is anyone out there a freegan?

[mamafeelgood]

if you are do you go pick up any good stuff in east dulwich? i'd like to hear from anyone who is

[Jah Lush]

Pardon my ignorance but what's a freegan when it's at home?

[mamafeelgood]

your ignorance is excused as i have only just read about it on the web, but i had read about it in a few articles.

the principle is that as a society as a whole we throw away too much and beyond recycling and freecycle you can feed yourself perfectly well by using good food thrown away by shops.

[Keef]

So it's a tramp? ;-) In all seriousness, I fear that half eaten kebab would be the most common dish found on LL...

[catgirl]

Just found this on the web:

http://freegan.info/

On a similar note, I tried to join freecycle recently but there is currently no southwark group. It appears that you have to agree to be some kind of moderator in order to start up a new group which I don't really want to do (yes, I know, somebody has to be bothered) but was surprised / disappointed to see that we don't have representation currently. Am I missing something on the site or, if not, is anybody interested enough to set up a group for us?

[Jamie]

Ahhh but keef its a question of how much food Tesco's, Somerfield and Sainsbury throw away in their bins secretly at night. Food that is past its sell by date but would probably still feed many many people.

I have a few friends that are freegans and I tell you Waitrose, Sainsburys and Marks and Sparks bins are the best apparently. The quality of food is high and they throw things away well before they go off.

Its all very sad to think people in this country let alone others don't have enough to eat and supermarket managers are throwing food for the 5000 away!

[mamafeelgood]

are your friend fully practicing freegans then? i can imagine that a local M&S or Waitrose certainly provides a higher quality of fresh food thrown out compared to other competitors. have you eaten meals prepared by them?

[SimonM]

>>the principle is that as a society as a whole we throw away too much and beyond recycling and freecycle you can feed>yourself perfectly well by using good food thrown away by shops.<<

Bit ti has to be vegan food no?

[Nero]

No, not vegan. It is a neologism, like 'manorexic' or 'tanorexic', or 'workaholic' etc. There may be a better term than neologism. Huguenot would know, I bet! Nero

[Huguenot]

Indeed, strictly speaking this is a portmanteau (where the meaning of a word is altered by conflating it with another).

Portmanteaus can be a subset of neoligisms. In other words a new portmanteau will always be a neoligism, but a neoligism is not always a portmanteau. ;-)

It's interesting in this case that the portmanteau doesn't carry the meaning of vegan (herbivore) but the pejorative context of vegan: faddish and selective consumption of food.

[snorky]

Huguenot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Indeed, strictly speaking this is a portmanteau

> (where the meaning of a word is altered by

> conflating it with another).

>

> Portmanteaus can be a subset of neoligisms. In

> other words a new portmanteau will always be a

> neoligism, but a neoligism is not always a

> portmanteau. ;-)

>

> It's interesting in this case that the portmanteau

> doesn't carry the meaning of vegan (herbivore) but

> the pejorative context of vegan: faddish and

> selective consumption of food.

eh ?

I thought this was about eating food you find on the ground ?

[mockney piers]

It is, he was just clarifying a point.

I'm in no way inclined to freeganism, but I do do alot of fruit&veg shopping at the Inverness St market up here in Camden.

All the stalls buy up the reject produce from the local supermarkets. By reject they mean slightly gnarled, maybe a slight bruise etc. In fact whole bunches of bananas are rejected if just one has a slight split at the top.

It costs about 1/3 the price too, so you get a huge 2 bag full for a fiver just because the produce don't meet the style mag poisoned aesthetics of your average primrose hill set idiot.

Believe you me betwixt the addicts selling oregano and the 4x4 mummies driving 300 yards round here, I feel like I'm in a near utopia getting back home to southern pastures of an evening.

[Keith]

What a great explanation for a tramp.:))

Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.

[*Bob*]

Bin-dipping. It's not for me - but then that's all the more left for the rest of you, right?

Fill your boots!

[Michael Palaeologus]

Is there a similar movement for the re-use of fag-ends?

[dulwichmum]

Yes dear *Bob* I am in complete agreement. While they "fill their boots" in the bins at the back of Sommerfield, we shall be "fine dining" at Claridges...

[Huguenot]

Went to Claridges the other day... wasn't all that ;-)

However, Scott's was exceptional.

[Incitatus]

Scotts::o very nice and very apt for this thread. They've got a kinda freeganesque aircon system, it's circulating cool underground water up and down 140 metre deep boreholes beneath the restaurant.

[dulwichmum]

Where is Scotts? Sorry I have a hangover, perhaps I missed a mention of it earlier?

[Huguenot]

Darling! I can believe you don't know Scott's of Mayfair? ;-)

[mockney piers]

Ooh yes. very very nice!!

[dulwichmum]

Dear Mr Huguenot,

Clearly I have been neglected by my husband. He probably eats there all the time.

I shall book a table today...

DM

[bawdy-nan]

I met a very strange man once who was a fruititarian - which meant he only ate things that meant nothing was killed. So he would eat raisins, berries and nuts but not whole plants. Cut and come again lettuce ok but not sure about potatoes - clearly not a whole plant but I do't expect it would be happy being dug up for a tuber.

He was very very thin.

[Incitatus]

mamafeelgood,

a good local way to get into the freegan thing would be a visit to Dulwich Wood, it's rammed full with Ramson at the moment. It's a type of wild garlic but you just pick the leaves and use it like spinach, earlier in the season when it's very young it tastes good in salads but by now use in large quantities to make a gorgeous soup - with the addition of the odd liberated potato- deep fry the flowers whole to garnish your free soup.

[Jeremy]

Yummy!

Did anyone see this on TV?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/programmes/roadkill_chef/