{"id":19424,"date":"2022-09-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=19424"},"modified":"2022-09-22T10:25:46","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T08:25:46","slug":"waste-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/2022\/09\/20\/waste-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Waste not"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Harvesting can be a messy business; every year some 16% of the crop never leaves our farms. In Kent, Jo Caird <\/strong>meets volunteers who have revived the ancient art of gleaning \u2013 gathering wholesome but unwanted crops and delivering them to people in need <\/p>\n\n

Photos: Sheradon Dublin<\/p>\n\n

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Professional harvesters pick fruit that makes the grade for the big retailers, meaning delicious Braeburns such as these may get left on the tree if they have blemishes, are too small or too green.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The good work of gleaners, such as Elaine Morrison ensures such fruit doesn\u2019t go to waste<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

It\u2019s<\/strong> muddy at the edges of the orchard but, in among the trees, there\u2019s grass underfoot. Still wet with dew, it conceals windfall apples that I try not to tread on as I reach for a shiny Braeburn. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

In the time it takes me to select my apple and carefully twist it from its twig without damaging the tree, those picking beside me \u2013 experienced members of the East Kent Gleaning Group \u2013 have stripped the branches and are moving to the next tree over. This orchard, on Selson Farm in Kent, has already been harvested by a team of professional pickers, but you wouldn\u2019t know it. Farmer David Bradley estimates that around 15% of his crop is typically left unharvested \u2013 too small, too big, too green or with too many marks to meet the specifications of the supermarkets. It\u2019s a source of frustration for him: \u201cThe goodness inside the apple is just the same.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

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Farmer David Bradley invites gleaners on to Selson Farm whenever he has a glut of apples, pears or cherries that he can\u2019t sell <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

That\u2019s why the gleaning group is here: Bradley would much prefer his apples to be eaten than left to rot into the ground. The gleaners will make that happen, picking some of that remaining 15% and distributing it to those in need via community kitchens, food banks and primary schools across East Kent. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

Food waste in farming is an issue all over the UK, with 10\u201316% of food crops wasted before they leave our farms, according to research by the campaigning charity Feedback Global. It\u2019s not just supermarkets\u2019 specifications that are to blame. Overproduction is built into the system so that farmers can guarantee supply in case of poor harvests. Further waste occurs as a result of supermarkets changing their orders at short notice. That 10\u201316% wastage equates to up to 37,000 tonnes of food annually. When you consider that there are five million people in the UK in food poverty \u2013 unable to afford or access enough food to make up a healthy diet \u2013 and that food poverty is worsening, with a 33% increase in food bank use from April 2020 to March 2021, this wastage is especially shocking.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Gleaning \u2013 the gathering of crops left over after the main harvest \u2013 dates back thousands of years. There are references to it in the Bible, with God directing farmers to leave their \u201cgleanings\u201d for the poor as an act of charity. In this country, from around the 16th century, the rural poor relied upon gleaning to supplement their incomes, with women, children and the elderly in competition for leftover cereal crops in particular, which were used for baking bread. It was only the introduction of mechanisation, which increased harvest efficiency, that saw gleaning tail off in the 20th century. It had entirely disappearing by the 1950s. <\/p>\n\n

Now it\u2019s back, but with a twist: volunteer groups such as the one I\u2019m picking with today are gleaning not for themselves, but for those in need, and to help address the challenge of food waste. The scale of the 21st-century gleaning movement is difficult to judge \u2013 there\u2019s no national authority for this hyper-local community activity. But Feedback Global, which set up a network of gleaning groups in 2012, estimates that the dozen or so groups it has directly supported gleaned around 640 tonnes of produce in 2021. With many more groups working independently, the real national figure is likely to be far higher. <\/p>\n\n