![Jean-François Millet - Gleaners - Google Art Project 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_-_Gleaners_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpg)
Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. It is a practice described in the Hebrew Bible that became a legally enforced entitlement of the poor in a number of Christian kingdoms.
Modern day "
dumpster diving
Dumpster diving (also totting, skipping, skip diving or skip salvage) is salvaging from large commercial, residential, industrial and construction containers for unused items discarded by their owners but deemed useful to the picker. It is n ...
", when done for food or culinary ingredients, is seen as a similar form of
food recovery. Gleaning is also still used today to provide nutritious harvested foods for those in need. It is modernly used due to a need for a national network to aid food recovery organizations in the United States. This is called th
National Gleaning Projectwhich was started by the
Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at
Vermont Law and Graduate School to aid those less fortunate much like the old Christian Kingdoms.
Bible
According to the
Book of Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy ( grc, Δευτερονόμιον, Deuteronómion, second law) is the fifth and last book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called (Hebrew: hbo, , Dəḇārīm, hewords Moses.html"_;"title="f_Moses">f_Moseslabel=none)_and_th ...
and
Leviticus,
farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...
s should leave the edges of their fields unharvested (
pe'ah), should not pick up that which was dropped (gleanings), and should not
harvest
Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...
any over-looked produce that had been forgotten when they harvested the majority of a field.
On one of the two occasions that this is stated in Leviticus, it adds that in
vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
s, some grapes should be left ungathered,
a statement also found in Deuteronomy.
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.
According to Leviticus, these things should be left for
the poor and for strangers,
and Deuteronomy commands that it should be left for widows, strangers, and paternal orphans.
The
Book of Ruth
The Book of Ruth ( he, מגילת רות, ''Megilath Ruth'', "the Scroll of Ruth", one of the Five Megillot) is included in the third division, or the Writings (Ketuvim), of the Hebrew Bible. In most Christian canons it is treated as one of the ...
tells of gleaning by the widow Ruth to provide for herself and her mother-in-law, Naomi, who was also a widow.
Rabbinical views
In
classical rabbinic literature
Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writ ...
, it was argued that the biblical regulations concerning left-overs only applied to grain fields,
orchard
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...
s, and vineyards. 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;
['' Hullin'' 131a]['' Pe'ah'' 5:6]Maimonides
Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...
, ''Mishneh Torah'', 4:11 the farmer was not even allowed to help one of the poor to gather the left-overs.
However, it was also argued that the law was only applicable in
Canaan
Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...
, although many classical rabbinic writers, who were based in
Babylon
''Bābili(m)''
* sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠
* arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel''
* syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel''
* grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn''
* he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel''
* peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru''
* elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...
, applied the laws there too; it was also seen as only applying to Jewish paupers, but poor
gentile
Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym for ...
s were allowed to benefit for the sake of civil peace.
Historic European practice
![Gleaning by Arthur Hughes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Gleaning_by_Arthur_Hughes.jpg)
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.
[
In 18th century England, gleaning was a legal right for "cottagers", or landless residents. In a small ]village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
the sexton would 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. This legal right effectively ended after the '' Steel v Houghton'' decision in 1788.
Modern times
The Shulchan Aruch
The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in Is ...
argues that Jewish farmers are no longer obliged to obey the biblical rule. Nevertheless, in modern Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, rabbis of Orthodox Judaism insist that Jews allow ''gleanings'' to be consumed by the poor and by strangers during Sabbatical years.
In the modern world, gleaning is practised by humanitarian
Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...
groups which distribute the gleaned food to the poor and hungry; in a modern context, this can include the collection of food from supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
s at 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; the Society of St. Andrew
The Society of St. Andrew (SoSA) is a grassroots, faith-based, hunger relief nonprofit working with all denominations to bridge the hunger gap between 96 billion pounds ( billion kilograms) of food wasted every year in the United States and the ne ...
, for example, is dedicated to the role.
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.
When people glean and distribute food, they may be bringing themselves legal risk; in the Soviet Union, the Law of Spikelets
The Law of Spikelets or Law of Three Spikelets (russian: Закон о трёх колосках, Закон о пяти колосках, Закон семь-восемь) was a decree in the Soviet Union to protect state property of kolkhozes (So ...
(sometimes translated "law on gleaning") criminalised gleaning, under penalty of death, or 10 years of forced labour in exceptional circumstances. In the U.S., the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act of 1996
The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act was created to encourage food donation to nonprofit organizations by minimizing liability. Signed into United States law by President Bill Clinton, this law, named after Representative Bill Emerson ...
limited 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 state Good Samaritan Act
Good Samaritan laws offer legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are, or whom they believe to be injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated.[Agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...]
sector to financially sustain gleaning nationally, and sanctions the distribution of the vegetables harvested from Gleaning. These and many more laws on the State and Federal Level as it relates to Gleaning Level can be foun
here.
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.
Gleaning in art
Gleaning was a popular subject in art, especially in the nineteenth century. Gleaning in rural France has been represented in the paintings '' Des Glaneuses'' (1857) by Jean-François Millet and ''Le rappel des glaneuses'' (1859) by Jules Breton, and explored in a 2000 documentary/experimental film, '' The Gleaners and I'', by Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film ...
. Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...
's sketch of a ''Peasant Woman Gleaning'' in Nuenen, The Netherlands (1885) is in the Charles Clore collection.
File:The Gleaner - Jules Breton - ABDAG002172.jpg, alt=Female figure in black skirt and white top holding gathered crops, Jules Breton, The Gleaner, 1875, Aberdeen Art Gallery
File:Jean-François Millet - Gleaners - Google Art Project 2.jpg, alt=Three figures in a field in the act of gathering leftover crops, Jean-François Millet, Des Glaneuses, 1857
File:Jules Breton-Le Rappel des glaneuses.jpg, alt=Scene of many female figures gathering leftover crops in a field, Jules Breton, Le Rappel des glaneuses, 1859
File:Lhermitte-Les Glaneuses-1898.jpg, Léon Augustin Lhermitte
Léon Augustin Lhermitte (31 July 1844, Mont-Saint-Père – 28 July 1925, Paris) was a French naturalist painter and etcher whose primary subject matter was rural scenes depicting peasants at work.
Life and work
He was a student of Lec ...
, Les glaneuses, 1898
Woolgathering
Woolgathering is a practice similar to gleaning, but for wool. The practice, now obsolete, 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.
Fishing
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".[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. . ]
Material was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
gleaning (walking) fisheries are common within intertidal seagrass meadows
A seagrass meadow or seagrass bed is an underwater ecosystem formed by seagrasses. Seagrasses are marine (saltwater) plants found in shallow coastal waters and in the brackish waters of estuaries. Seagrasses are flowering plants with stems and ...
globally, contributing to the food supply of hundreds of millions of people.[Nessa, 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. . ]
Material was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Ecological gleaning
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 on ''Eucalyptus'' sp. leaves.
Many fish forage by picking off small food items from hard surfaces, another example of ecological gleaning.
See also
*Canner (occupation)
A canner participates in canning, the collection and redemption of deposit-marked beverage containers for recycling. Canning is an activity undertaken by individuals or small teams, typically to earn an income. Canning is only possible in nation ...
*Dumpster diving
Dumpster diving (also totting, skipping, skip diving or skip salvage) is salvaging from large commercial, residential, industrial and construction containers for unused items discarded by their owners but deemed useful to the picker. It is n ...
* Food Bank
*Food rescue
Food rescue, also called food recovery, food salvage or surplus food redistribution, is the practice of gleaning edible food that would otherwise go to waste from places such as farms, produce markets, grocery stores, restaurants, or dining facilit ...
*Food Salvage
Food rescue, also called food recovery, food salvage or surplus food redistribution, is the practice of gleaning edible food that would otherwise go to waste from places such as farms, produce markets, grocery stores, restaurants, or dining facilit ...
*Freeganism
Freeganism is an ideology of limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources, particularly through recovering wasted goods like food. The word "freegan" is a portmanteau of "free" and "vegan". While vegans ...
*Tzedakah
''Tzedakah'' or ''Ṣedaqah'' ( he, צדקה ) is a Hebrew word meaning "righteousness", but commonly used to signify ''charity''. This concept of "charity" differs from the modern Western understanding of "charity". The latter is typically un ...
*Usufruct
Usufruct () is a limited real right (or ''in rem'' right) found in civil-law and mixed jurisdictions that unites the two property interests of ''usus'' and ''fructus'':
* ''Usus'' (''use'') is the right to use or enjoy a thing possessed, directl ...
*Waste picker
A waste picker is a person who salvages reusable or recyclable materials thrown away by others to sell or for personal consumption. There are millions of waste pickers worldwide, predominantly in developing countries, but increasingly in post-in ...
References
External links
{{Commons category
Gleaning Stories
Stories of Gleaning and Gleaners
Waste collection
Welfare
Informal occupations
Harvest
Food security
Foraging
Food and drink in Christianity
Food and drink in Judaism
The National Gleaning Project