resources.2018-12-11.Retrieved2024-11-22.
  6. ^ab"Definition of GLEAN".merriam-webster.2024-11-18.Retrieved2024-11-22.
  7. ^Leviticus 19:9
  8. ^abLeviticus 23:22
  9. ^abDeuteronomy 24:19
  10. ^abLeviticus 19:10
  11. ^abDeuteronomy 24:21
  12. ^abDeuteronomy 24:20
  13. ^Ruth 2:2
  14. ^This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Singer, Isidore;et al., eds. (1901–1906)."Gleanings of the field".The Jewish Encyclopedia.New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
  15. ^abHullin131a
  16. ^abPe'ah5:6
  17. ^abMaimonides,Mishneh Torah,4:11
  18. ^Pe'ah2:5 (Palestinian Talmud)
  19. ^Hullin134b
  20. ^Maimonides,Mishneh Torah,1:14
  21. ^Gittin59b
  22. ^Vardi, Liana (1993). "Construing the Harvest: Gleaners, Farmers, and Officials in Early Modern France".The American Historical Review.98(5): 1424–447.doi:10.2307/2167061.JSTOR2167061.
  23. ^L W Cowrie (1996)Dictionary of British Social HistoryWordsworth Reference p.130ISBN1-85326-378-8
  24. ^Lee, Deishen; Sönmez, Erkut; Gómez, Miguel; Fan, Xiaoli (April 2017)."Combining two wrongs to make two rights: Mitigating food insecurity and food waste through gleaning operations".Food Policy.68:40–52.doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2016.12.004.
  25. ^Polian, PM(2004).Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR.Central European University Press. p. 87.ISBN978-963-9241-68-8.
  26. ^Solomon, Peter (1996).Soviet Criminal Justice Under Stalin.Cambridge University Press. pp. 109–116.ISBN978-0-521-40089-3.
  27. ^"MEMORANDUM FOR JAMES S. GILLILAND, GENERAL COUNSEL, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE".March 10, 1997.
  28. ^Shulchan Aruk,Yoreh De'ah332:1
  29. ^"Israel prepares for 'fallow' new year".BBC News.2007-09-12.Retrieved2010-05-03.
  30. ^"Food in Community: keeping community groups fed in Totnes".The Guardian.March 27, 2014.
  31. ^"Gleaning Network".EndHunger.Retrieved2024-11-22.
  32. ^"Boston Area Gleaners".Boston Area Gleaners.Retrieved2024-11-22.
  33. ^Peterson, Shawn (2020)."2020 Gleaning Census"(PDF).National Gleaning Project.p. 63.RetrievedNovember 7,2022.
  34. ^Callenbach, Ernest. "The Gleaners and I (Les Glaneurs Et La Glaneuse)".Film Quarterly,vol. 56, no. 2 (2002): 46–49.doi:10.1525/fq.2002.56.2.46
  35. ^"Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings".vggallery.
  36. ^"Woolgathering".Merriam-Webster online dictionary.RetrievedDecember 18,2019.
  37. ^abNessa, N., Ambo-Rappe, R., Cullen-Unsworth, L.C. and Unsworth, R.K.F. (2019) "Social-ecological drivers and dynamics of seagrass gleaning fisheries".Ambio,pages 1–11.doi:10.1007/s13280-019-01267-x.
  38. ^Nordlund, L.M., Unsworth, R.K., Gullström, M. and Cullen‐Unsworth, L.C. (2018) "Global significance of seagrass fishery activity. Fish and Fisheries",19(3): 399–412.doi:10.1111/faf.12259.Material was copied from this source, which is available under aCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
  39. ^Aldea, K.Q. (2023) ‘Macroinvertebrate gleaning in coastal ecosystems: utilization, pressures, and implications for conservation’, AACL Bioflux, 16(3), pp. 1331-1345. Available at:http:// bioflux.ro/docs/2023.1331-1345.pdf.Material was copied from this source, which is available under aCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
  40. ^Stiepani, J., Sandig, A. and Blicharska, M. (2023) ‘The Where, the How, and the Why of the gleaning fishery: Livelihoods, food security, threats and management on the island of Malalison, Philippines’, Ocean & Coastal Management, 244, p. 106806. Available at:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2023.106806.
  41. ^Stiepani, J., Jiddawi, N. and Mtwana Nordlund, L. (2023) ‘Social-ecological system analysis of an invertebrate gleaning fishery on the island of Unguja, Zanzibar’, Ambio, 52(1), pp. 140–154. Available at:https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01769-1.
  42. ^Stiepani, J. (2024) ‘Changing Coastlines of the Indo-Pacific : Local livelihoods and use of ecosystem resources from a social-ecological systems perspective’. Available at:https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-526284(Accessed: 7 May 2024).
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