Posted on 12/10/2022 3:28:40 PM PST by nickcarraway
Freeganism goes beyond the vegan diet – it’s about making sustainable changes to limit our “footprint” on the world.
That is according to Dundee-based Violet Fraser who describes herself as freegan.
On World Vegan Day, we’re taking a look at this environmentally-conscious movement linked to veganism.
Freegans don’t just avoid animal by-products, they also avoid anything that damages the environment.
“A lot of where I come from with freeganism actually started more from a wider environmental perspective,” said Violet, 34.
“From my point of view, it’s to do with climate change.
“It’s so I can think to myself as I go about my daily life: I am doing as much as I possibly can to reduce my footprint on the world.”
What does freegan actually mean? Like veganism, freeganism involves making decisions that are better for the planet.
Many link it veganism, although not everyone considers freegans a part of the vegan community.
The key difference is freegans eat animal by-products under some, limited circumstances.
Vegans would never do so.
But both groups share at least some key values, like these manageable changes for those trying to eat more sustainably:
Eating seasonally
Shopping zero waste
Eating foods with low food miles
Food miles are a way to measure how food gets to our plates – the greater the distance, the more damaging it can be for our environment.
I looked at it as an overview and thought: How can I have the lightest footprint on earth as a whole?”
Violet Fraser, Dundee freegan
Being freegan also means she doesn’t refuse foods that aren’t vegan if the alternative is that food get chucked out.
She said: “If I were offered free, non-vegan products like vegetarian products, I wouldn’t refuse to eat them on the basics of ethics because I don’t believe in food waste.”
In Scotland alone, an estimated 987,890 tonnes of food and drink was wasted in 2013.
“I didn’t go into it only thinking about the animal welfare aspect,” Violet admitted.
“I went into it thinking about land use, water use, greenhouse gas emissions.
“I looked at it as an overview and thought: How can I have the lightest footprint on earth as a whole?”
Veganism is not an ‘elite club’ of perfect people Violet admitted there is a problematic stereotype of vegans.
“I try not to be black and white with it,” she said.
“I think that was one of the things that put me off to begin with. [There was] this feeling that it was some sort of elite club I had to be perfect for.
“My environmentalism is not by any means perfect. But I do try.”
Violet believes it is important not to cut people down, no matter their lifestyle choices.
“I think that is the main thing, especially for mental wellbeing.
“Humans are animals too – we have to be kind to each other.
Freegan Violet Fraser and Bridget Cooper volunteering at The Camperdown Growing Initiative. Freegan Violet Fraser and Bridget Cooper volunteering at The Camperdown Growing Initiative. Image: Mhairi Edwards/DC Thomson “It’s about preserving our mental health in the face of a climate catastrophe that no generation has ever had to face this way before.
“We’re all just muddling our way through.”
How do I go freegan? Violet says this lifestyle change is a process.
It can work best gradually, taking small steps that are more environmentally-conscious.
“I’ve known people who went vegan overnight decades ago and never looked back,” she said.
“And I really admire that.
“But personally I tried it and it just wasn’t sustainable for me.
“I couldn’t make that kind of change so quickly so I started adding changes into my life gradually.
“And it doesn’t have to be boring.
“We’re not sitting around eating grass,” she joked.
Violet doesn’t advise doing an “overnight life overhaul”, but rather she suggests people take their time with it.
Starting out small with ideas like Meatless Monday is a good way to give the lifestyle a go.
“The last thing I want to do is put people off,” Violet said.
“I would rather make 100 people feel empowered to go meatless one day a week, than have one person turn vegan overnight.
“Because ultimately, that is what will help our entire ecosystem.”
Just exactly how does someone become so mentally ill and dysfunctional that they take a basic human need, eating, and tie it into the lie of the earth’s destruction from anthropogenic climate change so that it dominates their life?
= = =
Stopping eating, or eating weirdly is something we can still do. And it makes a social statement.
For example, we can’t protest, drive gas cars, turn the heater up or AC down, microagress anyone, show skin if it is white . . .
But we can eat S#!T
Didn’t an LSU football coach start this whole vegan thing?
“ While she’s eating bugs and worms and offal someone is flying far above her in a private jet eating wagyu beef and drinking fine wine. But she’s virtuous.”
And that someone is Al Gore.
LOL! Conundrum solved!!
Newport Oregon has a brew pub that feeds their spent grain to their Wagyu beef. You can get a really good Wagyu burger and really good tap beer there.
“Food miles are a way to measure how food gets to our plates – the greater the distance, the more damaging it can be for our environment.”
How much damage to the environment does a huge container ship from China, loaded with products that we used to make here, cause the environment. Oh and the ship uses oil 1st shipped from the middle east or Russia to China.
Funny how that never makes their radar.
Roadkill? There's a cookbook for that.
I had a now-deceased and very dear friend who was a vegetarian, not a full-fledged vegan. His hypocritical view was that it was OK to eat things like cheese, milk products, eggs and any other kind of food which did not harm any animal.
I asked him if he ate eggs. He said, “Yes, it is OK to eat eggs because it does not harm any animal.” I then asked him, “Isn’t eating an egg kind of like eating an abortion?” Man, did he get ANGRY! He almost unfriended me for that one! ;-)
I wish I had known today was world, vegan day, if it was today, as I would’ve gone out to have a nice steak dinner.
Brave new world! Woke is now among us!
It will be great to keep him the dark about where his lettuce comes form in the winter. These folks will lie to each other about where their food comes from in order to look the most eco freiendly
The dead also raise the earths heat profile when they decompose. The word needs more zombies! /sarc
VSOP and Newport it is...
Back in the 90’s we referred to dumpster divers as freegans.
What BS. CC has always been going on and the earth was created to handle it, so take your footprint and stick it up your rear. Get a life!
It kinda indicates that an ethos is involved.
Most commercial eggs are unfertilized, but I still see the humor. I’m not sure the conditions that laying hens are kept in would be considered harmless
“Freegan” used to mean dumpster diving.
I think this may be cultural appropriation!
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