When I tuned in, the show was already about halfway over. I was about to flip to another channel when I noticed that the guests were called “Freegans”. Never having heard of these types of folks before, I watched for a few minutes and here’s what I found out:
- “Freeganism” is an anti-consumerist movement where devotees reuse trash that is still useful.
- Freegans are also called “Dumpster Divers” because they fish around in the dumpsters of grocery stores to get their food!
- Grocery stores typically throw away 2-3% of their stock on a regular basis which totals in the billions of dollars in wasted food each year.
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| Image by colorblindPICASO via Flickr |
- Many Freegans are folks with well paying jobs who could easily afford to buy what they need new.
One married couple on the show particularly intrigued me. The guy was a doctor and his wife was a civil engineer. They were both young, somewhere in their late 20’s to early 30’s. They were certainly not short on funds to buy their food, yet their kitchen was full of cans, produce, and frozen foods that they had fished out of grocery store dumpsters.
Freegans Have the Right Idea with the Wrong Action Plan
My first impulse was to feel very sorry for this couple. They were obviously very bright and I really related to their disgust and distaste for the “gotta have it NOW” consumerism that has characterized American buying habits in recent decades.
I consider myself an anti-consumer as well, but you won’t be finding me fishing around in the dumpster of grocery stores anytime soon!
Why? Because eating this food, particularly the canned and frozen foods which seemed to make up the bulk of this young couple’s diet will make you ill and then you won’t be well enough to be an anti-consumer anymore!
What’s the point in that?
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| Image by Wonderlane via Flickr |
If you are going to be an anti-consumer, be an anti-consumer with PURPOSE.
Buy from small, local farms and support local businesses that contribute to your community in positive ways. Eating your food fresh and locally produced will preserve your health and keep you strong to continue promoting the causes that you believe in!
Why is local food healthier? Because it doesn’t have to be shipped long distances and is hence full of more nutrition. A conventionally produced cucumber from a local farmer’s market will have more nutrition in it than an organic cucumber from Chile. Nothing wrong with organic cucumbers from Chile, but if you happen to be on another continent, imagine how early those cukes need to be picked so they arrive on your grocery store shelf in one piece!
Organic AND local is the ideal way to go, but if that is not in the cards, then conventional and local is still better than organic shipped across the continent or the world.
Will Freeganism Last?
I empathize with the Freeganism Movement, but I just don’t have a good feeling about its chances of growing and catching on. Eating canned and frozen grocery store food as the basis of the diet is a surefire recipe for chronic illness.
Unfortunately, I think these Freegans do not realize what their future has in store for them. What they do not buy in the way of food will be made up for in spades with lots and lots of dollars spent on pharmaceuticals!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
I am CONSTANTLY thinking of ways to save money for my family. A couple of years ago, after being influenced by some people that think along the same lines as the freegans, I started trying to cut my grocery bill drastically. I cut my grocery bill drastically and paid for it with my health. I mean seriously paid. I had learned about Weston Price. I knew better, but I thought that saving us the money was more important at the time. I learned my lesson. It's true, I can't buy my family groceries for $35 a week, but the extra I spend is WORTH EVERY PENNY!
Just a comment about the importance of eating locally – my brother just returned from a six week trip to Italy where he was in a very small town where the people grew EVERYTHING themselves and everything they made was very fresh and locally produced. Even though while he was there he was eating things like pasta and pizza that usually make you feel pretty heavy and tired, he said that he could eat and feel very full but still felt good and had energy because everything was so fresh. So even though he was eating lots of grains and things that would normally make him feel sluggish and yucky, he felt really good the whole time, and had a very hard time adjusting back to American food and was pretty sick for the first week back. Pretty amazing what eating fresh things can do for you!
Excellent observations, Kate. Thank you for commenting.
You know, there are ways to be that frugal without the dumpster diving! You could swap fresh produce with friends, depending on what your garden is overflowing with and what theirs is; you could take any offers of free produce from anyone else; you could barter with good meat (one of my friends is a photographer, and she got paid in grass-fed meat for doing a shoot for another friend!). And so on. That's true frugality AND will produce health!
Fresh produce is wonderful, but it will not keep you healthy. Freegans need meat and eggs, real butter and other animal fats and proteins to maintain immunity etc – this is not easily obtained by dumpstering. Remember the work of Dr. Weston Price – his travels unequivocally found that vegetarians were much more unhealthy than meat and animal food consuming cultures.
Most Freegans are aware of the dangers and observe precautions when dumpstering. I have a graduate student who is active with Food Not Bombs, which uses donated and reclaimed foods that would otherwise go into the waste stream to provide a soup kitchen for those living on the street. This is a world-wide organization. Much of what they use is perfectly good fresh produce. Maybe what we need in this country is Last Minute Markets, like they have in Italy, in which food is gathered just before the "sell by" date and offered to those in need.
why are farmers not regarded as rockstars? it has always perplexed me how teen pop icons and popular actors can influence politics, fashion and other trends (ie. jennifer anniston and bottled water) but farmers are not seen in that iconic light. If farmers had groupies and fans that wore t-shirts ("Elk trails ranch Rocks!" or "Keith Garlic NYC") i think we would see people asking a few questions as to who these famous, rocking people are and what they do! I am going to start a line of Farmers as Rockstars (Farmstars) tshirts here in NYC and see what people say!
Hi Karen, I am glad to hear your brother is happy. I am just concerned about the health of these folks. Good health cannot be maintained on a diet of processed grocery store foods. If your brother is catching some wild game out in the woods where he lives, that would be a great way to practice this lifestyle and still be healthy.
My brother is a freegan. He does dumpster dive but not all of his food is canned, processed or frozen. He gets a lot of fresh fruits and veggies that are on the verge of going bad. He is not the healthiest person that I know. I dont know if that has to do with his poor hygiene, drinking unclean stream water or living in the woods out in the elements.
But he is one of the happiest person I know. He is doing what he wants to do.
Hi Karen –
Apologies for sending you a message out of the blue. My name is Stephanie and I am working on a TV program about Freegans in development for a major cable network. I saw your name while I was researching and I wondered if you might be able to tell your brother about this project.
Our production company, Leftfield Pictures, is working with a major cable network to develop a show that shines a light on the Freegan lifestyle. Our company has a history of producing successful documentary series, such as “Pawn Stars” which has become the #1 Series on the History Channel, setting new records for the network and averaging 5.1 million viewers weekly. We are looking for individuals whose stories could engage and educate while showing the nation what this unique movement is all about.
I’d love to email you the details of the casting. Please do let me know either way if this is something your brother might be interested in. You can reach me at [email protected] and I would so appreciate it if you could let me know. Thanks so much!
Good point. We've tried out dumpster diving in our time, though not much for food. We live pretty close to two legendary spots for freegans: The Chocolate Dumpster and The Coffee Dumpster. Seriously. There was also an organic Juice Dumpster, I hear, but it's gone now. I'm okay with free coffee (a very rare indulgence) and chocolate (a frequent indulgence) from the center of the pile. 🙂 But yes, one could not maintain a healthy body on whatever plastic-encased junk is being tossed by stores. If you want free coffee beans, I can tell you where to look. If you want to stick it to the man, grow your own and eat local!
Hello MamaBee,
Would you please email me privately where I can find the Coffee Dumpster and also
the Chocolate Dumpster — both passions of mine. You can email info to [email protected] Thanks very much.