"Gleaning"

I discovered that I could read the magazine "Natural Health" online through the Toronto Public Library.  (Love you, TPL!)  However, I don't think I'm going to get through more than one issue - it's not what I'm looking for.  First of all, I notice in the editor's intro that they're going to help with my fall wardrobe.  Oh goody!  Wait... how does that relate to my health?  Do their readers tend not to dress warmly enough and get hypothermia in the winter?  Hm.

On to the articles.  Maybe that will be better.  Oh... nope.  Here's a maddening quote: 

Millions of pounds of edible yet cosmetically unsellable produce would be left to rot on farms across the nation if it weren't for the thousands of volunteers who collect food for people in need. Groups like Glean for the City in Virginia, the D.C. Central Kitchen and the national Society of St. Andrew Gleaning Network organize "gleaners," who gather food left behind after harvest, a practice that dates back to the Bible's Old Testament. To find out more, donate or volunteer, visit endhunger.org.

Here's an idea... let's stop worrying about the 'cosmetics' of the food!  Ship it all to the grocery stores and let consumers find out what green beans or apples really look like, not just the top however-many percent of it.  We'd need less farmland to produce food, have enough for everyone, and reduce the amount of oil-intensive fertilizers that are needed.

On the island last week, while running errands, we happened to drive from the hardware store to the grocery store.  Since the hardware store is a little ways out of town, we drove past fields, and in the thin strips of trees and bushes between fields I counted five trees heavy with ripe, red apples.  It was a gorgeous site, although I felt bad knowing that most of those apples are just going to fall to the ground and provide fertilizer for the tree, not food for people.

Then we got to the grocery store.  What did I find?  New Zealand apples for sale.  I was speechless.