The Dumpster Diving, Trash Eating, Freegan Economy
Freegans dumpster dive for mangoes
Admit it. You've walked by a pile of slightly bruised, juicy ripe mangoes near a dumpster and debated whether to snatch one up to peel and eat. You are not alone. We, at cakehead, encourage dumpster dive eating. We even have a special test kitchen dedicated to developing dishes made from ingredients found on sidewalks and in trash cans. Our Bruised Bodega Caesar Salad is especially refreshing this time year, particularly if you're able to find a good bakery that has thrown out the key ingredient: homemade croutons made of cast aside baguettes.
We knew that before long this craze would catch on and become a movement. Leave it to our cutting edge friends at the New York Times to notice and report on the Freegan craze.
Freegans are scavengers of the developed world, living off consumer waste in an effort to minimize their support of corporations and their impact on the planet, and to distance themselves from what they see as out-of-control consumerism. They forage through supermarket trash and eat the slightly bruised produce or just-expired canned goods that are routinely thrown out, and negotiate gifts of surplus food from sympathetic stores and restaurants.
For more information about the Freegan culture go to Freegan.info, a site founded by Adam Weissman. Freegan culture is not limited to eating off the street. You can fill your wardrobe and furnish your apartment with castoff items. Check out Freecycle.org to post or search for items that are up for grabs.
if you can't find baguettes, Wonderbread loaves will work just as well
Freeganism dates to the mid-’90s, and grew out of the antiglobalization and environmental movements, as well as groups like Food Not Bombs, a network of small organizations that serve free vegetarian and vegan food to the hungry, much of it salvaged from food market trash. It also has echoes of groups like the Diggers, an anarchist street theater troupe based in Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco in the 1960’s, which gave away food and social services.
[via NY Times]
