Freegans: Sifting through garbage, rebels against waste plan their dinner menu

[LynneSin]

At first I thought this was pretty gross but the lifestyle is kinda interesting to say the least

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070926/LIFE/709260318/1005/LIFE

Sifting through garbage, rebels against waste plan their dinner menu
By ERIKA HAYASAK, Los Angeles Times


"Freegans" take a trash tour in New York. Deirdre Rennert (left) said she once took home a salmon carcass and made ceviche.

Los Angeles Times/CAROLYN COLE
NEW YORK -- For lunch in her modest apartment, Madeline Nelson tossed a salad made with shaved carrots and lettuce she dug out of a Whole Foods dumpster. She flavored the dressing with miso powder she found in a trash bag on a curb in Chinatown. She baked bread made with yeast plucked from the garbage of a Middle Eastern grocery store.

Nelson is a former corporate executive who can afford to dine at upscale restaurants. But she prefers turning garbage into gourmet meals, without spending a cent.

On this afternoon, she thawed a slab of pâté that she found three days before its expiration date in a dumpster outside a health food store. She made buttery chicken soup from another health food store's hot buffet leftovers, which she salvaged before they were tossed into the garbage.

Nelson, 51, who once earned a six-figure income as director of communications at Barnes and Noble, quit in 2005 and became a "freegan" -- the word combining "vegan" and "free" -- a growing subculture of people who live off consumer waste. Though many of its pioneers are vegans, people who neither eat nor use any animal-based products, the concept has caught on with Nelson and other meat-eaters who do not want to depend on businesses that they believe waste resources, harm the environment or allow unfair labor practices.

[sasquatch]

1. *barfs*

:puke:

[Hugin]

2. Well, we'll all be reduced to that soon enough...

KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE CHEETOS! (They're mine.)

[Bunny]

3. That's fucking disgusting. Seriously.

[The2ndWheel]

5. Who said evolution wasn't messy?

No waste in nature.

[BreweryYardRat]

4. Darwinism in action, folks.

Eventually, these misers will eat something that kills them.

[LynneSin]

6. I thought the idea was somewhat neat until I read about the woman who made

Cerviche out of some salmon she found.

Nothing personal but isn't Cerviche made with raw fish.

If I were to take up dumpster diving for my dinner, you better believe that everything I find will be thoroughly washed and cooked to the core

[NaturalHigh]

14. I don't know if this is the same article that I read recently...

but in that article, a woman was eating pate that she found in a dumpster. Isn't pate goose liver? In a dumpster? :puke:

Seriously, though, to each his or her own. These people are hurting nobody (except possibly themselves), so live and let live. It's just not a choice that I would ever want to choose.

Oh, and establishments that throw out perfectly good food rather than giving it to the needy should be ashamed. Just mho.

[KurtNYC]

16. Ceviche is "cooked" in acid -- usually lemon or lime juice

kills the critters dont-cha-know

[redqueen]

7. Disagree.

I ate out of dumpsters for a while, and I hardly EVER get sick.

I'm sure many will call me crazy, but seems to me like it actually strengthened the ole immune system.

[LynneSin]

8. I think if you get it soon after it hits the dumpster AND cook it thoroghly

you should be fine with what you find.

Making cerviche out of dumpster salmon - :scared:

[redqueen]

9. Yeah... she was courting disaster with that one...

:rofl:

I didn't cook anything, but things seemed to work out all right. I did use a smell test though. :)

[Hugin]

10. Greetings from Timbuk3...

Gotta love that "Dirty Dirty Rice", baby.

Who was it who posted they thought "Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades" was a pro-nuke song? :rofl:

[gmoney]

11. Wasn't this a Quizno's ad?

Flashy executive woman walking down a Manhattan street with an associate when all of a sudden she stops, doubles back and fishes a half-eaten Quizno's sub out of a trashcan and starts devouring it. Tagline: "Yeah, it's that good." (or something)

Put me off Quizno's for a LONG time, personally. And doesn't address the question of why someone would throw it away if it was THAT good.

[Left Is Write]

23. You've reminded me of George Costanza and the garbage eclair.

[Heidi]

12. How is Madeline Nelson any kind of vegan, "free" or not, if she's eating

"buttery chicken" soup?

[LynneSin]

13. Not all freegans are vegans

DID YOU READ THE ARTICLE

[Heidi]

15. I READ IT TWO WEEKS AGO.

My point is that the name of the movement is misleading.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-freegan11sep11,1,7180517.story?track=crosspromo&coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=2&cset=true

[Kali]

19. Meagans

only eat salvaged/free maet

[Heidi]

20. Cool.

I was thinking "freevores." :hi:

[unpossibles]

34. well, it more or less started from vegan hippies

(at least the ones I knew who did it).

Doesn't bother me in the least, even though I have no interest in doing this.

And to the "eww, that's gross" crowd, you may want to stop eating at restaurants. I worked in the food industry for 12+ years and have seen & heard of some really nasty things going on at restaurants, even nice ones.

[Kali]

17. I posted something on this a few days ago, but mine didn't have the detail

One thing that jumped out at me: pate from a health food store???:wtf:

[MrCoffee]

18. i did that years ago...when i was homeless

i didn't know it had cache. damn.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

21. You missed out on all your "street cred."

:P

[MrCoffee]

24. i wouldn't know what to do with street cred if i had it

soy un perdedor.

[Left Is Write]

22. As long as they don't sue me after they get sick from something eaten from my garbage...

they are welcome to it.

[Courtesy Flush]

25. I'm having coffee grounds and a banana-peel salad for lunch

But seriously. I've heard of these people, and I'm glad they're making the most of what gets wasted in their town. If those damned stores would start tossing bottles of booze in the dumpster, I'd join the movement.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

30. LOL!

:rofl:

I needed that, thanks

[skygazer]

26. Great - so now what do the homeless eat?

Frigging greedy rich bastards - they even eat our garbage. :wtf:

[Crabby Appleton]

27. You can have my share of the garbage

I'm not hungry.

[madinmaryland]

28. I hope she was doing this during January in NYC!

I wouldn't eat anything that had been sitting in a dumpster in NYC during the summer!

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[QueenOfCalifornia]

29. Your first thought was correct

This is disgusting, gross, horrible, hideous, deranged, vile, sickening, perverted...

I know I am leaving out a few adjectives.

I am sickened by this -

Freegan = Cheapass Dumbfuck

[LynneSin]

31. But you know something else - there is alot of waste out there in this world

I'm still on the fence about the whole thing but I highly doubt I'm going to start digging through the dumpsters of my local restaurants

[QueenOfCalifornia]

32. No fence sitting

on this issue - You can not eat food from a dumpster and you can not convince me it is healthy or good for anyone... I won't let you eat dumpster food.

[PVnRT]

33. What's this about Olive Garden? OH SNAP

Someone had to say it. I like breadsticks.