Posted on 12/02/2006 9:20:01 AM PST by DogByte6RER
Posted on Wed, Nov. 29, 2006
California professionals dine out of Dumpsters
By Doug Oakley
Palo Alto Daily News
(MCT)
PALO ALTO, Calif. - Cynthia Powell and Stephen Vajda are unabashed Dumpster divers who get much of their weekly food from garbage cans.
The two educated Berkeley, Calif., professionals - who are not hungry or otherwise in need - say they are motivated by a growing conservation movement with a mantra that wasting resources, especially food, is shameful.
Powell and Vajda estimate they can save up to $100 a week by dining on day-old bread, vegetables and sometimes chocolate from commercial garbage cans.
The two estimated they know at least a half dozen like-minded people in Berkeley who regularly dine out - way out.
"I'm not hungry," said Powell. "I do it because it's good food, it's free and it's conservation."
Powell said she's been getting in Berkeley Dumpsters at grocery stores and bakeries ever since she moved to town about four years ago. She draws the line at eating meat or dairy products.
"I like to eat it because it's perfectly good food thrown away," said Powell. "It's a big waste. There are really amazing, perfectly good things like strawberries, onions, sweet potatoes, bananas, cantaloupes, watermelon and always good day-old breads."
Brian Mathews, a senior program manager at StopWaste.org, a voter-mandated special district that promotes "environmentally sound solid waste management and resource conservation" said businesses in Berkeley threw away 8.8 million pounds of food in 2000, the latest year for which numbers are available.
Mathews was shocked to hear that people committed to stopping waste would go as far as fishing food out of Dumpsters.
"This is totally new to me," said Mathews, who has a background in food science. "We advocate for reuse as a highest priority if the food is edible to reuse it through food banks or donations. I applaud their motivation for doing this, but I would caution them that they could be putting themselves in a situation where they could get contaminated or spoiled food. I think it's a little risky, Dumpster diving for dinner."
Vajda, on the other hand, said the risk of getting bad food is overblown.
"Some of the fear that's around presumably spoiled food, it's a little bit ridiculous. It's gotten out of hand," said Vajda, who sometimes retrieves eggs to eat. "There is so much food thrown away and there are so many starving people in the world, it's shameful to let it go to waste when it's just as easy for me to eat it. It's really disgusting when you have an apple (from a grocery store) with a blemish on it and people won't buy it."
Grocery stores, he said, "are the best sources and the worst offenders." Vajda said he does make a point of cooking most everything he pulls out of a Dumpster. And he has some friends who eat entirely out of Dumpsters.
"I wouldn't recommend that," said Vajda. "It's not an ideal diet."
Both Vajda and Powell said they never have been chased by the police, but they have been admonished by store owners.
Berkeley police spokesman Ed Galvan said the department has never arrested anyone for Dumpster diving.
"The biggest problem we have with people Dumpster diving is they make a mess," said Galvan. "But it's not a big issue."
Socialism = Equal Misery for All
No need to read further...
A better solution than this New Age Craziness, though, is buying only what you need/eating lots of leftovers.
Or not. You buy the food, it's yours to do with as you wish IMHO.
If they were truly compassionate and caring, they would leave the food in the dumpsters for those who need it.
If the stores gave the food to the hungry they would be liable if any of them ever got sick, whether or not it had anything to do with the food.
So they throw it away.
Stealing food from the homeless. Have they NO shame?
I imagine I'm not telling you anything you don't already know and believe.
For the past 50 or 100 years food shortages are the result of corrupt governments, whether they be dictators, Socicialist, what have you.
Mankind has the ability to wipe out hunger the world over, unfortunately, we don't have the fortitude to wipe out criminal governments.
Did they give an address? I'd like to contribute my garbage to the cause.
No need to read further...
The news here is that they began eating discarded food BEFORE it has been digested, for a change.
now I wouldnt, but if someone were to poison food and dump it into dumpsters...well then that should not be a crime...now should it....
California, land of the fruits and nuts with an ample supply of both.
Perhaps these well-educated Berkeley professionals would be in favor of reducing regulations to allow grocery stores and restaurants to offer older food for reduced prices or as charity without fear of liability?
Professional guilt peddlers, getting the press they want.
It's disgusting and contaminated with animal and insect waste.
These idiots are probably the first to sue whenever there's an outbreak of food poisoning from "buying" food at a particular grocery store.
Yeah, but what sort of infections, infestations, and diseases are they going to wind up getting (along with their publicity).
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