View source for Freeganism

{{Short description|Stance of limited participation in the food system and broader economy in protest}}
{{Anti-consumerism |Theories}}
[[File:Recovering wasted food.JPG|thumb|A box of vegetables and fruits recovered from the dumpsters of a hypermarket]]
[[File:2008-freegan-day1.JPG|thumb|Urban foraged food in Stockholm, Sweden]]

'''Freeganism''' is an [[ideology]] of limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources, particularly through recovering wasted goods like food.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Barnard |first=Alex |year=2016 |title=Freegans: Diving into the Wealth of Food Waste in America |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis, MN |isbn=978-0-8166-9813-4}}</ref> The word "freegan" is a [[portmanteau]] of "free" and "[[veganism|vegan]]".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Glowka |first=Wayne |date=2004 |title=Among the New Words |journal=American Speech |doi=10.1215/00031283-79-2-194 |volume=79 |issue=2 |pages=194–200 |url=http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~charleslin/indv101/readings/new_words/new4.pdf |access-date=2016-06-09 |archive-date=2006-09-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060907113232/http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~charleslin/indv101/readings/new_words/new4.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> While vegans avoid buying, consuming, using, and wearing animal products as an act of protest against animal exploitation, freegans—at least in theory—avoid buying ''anything'' as an act of protest against the food system in general.

Freeganism is often presented as synonymous with "[[dumpster diving]]" for discarded food, although freegans are distinguished by their association with an [[Anti-consumerism|anti-consumerist]] and [[Anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] ideology and their engagement in a wider range of alternative living strategies, such as voluntary unemployment, [[squatting]] in abandoned buildings, and "[[guerrilla gardening]]" in unoccupied city parks.<ref>{{cite web |title=Freeganism in Practice |website=freegan.info |url=http://freegan.info/media-center/freeganism-in-practice/ |access-date=2016-06-09}}</ref>
 
== History ==
[[File:August 25, 1968, Hippies in Lincoln Park, Chicago.webm|thumb|thumbtime=4:41|right|300px|Hippies in [[Lincoln Park, Chicago]], attending a [[Yippie]] organized event, approximately five miles north of the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]] center. The band [[MC5]] can be seen playing. A 'FREE STORE' is in the park.]]
Freegans' goal of reduced participation in capitalism and tactics of recovering wasted goods shares elements with the [[Diggers (theater)|Diggers]], an [[anarchist]] [[street theater]] group based in [[Haight-Ashbury]] in [[San Francisco]] in the 1960s that organized free housing and clinics and gave away [[Food rescue|rescued food]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Belasco |first=Warren James |date=2006 |title=Appetite for Change: How the Counterculture Took On the Food Industry |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, NY |isbn=978-0-8014-7329-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/appetiteforchang00bela_0 }}</ref> The word "freegan" itself was allegedly invented in 1994 by [[Keith McHenry]], the co-founder of [[Food Not Bombs]]—an anarchist group that distributes free vegetarian meals as a protest against militarism and as a way of providing "solidarity not charity"—to refer to non-vegans who never pay for animal products.<ref name=":0" /> McHenry's account is consistent with other published accounts of freeganism that show the word as beginning to be used in the mid-1990s by participants in the [[antiglobalization]] and radical environmental movements.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last1=Edwards |first1=Ferne |last2=Mercer |first2=David |date=2007-11-01 |title=Gleaning from Gluttony: an Australian youth subculture confronts the ethics of waste |journal=[[Australian Geographer]] |issn=0004-9182 |doi=10.1080/00049180701639174 |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=279–296 |bibcode=2007AuGeo..38..279E |s2cid=143263389 }}</ref>

[[File:Freegan at work.jpg|thumb|upright|Freegan while dumpster diving]] The pamphlet "Why Freegan?"—written by former [[Against Me!]] drummer [[Warren Oakes]] in Gainesville, Florida, in 1999<ref>{{cite book |last=Shteir |first=Rachel |date=2012 |title=The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=9780143121121 |location=New York }}</ref>—defines freeganism as "an anti-consumeristic ethic about eating" and goes on to describe practices including [[dumpster diving]], {{anchor|Plate scraping}}plate scraping, [[foraging|wild foraging]], [[gardening]], [[shoplifting|theft]], employee scams, and [[barter]] as alternatives to paying for food.<ref>{{cite web |title=Why Freegan? |website=freegan.info |url=http://freegan.info/what-is-a-freegan/freegan-philosophy/why-freegan-an-attack-on-consumption-in-defense-of-donuts/ |access-date=2016-06-09 |archive-date=2016-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604103456/http://freegan.info/what-is-a-freegan/freegan-philosophy/why-freegan-an-attack-on-consumption-in-defense-of-donuts/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The pamphlet also expanded the activities associated with "freeganism" with a long section on non-alimentary practices, including [[water conservation|conserving water]], [[precycling|pre-cycling]], reusing goods, and using [[solar energy]]. More than just a set of behaviors, though, the pamphlet presents freeganism as having an overarching political goal: an "ultimate boycott" of "all the corporations, all the stores, all the pesticides, all the land and resources wasted, the [[capitalist]] system, the all-oppressive dollar, the wage slavery, the whole burrito" in favor of "liv[ing] a full satisfying life...while treading lightly on the earth".

The first organized group of self-described "freegans" formed in 2003 as an offshoot of the [[Wetlands Preserve]] nightclub and associated Activism Center in New York City. According to the group freegan.info, "After years of trying to boycott products from unethical corporations responsible for human rights violations, environmental destruction, and animal abuse, many of us found that no matter what we bought we ended up supporting something deplorable. We came to realize that the problem isn't just a few bad corporations but the entire system itself."<ref name=":2">{{cite web |title=freegan.info |website=freegan.info |url=http://freegan.info/ |access-date=2016-06-09}}</ref> From 2005, freegan.info organized regular events including sewing and bicycle workshops, wild food foraging expeditions, and "trash tours"—public dumpster dives open to the public and to media.<ref name=":3">{{cite journal |last=Barnard |first=Alex V. |date=2011-12-01 |title='Waving the banana' at capitalism: Political theater and social movement strategy among New York's 'freegan' dumpster divers |journal=Ethnography |issn=1466-1381 |doi=10.1177/1466138110392453 |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=419–444 |s2cid=143456296 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/896842 }}</ref> [[File:TrashCalAPR09 page 1.tif|thumb|A freegan.info event calendar from 2008]]

== Motivations and ideology ==
Studies usually find that most people who participate in practices associated with freeganism, such as dumpster diving for food, do so for economic reasons.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carolsfeld |first1=Anna |last2=Erikson |first2=Susan |date=2013 |title=Beyond Desperation: Motivations for Dumpster™ Diving for Food in Vancouver |journal=Food and Foodways |doi=10.1080/07409710.2013.849997 |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=245–266|s2cid=154045165 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brosius |first1=Nina |last2=Fernandez |first2=Karen V. |last3=Cherrier |first3=Hélène |title=Reacquiring Consumer Waste: Treasure in Our Trash? |journal=Journal of Public Policy & Marketing |doi=10.1509/jppm.11.146 |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=286–301 |year=2013 |hdl=10072/52572 |s2cid=55832675 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fernandez |first1=Karen V. |last2=Brittain |first2=Amanda J. |last3=Bennett |first3=Sandra D. |s2cid=145673083 |date=2011-11-15 |title='Doing the duck': negotiating the resistant-consumer identity |journal=European Journal of Marketing |issn=0309-0566 |doi=10.1108/03090561111167414 |volume=45 |issue=11/12 |pages=1779–1788 }}</ref> Freegans are usually distinguished as being a subset of this population which has an ideological or political motivation for recovering waste or avoiding consumption, although some freegans also say that they do so for amusement, to acquire free goods, or out of religious conviction. Anthropologist Loretta Lou has demonstrated how freeganism is closely related to notions of freedom, especially "ethical freedom", among some freegan practitioners in Asia.<ref name="Asian Anthropology">{{cite journal |last1=Lou|first1=Loretta|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1683478X.2019.1633728 |title=Freedom as ethical practices: on the possibility of freedom through freeganism and freecycling in Hong Kong |journal=[[Asian Anthropology]] |date=2019-07-05 |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=249–265 |doi=10.1080/1683478X.2019.1633728 |s2cid=198747917 |access-date=2019-07-05 }}</ref> 

=== Anarchism and anti-capitalism ===
Freeganism's initial practitioners and forerunners like [[Food Not Bombs]] were explicitly anti-capitalist, arguing that capitalism is responsible for excessive consumption, the abuse of human laborers and non-human animals, and the waste of resources.<ref name=":8">{{cite journal |last=Heynen |first=Nik |date=2010-05-01 |title=Cooking up Non-violent Civil-disobedient Direct Action for the Hungry: 'Food Not Bombs' and the Resurgence of Radical Democracy in the US |journal=Urban Studies |issn=0042-0980 |doi=10.1177/0042098009360223 |volume=47 |issue=6 |pages=1225–1240 |bibcode=2010UrbSt..47.1225H |s2cid=154317986 }}</ref> Freegans' approach to anti-capitalism is broadly [[Anarchism|anarchist]] in orientation: rather than seeking to seize state power, freegans claim to be engaged in "[[prefigurative politics]]", using wasted resources to build a new society "in the shell of the old" based on values of "community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing".<ref name=":2" /> Freegan practices in theory reject the [[commoditization]] of basic necessities, the imperative of economic growth, and an economy based on money exchange rather than free gifting or sharing.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shantz |first=Jeff |date=2005-10-24 |title=One Person's Garbage...Another Person's Treasure: Dumpster Diving, Freeganism, and Anarchy |journal=VERB |issn=1930-2894 |volume=3 |issue=1 |url=http://verb.lib.lehigh.edu/index.php/verb/article/viewArticle/19/18/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218024359/http://verb.lib.lehigh.edu/index.php/verb/article/viewArticle/19/18 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-12-18 }}</ref> Freegan organizations also often use [[Consensus decision-making|consensus-based decision-making]], popularized by the [[anti-globalization movement]] and later visible in anarchist-inspired mobilizations like [[Occupy Wall Street]].

=== Veganism and food waste ===
The word "freegan" originated as a play on the label "veganism" and research on freegan.info in New York found that most participants were vegetarian or vegan prior to becoming freegan.<ref name=":0" /> In many cases, though, freegans ''critique'' vegans by arguing that vegans ignore the environmental and labor impacts of the products they buy and corporate ownership of many vegan product lines.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jaffee |first1=Daniel |last2=Howard |first2=Philip H. |date=2009-07-26 |title=Corporate cooptation of organic and fair trade standards |journal=Agriculture and Human Values |issn=0889-048X |doi=10.1007/s10460-009-9231-8 |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=387–399 |s2cid=27499786 |url=https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/soc_fac/135 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Freegans' rejection of veganism is often tied to their discovery of [[food waste]], estimated as up to 40% of the food supply in the United States<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food|last=Bloom|first=Jonathan|date=2011-08-30|publisher=Da Capo Lifelong Books|isbn=9780738215280|location=Cambridge, MA|language=en|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/americanwastelan0000bloo}}</ref> and other Western countries.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|title=Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal |author-link1=Tristram Stuart |last=Stuart|first=Tristram|date=2009-10-12|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393068368|location=New York|language=en|url=https://archive.org/details/wasteuncoveringg00stua}}</ref> For many, statistics about the ecological impacts of food waste—up to 12% of global cropland and 23% of global freshwater goes to produce food which is never consumed<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kummu|first1=M.|last2=de Moel|first2=H.|last3=Porkka|first3=M.|last4=Siebert|first4=S.|last5=Varis|first5=O.|last6=Ward|first6=P. J.|date=2012-11-01|title=Lost food, wasted resources: Global food supply chain losses and their impacts on freshwater, cropland, and fertiliser use|journal=Science of the Total Environment|volume=438|pages=477–489|doi=10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.08.092|pmid=23032564|bibcode=2012ScTEn.438..477K|doi-access=free}}</ref>—serve as justification for a complete rejection of the capitalist food system. Moreover, the presence of food in supermarket dumpsters shows, according to some freegans, that the vegan theory of social change is flawed, because markets do ''not'' efficiently translate consumer preferences into changes in production.

=== Back-to-nature ===
Some freegans associate themselves with "[[Back to the land|back-to-the-landers]]" or "[[anarcho-primitivism]]", the latter of which asserts that human beings should reject not only capitalism but civilization itself. With some exceptions, though, freeganism is a largely urban or suburban phenomenon.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last=Gross|first=Joan|date=2009-06-11|title=Capitalism and Its Discontents: Back-to-the-Lander and Freegan Foodways in Rural Oregon|journal=Food and Foodways|volume=17|issue=2|pages=57–79|doi=10.1080/07409710902925797|s2cid=143469169|issn=0740-9710}}</ref> Some research suggests that freegans overcome this apparent contradiction by attempting to re-naturalize the city, treating urban waste as a "natural" resource and approach dumpster diving as a practice analogous to hunting or gathering.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Barnard|first=Alex V.|date=2016-01-01|title=Making the City "Second Nature": Freegan "Dumpster Divers" and the Materiality of Morality|journal=American Journal of Sociology|volume=121|issue=4|pages=1017–1050|doi=10.1086/683819|pmid=27017705|s2cid=40515866|issn=0002-9602}}</ref>

==Practices==

===Urban foraging===
{{Main|Dumpster diving}}[[File:Dumpster diving Linkoping.jpg|thumb|Food collected from a dumpster in [[Linköping]], Sweden]]

Freegans are best known for recovering discarded food from commercial establishments, a practice known as "dumpster diving" or "urban foraging" in North America, "[[Skip (container)|skipping]]", "[[Dustbin|bin]] raiding", or "skipitarianism" in the UK, "skip dipping" in Australia, "containern" in Germany, or "doing the duck" in New Zealand. Freegan diets are thus made possible by the range of practices that produce commercial [[food waste]] that is nonetheless still edible, such as conservative [[sell-by date]]s, the deliberate overstocking of certain perishable products (like baked goods), or aesthetic criteria for fruits and vegetables.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> However, dumpster diving is not limited to rummaging for food; freegans report recovering clothing, books, appliances, bicycles, and furniture from commercial dumpsters as well.

Although some freegans are reluctant to share their sites and strategies for "urban foraging", others—like those in freegan.info—have organized public events to raise awareness of food waste and recruit other practitioners.<ref name=":3" /> These events attracted significant media coverage, particularly between 2005 and 2009, from outlets such as ''[[The New York Times]]'',<ref name=":7">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/garden/21freegan.html|title=Not Buying It|last=Kurutz|first=Steven|date=2007-06-21|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-06-09}}</ref> [[Oprah Winfrey|Oprah]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oprah.com/spirit/trash-tour|title=Trash Tour|website=Oprah.com|language=en-us|access-date=2016-06-09}}</ref> and [[MSNBC]].<ref name="carlson">{{cite news |last=Carlson |first=Tucker |author-link=Tucker Carlson |date=February 3, 2006 |title='Freegans' choose to eat garbage |work=[[NBC News]] |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna11154276|access-date=2007-06-21}}</ref>

===Wild foraging and urban gardens===
[[File:Foraging 4-12-09 025.jpg|thumb|Freegans foraging for wild food in a New York City park]]
Instead of buying conventionally grown foods, wild foragers<ref>Institute for the Study of Edible Wild Plants and Other Foragables. [http://www.wildfoodadventures.com/ Wild Foraging Definition]</ref> find and harvest food and medicinal plants growing in their own communities. Some freegans participate in "[[guerrilla gardening|guerrilla]]" or "[[community gardening|community]]" gardens, with the stated aim of rebuilding community and reclaiming the capacity to grow one's own food. In order to fertilize those guerrilla gardens, food obtained from dumpster diving is sometimes also reused, and some use [[vermicompost|vermiculture]] instead of ordinary [[composting]] techniques in order to keep the required infrastructure small and adapted to urban areas. Some rural freegans are also "homesteaders" who grow their own food and employ alternative energy sources to provide energy for their homesteads, occasionally living "[[Off-the-grid|off the grid]]" entirely.<ref name=":6" />

===Sharing===
"Sharing" is also presented as a common freegan practice, associated with the anarchist idea of a "[[gift economy]]". For example, [[Food Not Bombs]] recovers food that would otherwise go to waste to serve warm meals on the street to anyone who wants them. [[Really, Really Free Market]]s are free social events in which freegans can share goods instead of discarding them, share skills, give presents and eat food. A [[Give-away shop|free store]] is a temporary market where people exchange goods and services outside of a money-based economy. In New York City, freegan.info often distributes recovered food items for free in an ad-hoc manner after trash tours.<ref name=":3" />[[File:Freebox.JPG|thumb|left|200px|A Freebox in [[Berlin]], [[Germany]], 2005, serving as a distribution center for free donated materials]]

Freegans also advocate sharing travel resources. [[Carpool]]s and [[hitchhiking]] reduce, but do not eliminate, use of cars. [[Community bicycle program]]s and [[collective]]s facilitate community sharing of [[bicycles]], restore found and broken bikes, and teach people how to do their own bicycle repairs. In the process, they aim to build a culture of skill and resource sharing, reuse wasted bikes and bike parts, and create greater access to [[green transport]].

===Squatting===
{{Main|Squatting}}
[[File:Freegan Squat.jpg|thumb|A freegan in a squatted building in New York City]]
Just as freegans argue food waste should be recovered and redistributed, many argue that unoccupied buildings are a form of "waste" to be reclaimed. Squatting was widespread in Western Europe as well as parts of the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, and activists used squatted buildings not only for housing but also to create community centers, [[pirate radio]] stations, or free schools.<ref>{{cite book |last=Katsiaficas |first=George |date=June 1, 2006 |title=The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life |publisher=AK Press |isbn=9781904859536 }}</ref> A widespread crackdown by municipalities closed many squats and legalized the remainder in the 1990s—the moment when freeganism was emerging—and so it is thus difficult to know how many people are involved in this activity.<ref>{{cite book |last=Corr |first=Anders |year=1999 |title=No Trespassing: Squatting, Rent Strikes, and Land Struggles Worldwide |publisher=[[South End Press]] |location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]}}</ref> While research with freegans consistently shows that they ''endorse'' squatting, in practice, freegan living situations vary, ranging from trading work for rent to traditional home ownership.<ref name=":0" />

===Working less===
{{See also|Refusal of work}}
Working less is another component of freeganism. Freegans oppose the notion of working for the sole purpose of accumulating material items. They argue that their need to work is reduced by only purchasing the basic necessities and acquiring the remainder for free from the garbage. According to freegans, not working frees up additional time for political action while avoiding tasks they see as sacrificing valuable time to "take orders from someone else, stress, boredom, monotony, and in many cases risks to physical and psychological well-being".<ref name=":2" /> As with squatting, however, the degree of concordance between freegan ideology and practices is variable. In surveys, self-described freegans vary from reporting working only irregularly, working consistently in social justice organizations, and being employed in more conventional, "capitalist" occupations.<ref name=":1" />

== Responses and criticism ==

=== Sanitation and stigma ===
Contact with waste is seen as a taboo and socially unacceptable in most developed countries, and freegans are often associated with stigmatized and racialized groups like the homeless or even compared to scavenging "pest" animals like raccoons.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Corman|first=Lauren|date=2011|title=Getting their hands dirty: raccoons, freegans, and urban "trash"|journal=Journal for Critical Animal Studies|volume=9|issue=3}}</ref> Some public health officials, like those in New York City, have explicitly discouraged dumpster diving for sanitation reasons<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://abcnews.go.com/Business/freeganism-dumpster-diving-buck-spending-trend/story?id=14242371| title='Freeganism': Bucking the Spending Trend|last=Kirpalani |first=Reshma|date=2011-08-08|website=ABC News|access-date=2016-06-10|quote='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.'}}</ref> and media coverage occasionally focuses on the "ick" factor of dumpster diving while (explicitly or implicitly) ignoring its political content.<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443864204577623450975970554| title=Free, but Not Always Easy |last=Kadet| first=Anne|date=2012-09-01 |newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |issn=0099-9660|access-date=2016-06-10}}</ref> This discourse has been deployed more broadly to discredit anarchist movements by claiming they are unhygienic and thus dangerous.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bolton|first1=Matthew|last2=Froese|first2=Stephen|last3=Jeffrey|first3=Alex|date=2016-01-01|title="Go get a job right after you take a bath": Occupy Wall Street as Matter Out of Place|journal=Antipode|volume=48|issue=4|language=en|pages=857–876|doi=10.1111/anti.12226|bibcode=2016Antip..48..857B |issn=1467-8330|url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/254197}}</ref> While some freegans argue that dumpster dived food is safe—noting it is usually thrown out because it cannot be profitably sold, not because it is no longer edible—others embrace the "dirtiness" of recovered food as a symbolic rejection of capitalist norms.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Clark| first=Dylan| date=2004-01-01|title=The Raw and the Rotten: Punk Cuisine|jstor=3773853|journal=Ethnology|volume=43|issue=1|pages=19–31|doi=10.2307/3773853|doi-access=free}}</ref> The group freegan.info has made the disgust attached to wasted food part of its messaging, arguing that social disapprobation should instead fall on those who throw out food, rather than those who recover it.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Savio |first=Gianmarco|date=2016-03-04|title=Organization and Stigma Management A Comparative Study of Dumpster Divers in New York|journal=Sociological Perspectives|volume=60 |issue=2|language=en|pages=416–430|doi=10.1177/0731121416632012|s2cid=146945249|issn=0731-1214}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal| last1=Nguyen| first1=Hieu P.|last2=Chen|first2=Steven |last3=Mukherjee|first3=Sayantani|date=2014-09-01|title=Reverse stigma in the Freegan community| journal=Journal of Business Research|volume=67 |issue=9|pages=1877–1884|doi=10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.12.001}}</ref>

=== Parasitism ===
Freeganism has also been critiqued both by other radical movements and by mainstream commentators for the fact that its signature practice—dumpster diving—depends on the capitalist food system that freegans claim to be rejecting.<ref name=":7" /> A typical response is that freegan practices are not limited to dumpster diving, but include also actions like guerilla gardening, wild food foraging, or sewing or bike repair "skill shares" that are more fully autonomous from the conventional economy.

=== Racial and class composition ===
Although activities like dumpster diving or [[gleaning]] are traditionally seen as subsistence strategies for the poor, most research on freegans finds that individuals come from middle-class and upper-class backgrounds and have high levels of education (even if their present lifestyles make them low-income).<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Freeganism has also been described as racially exclusive, because freeganism's voluntary association of waste would seem to confirm a "globally ubiquitous racial construction" that people of color are dirty and polluted.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice|last=Pellow|first=David Naguib|date=2007-08-10|publisher=The MIT Press|isbn=9780262662017|edition=1|language=en}}</ref> As one freegan of color wrote, "I am extremely embarrassed for people to see me diving, because I can tell that I'm not just me, I'm also a representation of black people in general...I got harassed by security several times while diving on my own campus, until my white friends pop their heads out of the dumpsters."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://vegansofcolor.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/freegans-of-color/|title=Freegans of Color?|date=2008-06-03|website=Vegans of Color|access-date=2016-06-10}}</ref> In contrast, the portrait of the gender balance of freeganism is more mixed, with some accounts saying groups are majority men and others majority women.<ref name=":0" />

=== Legality and commercial responses ===
[[File:Bleach on food waste.jpg|thumb|Bleach on discarded food in Paris, France]]
The legality of freegan practices of reclaiming wasted food, space, or buildings varies depending on local laws around property, trespassing, and waste removal.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thomas|first=Sean|date=2010-03-01|title=Do freegans commit theft?|journal=Legal Studies|language=en|volume=30|issue=1|pages=98–125|doi=10.1111/j.1748-121X.2009.00142.x|s2cid=145110244|issn=1748-121X|url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/151803/1/Do_Freegans_Commit_Theft_pre_publication_version_.pdf}}</ref> In some places, like New York City, freegans dumpster dive publicly; in other locations, urban foraging is a secretive activity. In recent years, there have been arrests of people dumpster diving for political reasons in the United Kingdom,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/28/three-charged-vagrancy-act-food-skip-iceland|title=Three charged with stealing food from skip behind Iceland supermarket|last=Gentleman|first=Amelia|date=2014-01-28|website=the Guardian|access-date=2016-06-10}}</ref> Belgium,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://discardstudies.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/dumpsters-muffins-waste-and-law/|title=Dumpsters, Muffins, Waste and Law|last1=de Vries|first1=Katja|last2=Abrahamsson|first2=Sebastien|date=2012-03-27|website=Discard Studies|language=en-US|access-date=2016-06-10}}</ref> and France,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2015/02/04/2043246-herault-des-glaneurs-de-poubelles-au-tribunal.html|title=Hérault : des glaneurs de poubelles au tribunal|last=Goutorbe|first=Christian|website=ladepeche.fr|access-date=2016-06-10}}</ref> although in most locations charges have eventually been dropped. These actions could be seen as part of a broader criminalization of acts of survival—like sleeping in public places, sharing food without a permit, or recovering aluminum cans to re-sell—that has affected freegans as well as affiliated groups like [[Food Not Bombs]] and the homeless.<ref name=":8" /> Freegans report that stores have responded to waste recovery as well, including deliberately destroying products prior to disposing of them,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/nyregion/06about.html|title=A Clothing Clearance Where More Than Just the Prices Have Been Slashed|last=Dwyer|first=Jim|date=2010-01-06|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-06-10}}</ref> locking dumpsters, or pouring bleach on food to make it inedible. In France, a new national law bans the practice of destroying food in this way.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jberkenkamp/food_waste_inspiration_the_fre.html|title=Food Waste Inspiration: The French Make a Bold Proposal|last=Mourad|first=Marie|date=2015-05-05|website=National Resources Defense Council|access-date=2016-06-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317125835/http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jberkenkamp/food_waste_inspiration_the_fre.html|archive-date=2016-03-17|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Impacts ==
Media coverage of freeganism in the United States peaked around the [[2008 financial crisis]] and dropped off subsequently. More recently, freeganism has been discussed in the context of increasing public interest in [[food waste]]. [[Tristram Stuart]], a prominent food waste campaigner and founder of the organization "Feedback" claims that media attention to freeganism was crucial in attracting attention to the problem.<ref name=":0" /> Other analyses of the origins of contemporary public policy initiatives around food waste have also concluded that freeganism contributed to new initiatives, like the French law on food waste or the U.S. food waste reduction challenge.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mourad|first=Marie|date=2016-07-10|title=Recycling, recovering and preventing "food waste": competing solutions for food systems sustainability in the United States and France|journal=Journal of Cleaner Production|volume=126|pages=461–477|doi=10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.03.084|bibcode=2016JCPro.126..461M |url=https://zenodo.org/record/895305}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Evans|first1=David|last2=Campbell|first2=Hugh|last3=Murcott|first3=Anne|date=2012-12-01|title=A brief pre-history of food waste and the social sciences|journal=The Sociological Review|language=en|volume=60|issue=2_suppl|pages=5–26|doi=10.1111/1467-954X.12035|s2cid=143262270|issn=1467-954X}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
The 2013 film [[The_East_(2013_film)|The East]] was based on Freeganism and related practices such as Anarchist Communalism. Director [[Zal Batmanglij]] and star [[Brit Marling]] co-wrote the film and the script was largely based on their experiences practicing Freeganism in the summer of 2009.<ref> Hogan, Michael (January 22, 2013). "Brit Marling, 'The East' Star And Co-Writer, Spent A Summer Eating From Dumpsters". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 24, 2013.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Hunter-gatherer]]
* [[Pagpag]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |first=Tristram |last=Stuart |author-link=Tristram Stuart |title=Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal |year= 2009 |publisher=Penguin |isbn= 978-0-14-103634-2 }}
* Sundeen, Mark (2012). ''The Man Who Quit Money.'' Riverhead Books. {{ISBN|1594485690}}
* Barnard, Alex (2016). ''Freegans: Diving into the Wealth of Food Waste in America.'' University of Minnesota Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8166-9813-4}}.
* Lou, Loretta (2019). ''Freedom as ethical practices: on the possibility of freedom through freeganism and freecycling in Hong Kong.'' Asian Anthropology.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://fallingfruit.org/freegan Fallingfruit.org/freegan] – Falling Fruit's global map of freegan resources
* [http://trashwiki.org Trashwiki] – Freegan wiki-encyclopedia of dumpster-diving spots
* [http://freegan.info/ Freegan.info] – 100 pages on freegan theory & practice with events and directories primarily in NYC
* [http://www.freegan.at/en Freegan.at] – Austrian Freegan page (English version)

{{Simple living}}
{{Veganism and vegetarianism}}
{{Recycling}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Diets]]
[[Category:DIY culture]]
[[Category:Intentional living]]
[[Category:Radical environmentalism]]
[[Category:Reuse]]
[[Category:Foraging]]
[[Category:Food waste]]
[[Category:Underground culture]]
[[Category:Anarchist terminology]]