Freeganism: Veganism Meets Dumpster Diving

On Rocketboom, I watched some curious behaviour on the streets of New York: people dumpster-diving for food. Importantly, these weren’t homeless people—they had houses and gardens and so forth. Instead, they were freegans.

“Freegan” is an amalgamation of the words “free” and “vegan”. Vegans are people who avoid products from animal sources or products tested on animals in an effort to avoid harming animals. Freegans take this a step further by recognizing that in a complex, industrial mass-production society economy driven by profit, abuses of humans, animals, and the Earth abound at all levels of production from acquisition to raw materials to production to transportation.

An interesting philosophy, if pretty radical. In truth, it can’t become too widespread, or else it will defeat itself. If everybody becomes a freegan, society grinds to a halt.

Comments

Andrea said:

Vancouver's Quest Outreach Society has embraced this concept as a way to feed people. Unlike other food banks, Quest does not buy food. Instead, Quest uses donations to fund its trucks and warehouse. The trucks go to bakeries, grocery stores, warehouses, farms, and other sources of food. They pick up pallets of food, then bring it back to the warehouse. At the warehouse, the Quest team sorts and culls the food. This food is then distributed to various meal programs, neighbourhood houses, food banks, soup kitchens, etc. Quest also has a food processing plant, so that they can make seasonal foods available year-round. Quest also trains volunteers and paid staff for work in shipping & receiving, trucking, food handling, food processing, and administration.

I worked in the warehouse for several months and was astounded by the donations. Small Potatoes would donate a tonne of potatoes on a regular basis. Grocery stores would send two tonnes of onions just because they were small and shoppers like slightly bigger onions. Meat-packing plants would send a freezer full of meat because striploin was taking up space when another cut was selling better.

I thought Quest was a great idea because they could deliver $11 worth of food for every dollar donated. In contrast, your $1 would buy a can of beans on sale at the grocery store. A $1 donation to a regular food bank would result in three cans of beans. With Quest, $1 goes a lot further.

(Note: although I've done work for Quest in the past, I'm just writing this because I like their community service.)

November 23, 2005 10:26 PM

Imo said:

They should all be rounded up and shuffled into looney bins. That's insane.

November 24, 2005 10:25 AM

double-plus-ungood said:

If everybody becomes a freegan, society grinds to a halt.

Well, if not society, then the economy as we know it grinds to a halt. Societies that are not based on wage labour do exist.

November 24, 2005 01:30 PM

`jen said:

coincidentally, i heard about this on CBC radio the same day you posted it. weird!

apparently the best spots to dumpster-dive here in vancouver are:
- granville island market
- la baguette
- jj beans
- stuart's bakery
- deep dish pie shop
- island pizza

http://freegan.info/?page=Vancouver

i guess bakeries and "higher end"(?) produce places shouldn't come as a surprise. i'd eat a day-old pie or apple over meat or dairy any day.

November 25, 2005 06:59 AM

Stanley said:

I guess these 'Freegan's' are also homeless as paying rent puts money in the pockets of wealthy landlords, and paying a mortgage finances banks. Homeless & dumpster diving? Freegan, Bum, Vagabond, Hobo...what's the difference? Vancouver must be the 'Freegan' capital of Canada!

November 25, 2005 09:19 AM

Tristan said:

I don't understand the angery some people show toward freegans. They take what others throw away. They take usable, perfectly good things. Why be angry at someone for saving money? That's silly. The people you should be angry at are the ones who throw food away when there are starving people in the world.

November 26, 2005 06:59 PM

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February 27, 2006 11:00 PM

aka crazy glue said:

im 23, a cyclist, nfa, and i bin more than i think. after my later teen/early20s of living whimsically oblivious due to pot in van bins, bzzzzzzzzzzzz zz..zz metabolic encarnel senses take over, i become 1 with the city. working, focussing on efficiency, never the money. money is something i havnt a concept of anymore, i have rendered it obsolete.
however, i pursue by these means, a consistantly materially proffitable not to mention experience& knowledge, all adding to my bulk misc skills, openning other doors that do not require dirty green prop arms on each side. {polygloterror@hotmail}

April 7, 2006 06:02 PM