Is consumerism an ingrained and unavoidable way of life?
For most people, consumerism is an ingrained and unavoidable way of life. We work, we spend, we trash and we buy again. It's a cycle that seems all but inescapable in an industrialized society. But a group of people that call themselves freegans think they've found a way out -- a way to exit the consumer cycle and live off the grid. They scavenge instead of buy, volunteer instead of work and squat instead of rent. But there's a catch -- to live off the grid, they have to eat out of the trash.
That's right. Freegans are Dumpster divers* who rescue furniture, clothes, household items and even food cast off by others. Freegans aren't homeless; in fact, most could easily afford to buy their own food. They've instead chosen to live what they believe is an ethical, unadulterated lifestyle and disassociate themselves from capitalism and consumerism.
The word freegan is a combination of "free" -- as in it's free because you found it in a dumpster -- and "vegan," a vegetarian who abstains from all animal products. Not all freegans are strict vegetarians, however. Some would rather eat found meat, dairy and eggs than let food go to waste.
Many freegans extend their beliefs beyond the food they eat. In addition to Dumpster diving, some freegans squat on abandoned property or grow gardens on empty lots. Some choose not to hold jobs and instead volunteer or teach repair workshops for other freegans.
Because the movement is so ideologically centered, critics accuse freegans of being hypocritical. After all, avoiding purchases in a developed nation is essentially impossible. If you're still buying gas and electricity to cook scavenged food, you're still very much on the grid. Freegans, however, maintain that every little bit counts; each scavenged item helps minimize the cycle of consumption. And with Americans wasting 96 billion pounds of food a year -- a quarter of the nation's supply [source: EPA] -- do freegans have a point? Is society really so wasteful that people can subsist safely and happily on trash alone?
Freeganism
Is the practice of reclaiming and eating food that haw been discarded. Freegans and freeganism are often seen as part of a wider "anti-consumerist" ideology, and freegans often employ a range of alternative living strategies 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."
The word "freegan" is a portmanteau* of "free" and "vegan"; not all dumpster divers are vegan, but the ideology of veganism is inherent in freeganism. Freeganism started in the mid-1990s, out of the antiglobalization and environmentalist movements. The movement also has elements of Diggers, an anarchist street theater group based in Haight-ashbury.
[Haight-Ashbury is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known for its history of hippie subculture. in San Francisco in the 1960s, that gave away rescued food.]
Anti-consumerism
Is a sociopolitical ideology opposed to consumerism, which discourages ever-growing purchasing and consumption of material possessions. Anti-consumerist activists express concern over modern corporations or organizations that pursue solely economic goals at the expense of environmental, social, or ethical concerns; these concerns overlap with those of environmental activism, anti-globalization, and animal-rights activism. One variation on this is the concept of postconsumers, who emphasize moving beyond addictive consumerism.
The anti-consumerist activist movement has gained strength as a reaction to long-term problematic treatment of consumers and animals, as well as the incorporation of consumer education into school curricula
[the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives. This process includes the use of literacies and datagogies that are interwoven through the use of digital media and/or texts that address the complexities of learning..]
In recent years, there have been an increasing number of books, like Naomi Klein's No Logo* in 2000, and films like The Corporation (a 2003 Canadian documentary film and Surplus film, popularizing an anti-corporateideology to the public.
* Dumpster diving: Garbage picking is the practice of sifting through commercial or residential wast to find items that have been discarded by their owners, but that may prove useful to the garbage picker. Garbage picking may take place in dumpsters or in landfills. When in dumpsters, the practice is called dumpster diving in American English and skipping in British English. Dumpster diving is viewed as an effective urban forafing technique. Dumpster divers will forage dumpsters for items such as clothing, furniture, food, and similar items in good working condition.
* portmanteau comes from the English portmanteau luggage (a piece of luggage with two compartments)
itself derived from the French porter (to carry) and manteau (coat), which is a false friend of the French compound word porte-manteau meaning coat rack.
A portmanteau word fuses both the sounds and the meanings of its components, as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog, or motel, from motor and hotel. In linguistics, a portmanteau is defined as a single morph which represents two or more morpheme.
* No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies is a book by the Canadian author Naomi Klein. First published by Knoph Canada and Picador in December 1999, shortly after the 1999 WTO Ministerial Conference protests in Seattle had generated media attention around such issues, it became one of the most influential books about the alter-globalization movement and an international bestseller.
The book focuses on branding, and often makes connections with the alter-globalization movement. Throughout the four parts ("No Space", "No Choice", "No Jobs", and "No Logo"), Klein writes about issues such as sweatshops* in the Americas and Asia, culture jamming, corporate censorship, and Reclaim the Streets. She pays special attention to the deeds and misdeeds of Nike, The Gap, McDonald's, Shell, and Microsoft – and of their lawyers, contractors, and andvertising agencies. Many of the ideas in Klein's book derive from the influence of the Situationists (citation needed), an art/political group founded in the late 1950s.
The book comprises four sections: "No Space", "No Choice", "No Jobs", and "No Logo". The first three deal with the negative effects of brand-oriented corporate activity, while the fourth discusses various methods people have taken in order to fight back.
However, while globalization appears frequently as a recurring theme, Klein rarely addresses the topic of globalization itself, and usually indirectly. (She would go on to discuss globalization in much greater detail in her 2002 book, Fences and Windows.)
* sweatshops or sweat factory, is a negatively coonoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous. Sweatshop workers often work long hours for low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. child labor laws may be violated. Sweatshops may have hazardous materials and situations. Employees may be subject to employer abuse without an easy way, if any, to protect themselves.
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