Wayne passes along a link today to a story about my favorite urban subculture of the moment: the freegans. Los Angeles Times staff writer Erika Hayasaki reports from New York about this unusual band of anti-capitalist crusaders who try to live entirely off of food (and other products) that have been thrown away by businesses. That’s right – they dumpster dive for dinner.
Of course there’s something a little quixotic about condemning capitalism and corporate-produced food while subsisting entirely off of its products, even if they are accessed in trash form. It used to be that people like this became hippies and moved to the country where they grew their own (free range, organic) food. Of course, if you do that you can’t then take advantage of all of the rich hipster culture of downtown Manhattan and the Williamsburg/Park Slope neighborhoods, so it seems that consuming the detritus of capitalism is the second-best alternative to actually producing something yourself.
The story notes this amusing hypocrisy while describing the origins of the movement (emphasis added):
Freeganism was born out of environmental justice and anti-globalization movements dating to the 1980s. The concept was inspired in part by groups like “Food Not Bombs,” an international organization that feeds the homeless with surplus food that’s often donated by businesses.
One can certainly understand why the freegans are so reflexively anti-business, what with the food companies’ sordid and revolting history of feeding the homeless. And they say the Exxon Valdez spill was a corporate crime.
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{ 2 comments }
“…surplus food that's often donated by businesses.â€
This is an illuminating quote. It is a well know reality that businesses involved in food manufacturing often produce excess quantities of food. If such food, however, was not consumed by “freegansâ€, whether from a dumpster or given to them, it would otherwise be thrown away and wasted. By engaging in such conduct business is not “donating†food to the homeless. It is simply handing food out, not through altruism, but through convenience; the less a business fills its dumpster, the less it costs them to have it emptied. Case in point: My girlfriend was once employed at a bakery that consistently produced too much bread. Every night they would fill ~4 large garbage bags with the day’s excess bread, and every night a stable owner, without charge, would collect them to feed his horses. Her employer argued that this arrangement benefited both parties. I feel, however, that you would find no fault with this, yet if the same bread was to be consumed by freegans, you would rather it be thrown out.
Not all freegans are unemployed and are anti-business. A lot of them do work but have simply made a conscious decision to eat food that would otherwise go to waste. If all businesses stopped throwing out food, they would be compelled to start buying food again. They would no doubt prefer this; the majority are arguably not being freegans due to economics, but rather out of ideology. In an interesting way, they are highlighting that capitalism, although not perfect, can work: even though it produces excess, such excess does not have to be wasted. The irony here is that freegans are showing the beauty of the free market at work.
Thank you for your time.
Freegans are helping save the environment by reducing waste. That is not a bad thing. Interesting points about them and the free market
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