So I believe in the old proverb "waste not want not..."
Overall, most of our culture doesn't think this way; in fact, according to the Freegan website (check it out at freegan.info,) nearly 30% of food produced in the US eventually gets thrown away! This is happening while people here and aboard are going hungry, while food is being imported from other places to feed us, while the families who grew that food may go without! This is happening while Monsanto seizes control of our entire foodchain by buying up one seed company after another...
Anyway, all of these atrocities combined are forcing me to rethink where all my food comes from; and to begin to make concious decisions about what I put in my mouth. I've started the process of supporting locally grown food (to end suffering and hunger in other places, and to help the American farmer,) by joining a local food co-op that only purchases locally grown food from suistainable sources and by buying directly from farmers at farmer's markets. By the way, I'm buying this food with food stamps, which I also see as a good political move, since I am essentually taking money from the government that they could be using in the Iraq war or some other terrible thing they have going on, and giving that money to local Oregon farmers who are making a difference on our planet. I have also begun the adventure known as dumpstering or dumpster-diving.
Dumpster-diving is exactly what it sounds like: you find a food dumpster in your neihborhood that has food you want, you wait til the business shuts down at the end of the day, you look in the dumpster and if it has food in it, you might actually climb into the dumpster to retreve the food. However, a few cautions:
A) some businesses are so anti-dumpstering for fear of lossing money, they have been known to pour bleach over their food (smell all dumpstered food carefully)
B) some foods spoil quickly; never eat meat, eggs, dairy, soy milk, tomatoe sauces or other preshables from a dumpster. Also if a food item you want is under meat for example, don't eat it!
C) carefully inspect dumpstered food for other garbage, such as glass, cigarette butts, metal and anything else that might also be tossed into a dumpster that might get on/in your food.
Dumpstered foods that are usually safe include: breads and bread products, fruits and veggies, packaged foods, pizza (pizza joints are one of my favorite places to dumpster at,) donuts, bagels and so on...use your head!
So last night I dumpstered a bunch of bread out of the dumpster at my favorite upscale bakery Delphinas. Delphinas is a cool place to dumpster because I think the employees anticipate people dumpstering there, because the dumpster gate is always unlocked and left open and there is actually a step-stool right against the bread dumpster for easy access! Maybe the step-stool is just for employees? But anyway, it works great for dumpstering too..my only issue last night was jumping on top of garbage bags that had collected puddles of water from the rain and that also had dough on them; my shoes got wet and doughy as a result! But the bread I got was totally worth it: I'm guessing I got at least twenty dollars worth in bread for free! I'm taking one loaf with me to a pot-luck tonight; another loaf stays home for me to slowly eat and another loaf goes with me to a pot-luck on Wednesday!
Love,
Sycamore Fitch
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