“Food from the trash”: a new movement, freeganism, is becoming more and more popular

Who are freegans? These are people who “rescue” discarded food – they eat it themselves and distribute it to others. Freeganism is the ideology of the most limited participation in the traditional economy and the minimum consumption of resources.

The popular movement is particularly widespread in France, Germany and Norway. In some European countries, freegans unite: for example, in Germany, Switzerland and Austria they have your portal. Anyone can join the community, ready to share surplus food or save another person’s food. Associations are also open for companies – restaurants, supermarkets, retail outlets, in order to minimize the amount of food thrown away.

Freegan scavenges for food, clothing, and technology from trash cans, not wanting to live by the principles of a consumer society and a capitalist system. The English word freegan comes from two words: free – “free” and vegan – “vegan”, that is, “one who eats free.” The main goal of freegans is to use the minimum amount of resources. At the same time, they are not trying to save on the purchase of products, but want to reduce the number of discarded things and products. Philosophy of freeganism: We live in a world of abundance, in which everything necessary for life can be obtained without money.

There is a misconception that freegans eat spoiled food, but this is absolutely not true. Shops and restaurants throw away an astonishing amount of food that’s still usable, and that’s what the freegans are “rescuing.” They should not be confused with the homeless, forced to look for food. Unlike the homeless, freegans choose free food rather than shopping for ideological reasons. For them, this is a way to protest against overconsumption, and not a matter of survival.

The goal of freeganism is to fight capitalism and live outside the economic system. Freegans tend not to buy or sell anything. With the development of the movement, its main ideological principles were formed:

1. Reuse and recycling. Freegans are struggling with excess consumption, so one of the main principles is to minimize waste. They repair damaged things rather than buy new ones, and they make compost out of spoiled food.
2. “Green Life”. Some members of the movement are trying to return “to the roots” – they plant vegetable gardens and orchards in abandoned areas, fish and hunt, and collect medicinal herbs.
3. The desire to deal with money as little as possible (the result of anti-capitalist views). Since freegans get food for free and try to get out of the economic system completely, they try to reduce the presence of money in their lives as much as possible. This is quite difficult: after all, money may be needed, for example, to visit a doctor. Therefore, freegans often do not work full time – so they have enough for what they need. Within the community, barter relations are common among freegans – they exchange goods or services. Part of the freegans becomes a member of another economy – “time banking”, the system exists in parallel with the dollar. According to the rules, you work one hour in exchange for an hour of work from another person.
4. Basic right to food. This idea is promoted not only by freegans and fighters for reasonable consumption, but also by representatives of human rights organizations.

Some freegans believe that everyone has a basic right to housing. Instead of renting or buying real estate, they practice squatting – unauthorized settlement in unoccupied or abandoned buildings. It’s more important for squatters to have a home than to follow the law. Squatting is a separate social movement from freeganism, but they are close in spirit, so often people participate in both, says BB.LV.

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