Freeganism

I was reading an entry on a LiveJournal community and it was about a voluntary and green-inspired lifestyle called Freeganism. Oprah Winfrey featured a show on this lifestyle with Lisa Ling. I didn't get to see it but I am curious about the show and will try to find it online if I can.

Freeganists are people who consider themselves to be anti-consumerists. They look for alternative ways to gather necessary resources such as clothing, food and even housing. However, the main focus is on find different ways to gather food without contributing to wastefulness and excessive consumption. They go to various food service businesses and markets to take leftovers (called dumpster driving) that are unspoiled and past their expiration date. They get these items free and the lifestyle is for making a socio-political statement.

I think this is a great message and idea; however there are some things that have to be considered. I'd like to see most of the food go to people who really need it...people who don't have options to live or experiment with other lifestyles in order to make political statements. Poor people, who are truly in need of food, only care only about survival, so looking for leftover food; begging or trying to eat free is not a romanticized experience.

I also think that, although this lifestyle has the right intention, this is not going to catch on to the public at large. Again, the best way to send out a message here and contribute to less waste is to, put in place, a large organization that caters to distributing and packaging leftover food from food service businesses to those in need. I've always wondered if something like this was in place because when I'd hear of how much food was left over by so many grocery stores and restaurants, I thought, "Why are they throwing all of that useful food away rather than giving it to people who are poor or homeless??"

I remember reading that there were some legalities in place to prevent restaurants from doing this because they are required to throw food away after reaching their expiration dates and so forth. If an organization can come into place and set up various local chapters around the U.S., it can be responsible for working with government health inspection and food regulation orgs. in order to insure that the food given out through food service companies is edible, healthy, nutritious and safe to eat. Food service companies would just sign up through the organization and agree to sign forms, follow regulation requirements and so forth in order to start participating and helping to lower food waste nationally.

I haven't seen anything like this in place on a large scale and I think it would be a wonderful idea (there is Food Not Bombs and a few other smaller orgs., but they aren't national I don't think). Individuals can participate in this type of organization as well. The organization can sponsor food drives which collect canned foods and other packaged food materials from households...as long as the food meets health regulations and requirements set up by the organization.