-
Advertorial
-
FOCUS
-
Guide
-
Lifestyle
-
Tech and Vogue
-
TechandScience
-
CHTF Special
-
Nanshan
-
Futian Today
-
Hit Bravo
-
Special Report
-
Junior Journalist Program
-
World Economy
-
Opinion
-
Diversions
-
Hotels
-
Movies
-
People
-
Person of the week
-
Weekend
-
Photo Highlights
-
Currency Focus
-
Kaleidoscope
-
Tech and Science
-
News Picks
-
Yes Teens
-
Budding Writers
-
Fun
-
Campus
-
Glamour
-
News
-
Digital Paper
-
Food drink
-
Majors_Forum
-
Speak Shenzhen
-
Shopping
-
Business_Markets
-
Restaurants
-
Travel
-
Investment
-
Hotels
-
Yearend Review
-
World
-
Sports
-
Entertainment
-
QINGDAO TODAY
-
In depth
-
Leisure Highlights
-
Markets
-
Business
-
Culture
-
China
-
Shenzhen
-
Important news
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Lifestyle -> 
Living with less
    2014-11-14  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    WHILE the Chinese people went on a nationwide online spending spree this past Tuesday, an anti-consumerism movement quietly marches on in other parts of the world. A term combining the words “free” and “vegan,” freeganism is about more than food. Its adherents describe it as an anti-capitalist, environmental action that challenges endless consumerism. Freegans avoid participating in what they view as a destructive and wasteful modern economy. That means dumpster diving for food, bike riding and squatting in abandoned buildings instead of shopping at supermarkets, driving and paying rent.

    “The strategies we employ strive to minimize waste and to honor the life and dignity of people, animals and the environment,” said Gio Andollo, 29, a self-described struggling musician in New York City who organized an uptown group of trash pickers.

    Since he was 16 and growing up in Florida, Andollo said, he has been conscious of waste problems. When his friends threw out half-eaten slices of pizza, he would tell them it was wrong because “tens of thousands of people die of starvation every day.” He was a freegan before the word existed.

    “Freeganism is about educating people and saying, ‘Look at this waste! It isn’t okay!’” Andollo said.

    There are different degrees of commitment to freeganism. Some freegans like Andollo, aim to buy nothing. Others, like Daniel Verinder, 38 of Boston, who calls himself a “freegan reservist,” work full-time and often buy groceries. But Verinder said he would be more active as a freegan if his wife and daughter were more on board with dumpster diving.

    “I dive about once a month,” Verinder said. “I take the train and walk most places. I seek forms of entertainment and culture that are free and/or not thing-based.”

    Freeganism, which popped up in the early ’90s, rejects the idea of overspending as a “national addiction,” according to New York City freegan, Madline Nelson. It has spread worldwide, with freegan websites in French, Norwegian and Portuguese.

    “These options are available to most people on a mortgage treadmill,” said Nelson. “They don’t need to wait till they go to a nursing home before they downsize.”

    In the United States, trash tours are organized to introduce more people to the freeganism concept of dumpster diving. There are 16 active dumpster diving groups in the country on Meetup.com, including groups in Washington D.C., Boston and Los Angeles. They operate differently based on the participants and geography of the city, Nelson said. In Los Angeles, freegans pile up in carpools to pick through store trash.

    According to Nelson, the New York City trash tours attract participants across age, class and professional divides and have grown noticeably since the recession in 2008.

    “I think there are more people coming because this might be a way to make ends meet,” said Nelson. “We have shown literally thousands of discrete individuals how to go dumpster diving and trash picking in this city.”

    Dumpster diving for food

    Shortly before she opted out of her job as director of Internet communications for Barnes and Noble in 2005, Nelson began dumpster diving for free food as part of her non-consumerist lifestyle.

    “The bottom of the food pyramid for me is still dumpster diving, in terms of volume,” Nelson said. “More food comes from that than other means.”

    According to Nelson, freegans typically find food in dumpsters outside of food stores such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Duane Reade an hour after these stores close. Pre-packed meals, yogurt and fruits — bananas are thrown out in “shocking quantities” — are all tested by the dumpster divers for their temperature. In the summer months, if these foods are not cold, they are left behind.

    But according to the New York State Health Department, these temperature-testing precautions are not enough.

    “There are too many uncertainties involved about what the food in the dumpsters have been exposed to,” said spokesman Peter Constantakes. “We have concerns about the practice mainly because anything that goes into trash has exposure to any sort of food pathogens, including rat droppings, pesticides, or household cleaners that can be a potential health risk.”

    Nelson, who employs the temperature-testing techniques, said, “People need to take the same reasonable health precautions with food outside of a store as they do inside of a store. It took me two years of doing this before I considered myself sophisticated enough with it to discern which foods were cold enough or hot enough to take.”

    Promoting sustainability

    Currently, Nelson is unemployed. She carefully lives off her savings and helps to organize bi-monthly trash tours and monthly freeganism feasts in New York City, part of an effort to eliminate food waste in the United States.

    According to the National Resources Defense Council, Americans throw out US$165 billion worth of food each year.

    Between 4 percent and 10 percent of food purchased by restaurants becomes “kitchen loss” before it reaches the consumer, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). On average, diners leave 17 percent of meals uneaten, and 55 percent of these potential leftovers are not taken home. Today, restaurant portion sizes are often two to eight times larger than standards recommended by the USDA or Food and Drug Administration, an increase from past decades.

    Restaurants don’t have to throw away food considered unattractive. They can donate it without being liable. In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act to encourage donation of food and grocery products to nonprofit organizations.

    Dana Gunders, project scientist at the National Resources Defense Council, said that when people throw out their food, they are wasting more than just money.

    “It is a large use of resources to grow that food, and so we are spending a lot of water and energy and land to grow food that is not getting eaten,” she said. “It is also a shame that it [waste] exists alongside a significant hunger problem in the United States.”

    (SD-Agencies)

    Tips on saving money, and Earth

    Shop with care: Stay away from factory farmed animal products. There are so many reasons, from not ingesting the antibiotics and hormones still in the products, to the cruelty of factory farm conditions to animals, to the 70 kilos of high-quality vegetable protein wasted to produce a single kilo of beef.

    Support local farmers: Eat as local as you can afford to do. By reducing the distance your food travels, you reduce your carbon footprint.

    Grow your own: The most local you can go is to grow your own fruits and veggies. Got a yard? Turn it into a pea patch. Don’t? Join a community garden, make new friends, and learn relaxing new skills.

    Dumpster dive: Feeling brave? Try seeing what your local supermarkets are throwing out every day.

    Work less: Consider reducing your work hours, especially if you don’t like the work you’re doing. Life is too short to work a job you hate to buy stuff you don’t need.

    Think before trashing: Don’t needlessly throw good stuff out. Swap clothes and other stuff with friends, regift them, put them on freecycle, donate them to a locally run thrift store.

    Repair to reuse: Stuff not good anymore? Think again. Clothes get thrown out nowadays because a button is missing or a hem is hanging; bikes because they need a tuneup or new brakes. Learn repair skills and share them with others.

    Public transport: Leave the car in the driveway, and when you’re ready, sell it. Walking and bicycling will make your body feel great while greatly reducing your carbon footprint.

深圳报业集团版权所有, 未经授权禁止复制; Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved.
Shenzhen Daily E-mail:szdaily@szszd.com.cn