In the United States alone, 10’s of thousands of tons of food is thrown out daily.



Let me begin by apologizing to those of you who are experts in this field. I only recently found out about this way of life from an Oprah rerun. But if you haven’t seen the Lisa Ling video where she went dumpster diving with a group of Freegans, it’s so worth your time. Frankly, the concept of fishing through leftover food grossed me out at first. Since then however, I have done some research to try and understand the Freegan mission a little better. What I’ve discovered is dumpster diving is just a portion of their platform.

Most of us greenies consider ourselves environmentally friendly and do our best to recycle and reuse. But let’s be honest. How many of us only buy what we need or explore all alternative ways to acquiring necessities? When it comes to food and clothing, travel options and building materials, do we rummage and barter, or do we jump in our hybrids and head for the Large Mart?



According to Delish.com, Freegans, who are typically vegan but not limited to, “reject our wasteful consumer culture by living almost entirely on what others throw away.”  In fact, the derivation of the word Freegan comes from the coupling of “free” and vegan.

Wikipedia definitions abound on this subject, but overall they agree that the Freegan lifestyle encompasses a wide umbrella from scavenging leftover food to making political statements based upon living on little or no cash.



Generally speaking, Freegans abhor waste, animal cruelty and inequality. Their anti-consumerism movement is not limited to the United States but is worldwide. In fact, the people who define themselves as Freegans come from all walks of life: college students to Wall Street execs, and their desire to find others who share the same passion for this waste-not want-not lifestyle is growing rapidly.  A meet-up group in NY for instance has over 950 members.

Regardless of how you personally feel about civilized human beings rummaging through garbage, maybe the Freegans are on to something. Stopthehunger.com, a real-time statistics website, provides a disturbing overview of everyday waste.  In the United States alone, 10’s of thousands of tons of food is thrown out daily (I wrote this blog in the morning and it count was already over 52,000 tons).



In its entirety the Freegan lifestyle may not be something you feel you can embrace. That’s kind of where I stand at the moment. Though I applaud their goal to reduce waste and avoid over-indulgence, I’m not quite ready to hang out behind my local grocery store in hopes of picking up a few things for dinner. At least not now. But if this lifestyle appeals to you, Freegan groups are popping up across the nation and around the globe; there are also websites and blogs galore out there to whet your whistle and provide more information. 
And if you’re not sure if this way of life is your cup of tea, check out the “Are You Freegan Material” quiz at About.com. 



I did. I didn’t pass with flying colors. But I’m keeping an open mind.