Hello all!
Thus far we have discussed agriculture from several
different perspectives. We've looked at historical and ancestral connections to
land, human rights violations endemic in much large-scale agriculture, the
organic movement, and the economic theory behind agriculture as it stands today
in the US. Since food waste can occur during all parts of the process of
growing, distributing, and eating food, I thought it would be interesting to
learn more about food waste and different tactics for minimizing it. My
awareness of problems in agriculture began with an awareness of the massive
food waste in the US when I started high school, and I have found that it is a
relatable entry point into discussions of sustainability, since most people
that I've talked to have witnessed egregious food waste at some point in their
life. Kalamazoo College also facilitates a "Clean Plate Week" every
year, as you may have seen or participated in if you eat in the cafeteria.
During my portion of class on Thursday, I'd love to
show a short segment of the French documentary The Gleaners and I (French title: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse) by Agnes Varda. Gleaning, according to Wikipedia, 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." This practice has an interesting history,
having been enforced by law in Europe due to Biblical writings stating that
farmers should leave portions of their farms unharvested for folks who were
poor and who were strangers.
Today, gleaning includes gathering the food from supermarkets, restaurants,
etc. that would be thrown away at the end of the day (also known as 'food
rescue' or 'food salvage'), as well as 'dumpster diving.' The definition of gleaning from the USDA might then be more salient for our purposes: "Gleaning is simply the act of collecting
excess fresh foods from farms, gardens, farmers markets, grocers, restaurants,
state/county fairs, or any other sources in order to provide it to those in
need" (also check out the USDA Gleaning Toolkit from which this definition came; it's pretty cool).
As we'll see from the documentary, individual people and
nations have many different, often very strong, opinions about gleaning. Dumpster
diving is currently legal in the United States, as of the 1988 California vs. Greenwood case, which
ruled that there is no common law expectation of privacy for discarded
materials. However,
it is illegal in Belgium, Germany, and is loosely enforced in many other
countries. Cities and counties have the right to designate certain garbageprocessing areas as off-limits to the public.
Legal persecution of dumpster diving, and other forms of gleaning, is often related to trespassing, vandalism,
privacy, and liability (e.g. concerning people who are injured on a company's
property).
In preparation for the discussion on Thursday, I'd love for
you to share your perspectives on dumpster diving and other forms of gleaning,
particularly from the standpoints of legality and sustainability.
Here are a few questions to consider in your responses:
1. How do you feel about dumpster diving? Are there any
barriers to making it legal in all areas that seem insurmountable (or that
shouldn't be surmounted)? What do you think about other forms of gleaning (such
as its original meaning of picking up unharvested food from fields)? Is there a
way to regulate it, or should it be left to individuals to do on their own?
2. Have you ever dumpster-dove, or participated in food
recovery in a different way? If so, how was that experience for you? If not,
what (if any) form of food recovery appeals to you?
3. Are there alternative ways to distribute food that is 'on
the brink' of spoiling, to satisfy business owners and consumers? It might help
to take a look at TrashWiki(http://trashwiki.org/en/Main_Page), especially at
their article with tips for business owners who do not want dumpster divers on
their property (http://trashwiki.org/en/How_to_prevent_dumpster_diving).
4. If you are so inclined, look up a grocery store or
restaurant that you frequent often and try to determine whether they allow
dumpster diving. If it's not posted on their website, you could try calling;
after all, it's legal in most of the US!
This topic is really interesting to me as I have always wondered why food is often thrown away from many grocery stores and food services even when they are still edible and okay to eat. That food would obviously serve a better purpose if it was feeding someone rather than being wasted and thrown in the garbage. As someone who has worked in food service and has had to throw food away that was perfectly okay to eat and even turn people away who ask for the food we are planning to throw away, this waste of food honestly does not make any sense to me.
ReplyDeleteConsidering dumpster diving, I think one of the main issues standing in the way of making it legal in all areas is that many businesses want to discourage dumpster divers in order to keep it from becoming a regular occurrence. I think this has to do with the negative connotation behind dumpster diving, which kind of does not make sense since it is a way of reducing waste and the stuff in the dumpsters is already being thrown out anyway. So, I think the connotation surrounding dumpster diving needs to be changed and viewed more positively as a way of diminishing waste in order for businesses to be more open to dumpster diving.
I have never dumpster dove myself, however, I think the original form of gleaning sounds like an interesting practice to take part in. Picking up unharvested food from fields would also reduce waste and give people the possibility of gathering fresh produce that would have gone to waste. However, I feel like issues may come in here as those who own the land of those unharvested crops may want compensation for crops taken from their lands even if they went unharvested. So, I feel like gleaning in this sense would be very difficult to do today unless it was regulated in some way, but I'm unsure of how it could be.
I think an alternative way of distributing food that may be close to spoiling would be giving it to local food pantries as soon as possible so that they can distribute it. Food pantries where I'm from very often distribute a lot of foods that may last long but may not be very healthy. Therefore, I think providing food pantries with produce, even if it is close to spoiling, is better than just allowing it to go to waste and only distributing unhealthy foods in its place.
I often grocery shop at large chains such as Walmart or Sam's Club, which I found are both actually pretty accessible when it comes to dumpster diving. However, in researching this, I found that some chains, such as Costco, make it inaccessible to dumpster dive due to their use of food compactors, which is something I did not think about before.
Wow, I had no idea that the USDA had a gleaning toolkit. I don't know why I'm surprised by that, but I am! I've never dumpster-dove for food, but I've dove for other stuff, including cardboard to use in sheet mulching our gardens. John has a story about diving for food, though. I'll let him tell it.
ReplyDeleteThe main legal obstacles I see to dumpster-diving and field gleaning would be liability issues; that property owners might be concerned that they might be held liable if gleaners were injured on their property. The other logistical obstacle to field gleaning that I can imagine is the transportation necessary to get people to farms and the time necessary to do the gleaning itself. We frequently invite people to come glean at the end of the season, but aside from our scheduled harvest party, no one really takes us up on that offer, I think mostly because no one feels like they have time to do it. I guess the other issue with field gleaning during the season could be that if gleaners don't know what they are doing they could damage subsequent crops.
Having volunteers pick up produce from farmer's markets or grocery stores seems more practical in our current culture. France has actually made it illegal for grocery stores to throw out edible food: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/02/24/586579455/french-food-waste-law-changing-how-grocery-stores-approach-excess-food.
In Kalamazoo, there have been a couple of farmer's market gleaning efforts that I'm aware of. Tabitha Farm did a free farm stand for a number of years: http://www.secondwavemedia.com/southwest-michigan/features/tabithafarms0627.aspx
I think Peace House is still doing one as far as I know: http://www.peacehousekzoo.org/about-peace-house/
I also did some quick research into the Kalamazoo Farmer's Market and found this: "Beyond striving for honesty and transparency, a worthwhile Kalamazoo goal is becoming a zero waste market. Already the first event to offer composting in addition to recycling and landfill, last season the market partnered up with Kalamazoo Loaves and Fishes to lessen the amount of food waste in their community. “Loaves and Fishes approached us after a vendor who owns a bakery mentioned that they should consider gleaning on market days. We fully support getting extra food to those in need and ensuring that it doesn’t go to waste, so it was a no brainer for us to help them out.” explains Gerken. Volunteers came down on Saturdays at closing time to collect vendor donations and then bring the loot back to be sorted in their warehouse. Over four months, the vendor donations amounted to over 27,561 pounds of fresh food, or the equivalent of 22,968 meals. The market plans to have a food drive this August where market go-ers can buy an extra bunch for the group."
I think dumpster diving is a really good way to reclaim food that is often fine. I actually think the reason so much food goes to waste can be related back to our ignorance about food, in a way. How many people actually know ways to test whether a food is good for consumption or not? For example, how many people know that a bowl of cold water can be used to determine whether eggs are safe for consumption? Lack of awareness of food, combined with a litigious society, mean that grocery stores are often better off hedging their bets by removing food from shelves if there is even a chance it is expired. I really recommend the movie "Dive," as it follows a group of dumpster divers and the incredible amount and quality of food they procure. I think the biggest barrier, from an economic standpoint, is that dumpster divers can effectively cheat grocery stores. By obtaining all or most of their food via gleaning, consumers can avoid paying for much of their food which removes potential customers from the business. I think this is a bad reason to prohibit gleaning, as gleaning is a natural consequence of practices embraced by grocery stores, but I see the logic employed in deterring gleaning because of this reason. I think the only way to truly deter gleaning is to make sure that unused food does go to use somehow, and think donations to food kitchens and pantries is a great way to do this.
ReplyDeleteI've gone dumpster diving in the past, sporadically, and had a few "pros" teach me or tell what's what. One of these was a dedicated freegan, or someone who has wholly dedicated themselves to eating for free by living off of society's excess. I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with dumpster diving and agree with Josh's point that the removal of potential customers is a poor reason to prohibit gleaning; laws should mandate open access to dumpsters and that supermarkets should have to pass their excess food to a local charity. I do think it's unfortunate that by the layout of many US towns and cities (like Kalamazoo) food deserts mean that oftentimes the extremely needy don't have access to bountiful dumpsters. Farm-picking on the other hand, leaves too much open to interpretation in the phrase "reasonable amount" to not be abused.
ReplyDeleteI have never dumpster-dove, probably because I've never needed to so the thought never really crossed my mind. However, I have participated in gleaning through my church at home in the past. At least once a week, someone (or a group of people, often youth) would gather all the left over food from church events and take it to downtown Detroit to pass out in parks or "sister churches." I never really knew there was a term for something like this! I don't understand why something like gleaning or dumpster diving should even be considered to be illegal. It makes no sense to waste perfectly good food, and even if it isn't fit to sell, why would it affect businesses if someone were to take what they had already given up? I think gleaning is an important part of sustaining certain communities and to make it illegal would just perpetuate the class imbalance that is already so prevalent in our society. Like Brad said, it's interesting to think that not only do certain communities not have access to quality food supplies/stores and are in a food desert, but because of this often do not have access to plentiful dumpsters. I think it would be really beneficial for everyone if more stores, restaurants, or markets were to create programs that focus on gleaning or dumpster-diving and promote sustainable communities.
ReplyDeleteLike many previous responders, I solidly approve of gleaning. Growing up dumpster diving was a way to practice stealth, so my friends and I would search for the best dumpsters and come with the proper tools to de-bolt locks. Good fun. I wonder how protecting people against identity theft factors into the conversation about dumpster diving's legality. I wonder if increased centralization and control of "spoiled" food products would increase the standard of living for people who rely on gleaning, or whether the reduction of food in dumpsters would force people to go to shelters to retrieve the food. As for gleaning on fields, I just don't imagine people choosing to do that. Or, rather, it seems like the social spaces where people would even have that as an option are very limited.
ReplyDeleteI have gone dumpster diving a few times, and had a friend that lived solely off dumpster food for nearly 6 months without buying any food. The amount of food wasted is crazy, because so much of it is perfectly good for eating. I hadn’t heard of gleaning before but it seems like a great distribution or use of left over crops.
ReplyDeleteOne liability issue is food safety, supermarkets probably can’t have any gurantee for food once it leaves the market, and other critters that may carry diesease are likely to be in the dumpsters. Similarly with gleaning people should be aware of food safety issues, and what crops may still be good for eating and which might get you sick.
I absolutely believe gleaning and dumpster diving should be legal and made easily accessible for people to do. I can imagine liability issues, but there must be a legal way around this because there are so many benefits like reduced waste and social welfare. However, these benefits may not be relevant to business owners because it is an extra accommodation they must make, sometimes sacrificing their process/efficiency. In order for gleaning to really work, I believe there should be financial incentives at the local/regional, state and/or federal levels for business owners to adopt pro-gleaning/food recovery practices. I think that large-scale field gleaning needs more regulation than dumpster-diving policies, but both should be incentivized. I have never dumpster-dove or participated in food recovery, but food recovery seems like a viable way to distribute food to those in need of it. Food recovery as a system should be invested in because often businesses would like to donate their leftover goods to a charity, but it costs them too much to do so.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of gleaning is very interesting and something that does not get talked about.
ReplyDeleteBefore this class, I did not really think of how to get rid of food waste with other possible solutions. There are nearby farmers markets in my hometown that enforced this practice but other managers of these market and individual vendors do not show that’s their thing. It could be that gleaning requires effort from volunteers within community groups and gets talked about less in school. I would often see youth groups participate in gleaning and dumpster diving. My feelings for ‘dumpster diving’ is often associated with helping out the homeless. From downtown to the fashion district of Los Angeles, homeless people are sometimes seen diving and looking for possible foods from the nearby grocery market or outside a restaurants. According to the People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) organization, they state, “The 2016 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count determined that there are 46,874 individuals experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County on any given night, 34,701 of who go unsheltered- they literally live on the street” (http://www.epath.org). I also found an article on how bringing organic fruits from the farmer’s market to Skid Row, serves as a form of gleaning, especially when dumpster diving is still seen as unsanitized (https://capitalandmain.com/organic-oranges-for-the-homeless-bringing-good-food-to-skid-row-0911).