Freegans

Freegans

This is an interesting social movement that's going off the consumer grid to feed people from the scraps tossed out by businesses. The word "freegan" combines "free" and "vegan," and it is used by a group of people who "dumpster dive" to retrieve consumables, minimize/reclaim waste, and engage in various other "green" efforts.

There are political implications to this effort, of course, and although we can't debate the political rights or wrongs here, I post about this initiative because it is food-related and feel that some in the LTH community might be interested in knowing more about it.

http://freegan.info/

I remember reading about this a couple of years ago - one of the people interviewed said that their primary problem was putting on too much weight due to the huge amount of sweet baked goods that are readily thrown away.

You'd have to guess the freegan lifestyle isn't really Atkin's-friendly.

Ugh.

There's a sucker born every minute(well...freegans are so last minute, but whatevs) see: raw foodists.

On a more positive note; there's the intriguing documentary "The Gleaners and I."

Freegans are yet more gen y putzes with more energy than brains.

Christopher Gordon wrote:Freegans are yet more gen y putzes with more energy than brains.

That's a little harsh, don't you think? The dumpster diving part of the Freegan movement is definitely not my speed, but I share their unhappiness with how much food gets tossed out by grocery stores and restaurants every day. It's horribly wasteful, and it's a shame that there isn't a better way for all of that food to be distributed to those who need it instead of ending up in landfills taking up unnecessary space. The sad truth is that most of the food in question is still perfectly fine for consumption, and is only being thrown out because of minor blemishes or to make space for fresher product.

SMT wrote:

Christopher Gordon wrote:Freegans are yet more gen y putzes with more energy than brains.

That's a little harsh, don't you think? The dumpster diving part of the Freegan movement is definitely not my speed, but I share their unhappiness with how much food gets tossed out by grocery stores and restaurants every day. It's horribly wasteful, and it's a shame that there isn't a better way for all of that food to be distributed to those who need it instead of ending up in landfills taking up unnecessary space. The sad truth is that most of the food in question is still perfectly fine for consumption, and is only being thrown out because of minor blemishes or to make space for fresher product.

Thanks, SMT. It's easy to write-off this kind of fringe group, and they may offend our innate cynicism, but at least they're trying to do something about (if only by drawing attention to) the incredible waste that huge food networks generate.

I don't know that this is either a movement or a means to feed people. What I gather from reading about "Freegans" is that individual Freegans opt to feed themselves by dumpster-diving. (Isn't it easier to approach those dumping the food and ask for it directly?) And they all aren't raiding the corporate shelf throwaways from Jewel, etc. Some freegans I've read about feed themselves from half-eaten scraps. People have been doing that for years in my alley but they don't have a fancy name for it. And those people are not doing it to make a point as the Freegans are -- they're actually hungry.

Although this may sound harsh, feeding oneself from throwaways is neither new nor fashionable. I think there are way more constructive ways of dealing with excess food waste. There have long been movements to get the excess food to soup kitchens, etc. But while there is some shame in grocery stores tossing day old muffins (rather than giving it to the needy, should they so want), there is also shame in economically viable individuals dumpster diving for food. On the other hand, I think what's the Freegan's point? A grocery store, restaurant, etc. is a business, and if they have to toss food to keep their businesses's product competitive, c'est la vie.

As for the Freegan's weakest argument, in my opinion, that all of this food takes up room in landfills (isn't it biodegradable?), why don't they eat plastic bottles and styrofoam cups instead? Those items take up more room and are far more harmful to the environment.

aschie30 wrote: But while there is some shame in grocery stores tossing day old muffins (rather than giving it to the needy, should they so want), there is also shame in economically viable individuals dumpster diving for food. On the other hand, I think what's the Freegan's point? A grocery store, restaurant, etc. is a business, and if they have to toss food to keep their businesses's product competitive, c'est la vie.

Three points.

First, most of the larger supermarket chains (as well as Panera) in the Chicagoland ship off their daily leftovers to places like the Salvation Army, PADS, and the various food banks and have for years. In fact, some of these agencies get more than they can handle in many cases.

Second, before you head to the local chains looking to dumpster dive, most large retailers have compacters and trash bins to which you'll have no access. There were too many cases of people getting hurt while dumpster diving.

I wish that there were more opportunities in this area to find surplus produce at a fraction of the prices of teh large supermarket chains.

aschie30 wrote:I don't know that this is either a movement or a means to feed people. What I gather from reading about "Freegans" is that individual Freegans opt to feed themselves by dumpster-diving. (Isn't it easier to approach those dumping the food and ask for it directly?) And they all aren't raiding the corporate shelf throwaways from Jewel, etc. Some freegans I've read about feed themselves from half-eaten scraps. People have been doing that for years in my alley but they don't have a fancy name for it. And those people are not doing it to make a point as the Freegans are -- they're actually hungry.

Although this may sound harsh, feeding oneself from throwaways is neither new nor fashionable. I think there are way more constructive ways of dealing with excess food waste. There have long been movements to get the excess food to soup kitchens, etc. But while there is some shame in grocery stores tossing day old muffins (rather than giving it to the needy, should they so want), there is also shame in economically viable individuals dumpster diving for food. On the other hand, I think what's the Freegan's point? A grocery store, restaurant, etc. is a business, and if they have to toss food to keep their businesses's product competitive, c'est la vie.

As for the Freegan's weakest argument, in my opinion, that all of this food takes up room in landfills (isn't it biodegradable?), why don't they eat plastic bottles and styrofoam cups instead? Those items take up more room and are far more harmful to the environment.

Well said.

In response to a couple other posters: my initial comment...I don't consider at all harsh.

This begins to veer away from the mandate of the website; I tend to dismiss any form of groupthink be it freeganism, orthorexia, gutter punks to Christian ratbikers.

I've seen newspieces on freegan enclaves and they to a one come across as strident, proselytizing, trendy, and misled.

As far as the landfill issue is concerned, I don't really think it matters if the trash is technically biodegradeable because the goal is still to keep the volume going into landfills as minimal as possible. Hence we put aside biodegradeable materials like paper to recycle them instead of having it take up landfill space.

I have also seen documentaries about Freegans, and while some of them are fringy, preachy, overenthusiastic types, many of them were also genuine about trying to "recycle" food items instead of them remaining in the garbage. The main targets of the Freegans I've seen in news stories were very high-end food retailers (like Whole Foods,) and the food items that were pulled out were things like blemished fruit and vegetables, dented boxes of prepared food items, and about to expire packaged foods like muffins, sandwiches and salads. I stand by my position that it is preferable (and far wiser) for these types of things to be eaten than to end up in landfills.

SMT wrote:I stand by my position that it is preferable (and far wiser) for these types of things to be eaten than to end up in landfills.

And I'm sure we can all agree that filling landfills to the brim is bad in general. I'm not sure that pulling the stuff out of the dumpster is the way to go about stopping it. As a practical matter, though, I don't know how wise it is to eat out of dumpsters. We've all been near dumpsters, and, in addition to being horribly smelly, the rodent infestation/feces makes anything coming out of there, no matter how "near-perfect" it may look, not only unsafe, but unpleasant to eat, even if you can get over the mental block that it comes out of a dumpster.

Because we're never going to get rid of food waste (and I understand that muffins are a renewable resource), then perhaps getting the word out about composting and recycling is the higher road, so to speak.

Agnes Varda's The Gleaners and I is one of my favorite movies - so thanks to Christopher Gordon for reminding me of it! Varda speaks with a variety of people who "glean", that is, people who pick up leftover, discarded, excess, or otherwise unwanted but still potentially edible food.

Varda has a deep sympathy with gleaners of all kinds, because they find value in things that most other people around them ignore or disdain, and she sees herself as doing something similar in her films. And Varda also gives the viewer a thorough history of gleaning, which derives from a tradition of allowing the poorest members of society come in after the harvest and take whatever remained -- Varda is particularly fond of the French painter Millet's image of "The Gleaners," which shows one such group. Permission to glean apples (or grapes or potatoes, etc.) after the harvest has officially ended, for example, is still validated by the French legal code.

Scouring a city's alleys and sidewalks for abandoned furniture and appliances is one sort of gleaning that we know here in Chicago. I'll note, too, that taking canned goods out of the dumpster (a practice of some young punks she meets) allows one to eat food that hasn't actually gone bad, and avoids exposing the grocer to any legal liability (surely an issue in the U.S. if the grocer were handing out expired food).

I'll never try to feed myself by dumpster diving, I know -- I'm too squeamish and lazy. But the idea has historical roots and remains interesting as an example of the many lives that ordinary objects may have, the many ways that people choose to make their peace with modern life, and the variety of ways of thinking about how we get our daily bread.

Bless you, MariaTheresa.

-ramon

MariaTheresa wrote:French painter Millet's image of "The Gleaners," which shows one such group. Permission to glean apples (or grapes or potatoes, etc.) after the harvest has officially ended, for example, is still validated by the French legal code.

Yet another reason to admire the French.

worth enlarging
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Why don't they join the original crowd by drinking Dr. Pepper instead? 'Cmon, really!

If you check out the website, the freegans don't represent gleaners - under the section Voluntary Joblessness it talks about jobs as "sacrificing our freedom to take orders from someone else" when you could otherwise be "...joining activist groups to fight the practices of the corporations who would otherwise be bossing us around at work" and under Rent Free Housing "Squatters believe that real human needs are more important than abstract notions of private property." There's a major difference between a level-headed attempt to right a wrong and bull-headed non-conformism. I often shop at thrift stores and consignment shops for clothing and other stuff, including furniture and appliances. I love finding value in something somebody else passed up - but that's not what these guys are about, they're about giving the finger to the culture that provides them the opportunity for this lifestyle.

It reminds me of parents who won't immunize their kids - they are able to refuse safely because the majority of parents in this country have done so. Failure to immunize your kid in a third world country is tantamount to handing them a death sentence. Similarly, our standards about food in this country, while admittedly overzealous, do prevent a lot of serious illness - so much so that an outbreak at a festival is big news, even though it didn't result in any deaths. We throw away a lot of perfectly edible food - but we don't have to fear deadly outbreaks of dysentary or typhoid, either.