Everything about Freeganism totally explained
Freeganism is an
anti-consumerist lifestyle whereby people employ alternative living strategies based on "limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed." The lifestyle involves salvaging discarded, unspoiled food from supermarket dumpsters that have passed, or in some cases haven't even passed, their sell by date, but are still edible and nutritious. They salvage the food not because they're poor or homeless, but as a political statement.
The word "freegan" is a
blend of "free" and "
vegan". Freeganism started in the mid 1990s, out of the
antiglobalization and
environmentalist movements. Groups such as
Food Not Bombs served free vegetarian and vegan food that was salvaged from food market trash by
dumpster diving. The movement also has elements of
Diggers, an
anarchist street theater group based in
Haight-Ashbury in
San Francisco in the 1960s, that gave away rescued food. find and harvest food and medicinal plants growing in their own communities. Some freegans participate in "Guerrilla" or "Community" Gardens, with the stated aim of rebuilding community and reclaiming the capacity to grow one's own food. In order to fertilise those guerilla gardens, food obtained from
dumpster diving is sometimes also reused. In many urban guerilla gardens,
vermiculture is used instead of ordinary
composting techniques in order to keep the required infrastructure/room small. . Guerilla gardeners claim to seek an alternative to dependence and participation in what they perceive as an exploitative and ecologically destructive system of global, industrialized corporate food production.
Sharing
Sharing is also a common freegan practice.
Food Not Bombs recovers food that would otherwise go to waste to serve warm meals on the street to anyone who wants them. The group promotes an ethic of sharing and community, while working to show what they consider to be the injustice of a society in which they claim fighting wars is considered a higher priority than feeding the hungry.
Really, Really Free Markets are free social events in which freegans can share goods instead of discarding them, share skills, give presents and eat food. A
free store is a temporary market where people exchange goods and services outside of a money-based economy.
Freegans also advocate sharing travel resources. Internet-based ridesharing reduces but doesn't eliminate use of cars and all the related resources needed to maintain and operate them.
Community Bike Programs and Bike Collectives facilitate community sharing of
bicycles, restore found and broken bikes, and teach people how to do their own bike repairs. In the process they build a culture of skill and resource sharing, reuse wasted bikes and bike parts, and create greater access to
environmentally friendly transportation.
Relationship to veganism
Freegans believe that even if a product is vegan, it doesn't guarantee that:
Freegans claim that people sincerely committed to living the "cruelty-free" lifestyle espoused by vegans must strive to abstain not only from eating, wearing, and using animal skins, secretions (for example milk and its by-products), flesh, and animal-tested products, but must attempt to remove themselves from participation in the capitalist economy altogether as workers and consumers.
Some freegans, sometimes called "meagans", consume
meat and other animal products only as long as they'd otherwise be wasted.
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Freeganism'.
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