Freegans

Freeganism is the practice of minimising one's impact on the environment by means of consuming food that has been thrown away by someone else (e.g. supermarkets).

"In the meantime, rather than practising veganism, I practise "freeganism." I know that as long as I participate in the mainstream economy, whether I am buying vegan or non-vegan products, I am supporting the corporations which represent world capitalism. So rather than just buying animal-friendly products, I try to purchase as few products as possible."

From crimethinc

The Freegans don't believe we are using our food allocations properly...too much waste. They are more than willing to pick up what we throw away. Original article Newsday.com
There are two thoughts behind the movement...one is that food is being wasted en masse...and that is the more revoluntionary school or practice. The other side of freeganism is simply the cost effective side of people willing to eat "fresh" food that specialty markets and restaurants have tossed. These are people who are not particulary picky about their food...but more than willing to NOT PAY for food from stores that is going to waste. In either case one has to know where to go to get the products and when to show up.

Let's face it...eating food from a dumpster (no matter how clean or recent the dumping) throws lot of people off...but the whole hunter/gatherer aspect of freegans is appealing to a growing set of the sub-culture. Whether that be shoplifitng for survival or table-scrapping/dumpster-diving for sustenance...some people are looking HARD at ways to avoid...being in the "system".

Comments

[rockie]

In the early 70's I went to a 2 year college that taught "dumpster diving" in an economics class (I got an A). That was before trash compactors, and so every large chain grocery store was fair game. It was amazing, the abundance of food. Most of it was thrown away based on looks alone...almost enough to make you go anarchaic, huh?...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Joseph_Proudhon

[jamie dobie]

I'm a film student and an aspiring documentary filmmaker in Chicago. I'm looking to do a documentary on freegans so, if anyone know of any freegans in the Chicago area, please e-mail me at [email protected]!

[bratneyspears]

I'm with cancer. I did some dumpster diving after that Las Vegas wedding fiasco and it wasn't so bad. I personally found it a refreshing change to Spago and the like.

We are a wasteful society, I'll give you that. But if you don't like the way things are, why not move to some foreign country - like Louisiana.

[cancer]

gotta go against the grain here. I'm not being sarcastic when I say I think this is a good thing. The fact is, we do waste too much food, and many food industries have ridiculous rules about how to handle unused quantities of food. I've dived in a few dumpsters myself when I was hitch-hiking, and the abundance of perfectly good food being thrown away would astound you.

[a.brain]

"The best way to be nice to the enviroment is to kill yourself." I think that may be a poster waiting to happen Orange!

[cigar]

What a crock. Their high minded credo is just rationalization for being parasites living off the rest of the population. We have had bums for hundreds of years, this is nothing more than the upper-crust of bumdom.

[gigi]

What a bunch of garbage!!

[orangeguru]

Dunno. One should rather work/support sustainable agriculture and food producers instead of skimming of the junk/fat of the land. The best way to be nice to the enviroment is to kill yourself. Life needs fuel - one can't avoid it to eat and consume natural resources.