Voluntary Harvesting Edit
Guerrilla Initiatve Puts Unwanted, Unpicked Fruit to Use

Many of us don’t realize the full food potential of the fruit-bearing trees in our backyard; the practice of voluntary harvesting ensures these unused and unwanted edibles don’t go to waste.

There are a number of voluntary harvesting collectives in place across the United States. In Berkeley, the North Berkeley Harvest goes door to door picking fruit from the yards of people’s homes and donates their bounty to non-profit organizations. Trend Central also reports that there are similar voluntary harvesting outposts in Arizona, Los Angeles and the Silicon Valley.

As its name implies, voluntary harvesting depends completely on the permission of the fruit tree’s owner. The purpose of voluntary harvesting is to make the best use of food that would otherwise have gone to waste, not to steal fruit from people’s yards. It’s a clever guerrilla take on food waste.