We are living in the age of insanity.
Posted on 11/24/2005 7:28:55 AM PST by BenLurkin
NEW YORK (AP) -- Dinner shared by a group of friends at a well-appointed Greenwich Village apartment featured eggplant Parmesan with a salad of mixed greens and avocado dressing. The guests already had snacked on hors d'oeuvres of smoked mozzarella and crackers. Not bad considering the diners find their food by digging through garbage.
They call themselves "freegans," a play on the words "vegan"- vegetarians who avoid all animal products, including dairy - and "free." In an ideological rejection of consumer waste, they only eat food that's been discarded. And in New York City, at least, they never go hungry.
"We find more food than we could ever possibly eat," said Adam Weissman. Just 24 hours before the dinner party, he found a hefty stash outside a gourmet supermarket in Manhattan: bags of salad nearing the sell-by date, dozens of sandwiches, boxes of Ritz crackers, some nice looking squash and loaves of still-crisp baguettes.
Although not all freegans are vegan, they all eat for free. Weissman said that with few exceptions he has not eaten store-bought food, either at home, in a restaurant or as guest of a friend, in more than 10 years.
Weissman and others say they have mixed feelings about Thanksgiving, which Weissman called "basically a celebration of excess."
Madeline Nelson, the host of the freegan dinner party who says she recently left a job in corporate communications at a Fortune 500 company, says she's concerned about holiday over-consumption.
"We are heading into wasting season," said Nelson, who's serving a semi-freegan Thanksgiving dinner to her family, including her 83-year-old father.
A study suggests that freegans may have a point.
Timothy Jones, an anthropology professor at the University of Arizona, conducted a 10-year study that concluded the country wastes 40 percent to 50 percent of its food. A 1997 U.S. Department of Agriculture study put the loss at 27 percent of total U.S. food production, or 96 billion pounds of food.
"The number one problem is that Americans have lost touch with what food is for," Jones said. "We have lost touch with the processes that bring it to the table and we don't notice the inefficiency."
Some freegans hope to call attention to food waste by publicizing their unusual lifestyles. Weissman runs a Web site for the freegan community, offering practical tips, like which city's trash bins yield the best treats in places from Vancouver to Cincinnati.
For instance, the Giant Gourmet Farmers' Market in Hackensack, N.J., is a "gold mine," according to the site. But get there early to avoid sifting through discarded fish.
While these images may churn a few stomachs, some doctors condone the practice. Dr. Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States, has posted food safety tips on Weissman's Web site.
He says that unopened packaged foods can normally be safely eaten for days after sell-by dates have passed. But he warns freegans to stay away from meat and seafood, eggs, dairy, sprouts, cut melon, and unpasteurized cider or juice, which can be susceptible to bacteria. Mold can be trimmed from "hard or firm foods," he says, but even the brave should stay away from bulging or oozing cans.
"People have this image of looking into a Dumpster and seeing slimy garbage, but that's just not the case," he said. "At the same time, food poisoning is no joke, so you have to be careful
We are living in the age of insanity.
Uhm,yeah, ya think? Botulism isn't exactly fun.
BenLurkin wrote: "We are living in the age of insanity."
Perhaps, but I don't see the problem. I thought this was a free society. If so, let 'em eat trash.
It's a good thing there is an excess of food in this country or these left-wing fanatics would starve. However, in a country that respects all beliefs these devotees of the garbage pail are free to worship my trash cans all they want.
I would suggest sprinkling botulism on all discarded food. That will stop THIS little hobby real soon! Maybe a bit of E. coli, too. Damn! I wish I lived there. So much food to contaminate! Then we could follow them to the emergency room and say, "Something you ate disagree with you? That's too bad."
Well, Americans do waste an awfully lot of still edible food. There are grocery stores that do place out back on crates or such foods that are about to expire or produce that's not up to the eye pleasing perfection many customers demand. There are also restraunts which will give their day's excess to people for the asking. Though I wouldn't beg and that's what I consider it to be especially when they're able bodied individuals, but I can appreciate the waste not want not concept. However, I draw the line at eating out of garbage cans.
Then, when they get food poisoning, sue the store!
Yeah, and we as taxpayers pay again for the slackers and losers of society.
However, I draw the line at eating out of garbage cans.
With cats and rats and roaches crawling around in there too, its possible these people could be a catalyst for spreading a plague. Their political issue could by a community's nightmare.
However, I draw the line at eating out of garbage cans.
With cats and rats and roaches crawling around in there too, its possible these people could be a catalyst for spreading a plague. Their political issue could b"e"(whoops) a community's nightmare.
That is a good thing. No problem there.
Their activities,I understand,have recently been approved by
The American Academy Of Nutritional Microbiologists.
When I worked for the deli department of a large grocery store, we used to discard most of the hot case at night, large chunks of (sometimes whole) brisket, BBQ ribs, chopped BBQ beef and side dishes, easily a $100 worth of food, all of it in the dumpster. I offered to arrange for donation to a local family shelter--it would have been easy but they gave me every excuse in the world why they couldn't. I finally gave up and would at least make myself a nice dinner--that was OK with mgmt--I just couldn't give it away.
Sad.
Now that's food for thought (every pun intended)
...and who said anencephalics don't live past birth..
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