Les glaneurs glanent

I am listening to an interview with a 'glaneur'on the radio.

'Glaner' means to glean, to gather, or harvest. 'Glaneurs' arrive at the end of a harvest and salvage damaged and rejected produce deemed too imperfect for industry; they arrive at local markets as they shut down, and recuperate anything that can still be eaten or used. Artists can also be glaneurs, but this interview was with a man whose very nutrition depends on 'glaning' to survive. What impressed me was his upbeat nature, despite living on the street for a year and a half.

Liked his attitude better than his unsympathetic interviewer. In a country where eloquent, sometimes empty (a cultural judgement, I recognize) debate is such a part of the fabric of interaction, this interviewer comes across as unprepared, disinterested, and rather too well-fed, il fait son job, quoi.

Alarming is the growing competition: the glaneur noticing more and more salvagers, scavengers, competing for the same slim returns. Is this happening in the states too?

I note that he is not on strike today, no time.

Jean-François Millet painted back-breaking scenes of les glaneuses more than 150 years ago, and Agnes Varda centered a documentary on this way of life in 2000, injecting herself, the filmmaker, as glaneuse.

I suspect it would do us all a bit of good, if not to glaner, at least to stretch whatever we have that much further, and move a step away from our habits of inconspicuous consumption. And I suspect the world economy is going to have a hand in helping us in that direction. That's encouraging!