Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Who makes up these words?

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". (Sounds like an unemployed, homeless or psychotic person to me.) Many freegans get free food by pulling it out of the trash, a practice commonly nicknamed dumpster diving. (again, I refer to above bracketed thought) Freegans find food in the garbage of restaurants, grocery stores, and other food related industries, which they claim allows them to avoid spending money on products that exploit the world's resources, (?? huh ??) contribute to urban sprawl, treat workers unfairly, or disregard animal rights. By foraging, they believe they are keeping perfectly edible food from adding to landfill clutter and that can instead, feed people and animals who might otherwise go hungry. Maybe I'll see what my local Von's is throwing away before I actually go inside and buy something next time and avoid exploiting the world's resources. Obviously, it must have it's merits or freeganism would not be around....
(Here's a picture of Carol last week when she thought she smelled chocolate behind Von's.)

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Haha love your caption for that picture. Yeah, I read about this in an article in the BYU newspaper once. Interesting idea, although it does seem quite weird to me. Whatever floats your boat, I guess!

Emily said...

Living in an apartment complex, I am continually disgusted by the things people throw away. Every other day there's a mattress, TV, dresser or any number of other worthwhile items that many people could use. Is it too much effort to donate these things? Maybe freegans have the right idea. In fact, when I lived in New York it was common practice to leave the stuff you didn't want in the hallway for someone else to pick up. Interesting post-- maybe I'll go see if I can dig up some dinner right now...

Carol Swift said...

You were so happy that I found the chocolate, so I gave it all to you.

Linda said...

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this picture! I had to go and get Mark...I wish my butt was that small!

garrynkim said...

Hey, don't knock it till you try it. When I was young, my mom used to wait outside Albertson's (She was friends with the produce manager) and take the stuff that was still good as they threw it out. There is an awful lot of waste and perfectly good food being thrown away.

Joan said...

People get sick from contaminated food without dumpster diving - I shudder at the thought! The picture, and caption ARE cute tho!

Crystal Erickson said...

That's hilarious!!!! Carol, and the thought of freegonism- or what ever you called it :)Thanks for the laugh