An Introduction to Freeganism

Newsweek magazine has allowed one of their writers's to spend the next thirty days investigating one of the new subcultures rising in our society. These anti-consumerists have been making waves, adopting life practices that compel them to dig through dumpsters and scour city parks looking for leafy greens to eat. Freegans are their name but their game has eluded full understanding as their message and methods change from one part of the nation to the other. What is unilateral is their disdain for the American lifestyle of excess and glutton, not just in eating habits but in life habits. And it is these habits that they seek to bring the most attention to.

The genesis of Freegans is not as clear as other cultural change agents. But born out of the Food Not Bombs prevailing culture where passionate citizens are stirred to action based on their belief that our focus on war politics skews our focus from things that matter most like making sure everyone has something to eat, every day. The Food Not Bombs initiative, serves vegan or vegetarian food to others. Their message is clear. We are a nation with plenty but waste a large portion of it on initiatives that fail to address critical needs in our culture.

The Freegan website gives a detailed description of what it is to be a Freegan. At a base level, Freegans have a distinctive apathy about their inability to consume without supporting something they despise. This contentious battle stirred a group to action and that is where the Freegans began. The central goal of Freegans is to reconcile economics and ethics, where our pursuit of capital is never compromised by our moral, ethical, and social responsibilities. In pursuit of their goal, Freegans have instituted several practical life strategies.

Waste Reclamation

Based on the belief that much of the waste today is unused as a byproduct of our consumer mentality and the push to increase sales and prop up the economy, Freegans believe that using available waste would solve many problems today. They use two techniques, urban foraging and dumpster diving to reclaim what someone else perceives as waste. The old adage, one man's trash is another man's treasure, certainly applies to the Freegan community. The practice revolves around going through the dumpsters of places of business as well as residences for usable goods. What is universal about Freegans is the practice of sharing. Whatever anyone retrieves, they all will share once they return to their meeting space or homes.

Waste Minimization

Disheartened by the amount of waste that litters the world, Freegans attempt to reuse and repair continually rather than throwing anything away. Those items that cannot be reused are composted whenever possible or set aside for more natural, organic environmental redistributing. Active participants on sites like freecycle and Craig list, Freegans seek to scale back the amount of waste introduced by pilfering the discards of other people.

Eco-Friendly Transportation

Based on the goal of not adding any additional pollutants to the atmosphere, Freegans seek to avoid using cars at all costs. While they will hitchhike to a destination, they would rather walk, skate, or bike than continue the petroleum, oil, and economic climate we live in today. Beyond global impacts, their social beliefs that the war in Iraq is based on oil and not social concerns, they look to lower the economic impact and the competing natures of countries like the one the US is currently in with China as both countries lead the world in pollutants because of the number of cars and the amount of oil each consumes.

Rent Free Housing

In a twist that is a violation of law, Freegans are active squatters who believe that housing is a right not a privilege. The practice the belief that everyone should be able to secure a roof over their head even when it is in an abandoned or unused building. As long as no harm is being done, Freegans believe there is nothing wrong with it. In addition, Freegans go so far as to use abandoned buildings as quasi-community centers, setting up programs and activities for others to help them navigate life.

Going Green

With a return to natural and organic food consumption, Freegans look to build community gardens or find natural foods rather than engage in the current consumer system of buying food that was made in other countries and then ferried across an ocean before arriving on our plate's weeks and sometimes months after being harvested. The ecological impact is high of course. So Freegans look to do their part to slow the rate of impact down by using things that can be grown locally.

Working Less/Voluntary Joblessness

The last fundamental practice of Freegans could be viewed as its most obscure. When you understand Freegans you understand that the ideology of Freeganism is all about confronting the system that governs our lives you understand the last principle or pillar that the community embraces. If you accomplish the previous tenets, then you are able to see the obvious impact a consumer lifestyle has and the need to scale back. Beyond that, the natural progression would be to subtract oneself from the system by refusing to work more by not needing to consume more. With much of our drive to work based on our need to put food on the table or to buy the next greatest gadget, Freegans hope to salvage a slice of the nature of the Earth, by working less by choice as opposed to punching in a clock and working to spend money on things we have already learned through the previous practices, we can learn to live without.

Freeganism is an interesting community of people with practices that may cause some to scratch their heads. What cannot be questioned is their bedrock belief in what is wrong with the world today. Their way of solving the problems is a bit strange but then, when is change not?