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Freegans: Diving into the Wealth of Food Waste in America
If capitalism is such an efficient system, why does 40 percent of all U.S. food production go to waste—while one in six people in the nation face hunger? This startling truth has stirred increasing interest and action of late, but none so radical as that of the freegans, who live on what capitalism throws away—including food culled from supermarket dumpsters. Freegans i s a close look at the people in this movement, offering a broader perspective on ethical consumption and the changing nature of capitalism. Freegans object to the overconsumption and environmental degradation on which they claim our economic order depends, and they register that dissent by opting out of it, recovering, redistributing, and consuming wasted goods, from dumpster-dived food to cast-off clothes and furniture. Through several years of fieldwork and in-depth interviews with freegans in New York City, Alex Barnard has created a portrait of freegans that leads to questions about ethical consumption—like buying organic, fair trade, or vegan—and the search for effective forms of action in an era of political disillusionment. Barnard’s analysis of this pressing concern reveals how waste is integrally bound up with our food system. At the same time, by showing that markets do not seamlessly translate preferences expressed at the cash register into changes in production, Freega ns exposes the limits of consumer activism.
280 pages, Paperback
Published March 14, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 1, 2021
Mr. Barnard spent quite a few years researching his subject and interviewed many people to get their varying viewpoints about the habit of dumpster diving. He is an affluent white male with a fair amount of erudition (like many people who dumpster dive). So his book is articulate in its writing and wide ranging in scope.
Going through the trash for a meal or something more durable like a sweater or pair of sneakers isn’t new. What astonished Mr. Barnard is what passes for “waste” here in the United States and abroad. Perfectly good items, in appalling amounts, are winding up in the garbage, in landfills and in our oceans. Many of Mr. Barnard’s interviewees voiced their concerns about the welfare of the planet. Others were more personal in their views. Discarded food is being used to feed themselves and their families; politics, social reforms and morality don’t enter into the subject.
Mr. Barnard didn’t limit his reporting to dumpster divers. His book draws on many other sources, including the works of Karl Marx, politicians and their cautionary speeches or optimistic views of how to solve the problem of excess waste, et al. Yet his book is easy to understand and an eye-opener if you've never considered mundane matters like “planned obsolescence” or the arbitrary nature of expiration dates on food. It takes an in-depth look into freeganism and the various people who practice it (myself included). It was terrific to read about my group of dumpster divers and the wonderful coordinators who manage it, all from a fresh perspective.
Going through the trash for a meal or something more durable like a sweater or pair of sneakers isn’t new. What astonished Mr. Barnard is what passes for “waste” here in the United States and abroad. Perfectly good items, in appalling amounts, are winding up in the garbage, in landfills and in our oceans. Many of Mr. Barnard’s interviewees voiced their concerns about the welfare of the planet. Others were more personal in their views. Discarded food is being used to feed themselves and their families; politics, social reforms and morality don’t enter into the subject.
Mr. Barnard didn’t limit his reporting to dumpster divers. His book draws on many other sources, including the works of Karl Marx, politicians and their cautionary speeches or optimistic views of how to solve the problem of excess waste, et al. Yet his book is easy to understand and an eye-opener if you've never considered mundane matters like “planned obsolescence” or the arbitrary nature of expiration dates on food. It takes an in-depth look into freeganism and the various people who practice it (myself included). It was terrific to read about my group of dumpster divers and the wonderful coordinators who manage it, all from a fresh perspective.
October 8, 2020
Freegans: Diving into the Wealth of Food Waste in America by Alex V. Barnard is a study of the freegan movement from the freegan.info beginnings to the present. Barnard is a graduate of Princeton with a bachelor's in sociology. The topic of his senior thesis was “Pulling Sustainability from the Dumpster: Radical Community, Activist Identity, and Human Possibilities in the Freegan Movement." Barnard earned his master's from Oxford and working on his Ph.D. from Berkeley.
We are brought up to believe that we must pay for what we want, which makes sense --Work, make money, buy. If you take something that isn't yours that is stealing and a very accepted belief. What if something is discarded by someone as having no value. Is that yours to take? Freegans work on the idea that there is so much excess in capitalism that there is no need for them to buy anything. Almost forty percent of all food ends up as waste while one in six people in America face hunger. The system is set up to dispose of excess rather than donate or provide charity. Nearly twenty-five percent of all publications end up in the garbage... not donated to libraries or schools. Granted the owner of the property can decide the fate of his property but once he disposes of it, it becomes "public" property to those who wish to retrieve it.
The Freegans in the book are idealists. Many are trapped in the system they want to end and some are dependent on that same system. I do admire the community bike projects where discarded bikes are taken apart and the parts are used to make new bikes. People ride these bikes instead of driving and reusing parts is important. We live in a world of planned obsolescence and cheap manufacturing. We "need" a new cell phone every two years. We "need" the new fashions. We are bombarded day in and day out with reasons to buy something new. The idea of fixing what you have is no longer an acceptable option. Do not repair your clothes, buy new clothes. How many things do we own are no longer repairable?
Capitalism (the enemy in the book) requires growth to survive. When growth does not happen we have a recession or a depression. Recessions end when there is growth and growth is caused by buying new things -- cars, houses, appliances. That growth creates jobs which in turn creates more spending and more growth. Sooner or later we run out of areas to grow in and the system stagnates.
Freeganism plays off the "waste" of the system. Supermarkets dispose of massive quantities of still good food. People throw away plenty of still functional items and good clothes that have fallen out of style. Why not put these to use. That is the original idea behind freeganism -- don't buy what is free. None of the people in the book are hungry and none of them are needing clothing. Shelter is taken up by squatting in unused properties. Housing is another bit lightly covered in the book. During the housing crisis banks foreclosed on homes and then bulldozed them over waiting to "grow" new homes.
Marxism sets the definite tone in this book. The problem is instead of explaining the problems of capitalism the people jump at a philosophical Marxist rant. Perhaps the biggest problem about Marxism is the way it is explained. Those explaining try to make it sound extremely philosophical. It's not just the freegans in the book but almost everyone. Try reading Lukac, for example. The freegans make very valid points but lose much ground in their explanation. Keep it simple and in America, don't call it Marxism because people think (incorrectly) of Stalin and the Cold War. Change does happen and people do start paying attention. No one would have thought a Jewish Socialist had a chance as a Democratic presidential candidate until last year.
There is some good out of the freegan movement other countries have taken notice. Both England and Italy now have supermarkets donating "waste" to charities. It also opened some eyes. Although not entirely successful in their goals the freegans, like other movements, created awareness of the problem. There is quite a bit of admirable work done by the freegans, unfortunately, in America, their politics harms more than hurts them. That is not a direct criticism of their politics but rather how their politics are viewed by Americans in general.
The book starts to demonstrate the practicality of the freegan movement. I am a bicycle mechanic and I have worked bikes costing over $10,000 and these are not for professional racers, just cyclists looking to spend money. Where I now work there are t-shirts for sale with a company logo printed on them. It will cost you $40 to advertise for that company by wearing their shirt. I can agree the system is warped and definitely has problems with waste, advertising, earnings, poverty, and a host of other problems. I also think the concept of Freegans is a sound one, but one that they overshadow with their politics. It is hard to get people to support your movement if all you do is tell them how wrong they are. Find the similarities like food waste and the hungry. Few people think the poor should starve good food being disposed of because it is not sold might be common ground. I appreciate the idealism. I ride a bike and do not drive. I am a strict vegetarian. I am a minimalist. I see your point, however, inclusion should be the theme.
All in all, this is a good book. The review is political as that is what the book turned to. A sound idea but slightly flawed in execution. Presentation of facts concerning the amount of waste was well done and spread throughout the book. Barnard’s narrative does a good deal to tone down the message of many in the movement.
We are brought up to believe that we must pay for what we want, which makes sense --Work, make money, buy. If you take something that isn't yours that is stealing and a very accepted belief. What if something is discarded by someone as having no value. Is that yours to take? Freegans work on the idea that there is so much excess in capitalism that there is no need for them to buy anything. Almost forty percent of all food ends up as waste while one in six people in America face hunger. The system is set up to dispose of excess rather than donate or provide charity. Nearly twenty-five percent of all publications end up in the garbage... not donated to libraries or schools. Granted the owner of the property can decide the fate of his property but once he disposes of it, it becomes "public" property to those who wish to retrieve it.
The Freegans in the book are idealists. Many are trapped in the system they want to end and some are dependent on that same system. I do admire the community bike projects where discarded bikes are taken apart and the parts are used to make new bikes. People ride these bikes instead of driving and reusing parts is important. We live in a world of planned obsolescence and cheap manufacturing. We "need" a new cell phone every two years. We "need" the new fashions. We are bombarded day in and day out with reasons to buy something new. The idea of fixing what you have is no longer an acceptable option. Do not repair your clothes, buy new clothes. How many things do we own are no longer repairable?
Capitalism (the enemy in the book) requires growth to survive. When growth does not happen we have a recession or a depression. Recessions end when there is growth and growth is caused by buying new things -- cars, houses, appliances. That growth creates jobs which in turn creates more spending and more growth. Sooner or later we run out of areas to grow in and the system stagnates.
Freeganism plays off the "waste" of the system. Supermarkets dispose of massive quantities of still good food. People throw away plenty of still functional items and good clothes that have fallen out of style. Why not put these to use. That is the original idea behind freeganism -- don't buy what is free. None of the people in the book are hungry and none of them are needing clothing. Shelter is taken up by squatting in unused properties. Housing is another bit lightly covered in the book. During the housing crisis banks foreclosed on homes and then bulldozed them over waiting to "grow" new homes.
Marxism sets the definite tone in this book. The problem is instead of explaining the problems of capitalism the people jump at a philosophical Marxist rant. Perhaps the biggest problem about Marxism is the way it is explained. Those explaining try to make it sound extremely philosophical. It's not just the freegans in the book but almost everyone. Try reading Lukac, for example. The freegans make very valid points but lose much ground in their explanation. Keep it simple and in America, don't call it Marxism because people think (incorrectly) of Stalin and the Cold War. Change does happen and people do start paying attention. No one would have thought a Jewish Socialist had a chance as a Democratic presidential candidate until last year.
There is some good out of the freegan movement other countries have taken notice. Both England and Italy now have supermarkets donating "waste" to charities. It also opened some eyes. Although not entirely successful in their goals the freegans, like other movements, created awareness of the problem. There is quite a bit of admirable work done by the freegans, unfortunately, in America, their politics harms more than hurts them. That is not a direct criticism of their politics but rather how their politics are viewed by Americans in general.
The book starts to demonstrate the practicality of the freegan movement. I am a bicycle mechanic and I have worked bikes costing over $10,000 and these are not for professional racers, just cyclists looking to spend money. Where I now work there are t-shirts for sale with a company logo printed on them. It will cost you $40 to advertise for that company by wearing their shirt. I can agree the system is warped and definitely has problems with waste, advertising, earnings, poverty, and a host of other problems. I also think the concept of Freegans is a sound one, but one that they overshadow with their politics. It is hard to get people to support your movement if all you do is tell them how wrong they are. Find the similarities like food waste and the hungry. Few people think the poor should starve good food being disposed of because it is not sold might be common ground. I appreciate the idealism. I ride a bike and do not drive. I am a strict vegetarian. I am a minimalist. I see your point, however, inclusion should be the theme.
All in all, this is a good book. The review is political as that is what the book turned to. A sound idea but slightly flawed in execution. Presentation of facts concerning the amount of waste was well done and spread throughout the book. Barnard’s narrative does a good deal to tone down the message of many in the movement.
Want to read
April 17, 2021Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
August 2, 2016
Living on food culled from supermarket dumpsters may be a little radical but it's what freegans does.
Promoting ethical consumption while fighting capitalism.
A very interesting book.
Read more on The Serial Reader Blog
Promoting ethical consumption while fighting capitalism.
A very interesting book.
Read more on The Serial Reader Blog
March 12, 2017
This a clear and cogent overview of the freegan movement. Freegans are radical left activists, often former vegans, who have decided that the best way to protest a system they think is wasteful and destructive is to live off the waste as much as possible. In other words, they eat trash.
It's apparently not as crazy as it sounds. There is a tremendous quantity of delicious, high-quality food that can be easily found in dumpsters. So much so that their most effective recruitment tool is "trash tours." Seeing is believing. They simply take people to the dumpsters and show them, all the while discussing their anticapitalist philosophies.
This fascinated me because it was a line of thinking I went down pretty heavily 20 years ago. I resented the system so much--it's so wasteful, toilsome, and destructive to the environment--and all I could think about was boycotting it by refusing to buy anything, no matter how small. I lived an extremely frugal and minimalist lifestyle. If I'd met freegans at the time and had some guidance I have no doubt I would have lived on the street and ate out of dumpsters. So, it was important to me to read this book, to understand better the philosophical basis for what was calling to me so many years ago, and contrast it with my current thinking.
This was extremely enlightening for me. There were a number of questions I had, which I hoped the book would address. It didn't. It was really only an expose on their community and some of the issues they faced. For example, their relations with businesses, their disagreements with each other, and whether or not shoplifting was a legitimate form of protest. They also had public relations problems. The media became really interested in them, and this caused a lot of difficulties. Businesses didn't like being portrayed in the media as wasteful, so they would lock their dumpsters, or pour bleach on the food. People were drawn to the movement who didn't care about the anticapitalist philosophy but just wanted free stuff. Ultimately, the movement died off, as people became disillusioned, and Occupy Wall Street absorbed what was left.
A lot of the philosophy is standard Marxist stuff. They clearly hadn't thought it through very much, being mostly young drop-outs from wealthy families. The most glaring oversight in their philosophy, the same misunderstanding that Marx had, is that everything an inherent value built-in, called "use value." It horrifies them that capitalism is a system that just throws away so many things of value. They overlook that most of that value was added by capitalists, and it can fluctuate with supply and demand. These aren't just things you pull out of the ground, but products of value-adding efforts. The upshot is, what freegans referred to as "waste" is not so much a bug, but a feature of capitalism. Perhaps a word for it is "abundance." Hunger and poverty weren't created by capitalism. It has always been a horrible characteristic of life. But capitalism, through its tremendous capacity to add value, has done wonders to alleviate hunger and poverty. It's true that capitalism generates an enormous amount of waste, and hunger and poverty continue to persist. But even after all the waste, we still have far more value with capitalism than without. The freer the market, the less hunger and poverty there tends to be.
They sincerely believed that they weren't just boycotting, but creating a whole new economy, a sharing economy, that they were quite sure was going to replace capitalism some day. Some day as in imminent, as in, the system is on the verge of collapse. They actually thought that, once capitalism was gone, all these goodies would continue to flow to these dumpsters, and the whole world could live on that, sharing their finds with one another. This goes beyond naive.
They overlook all the infrastructure provided by capitalism, which they heavily rely on to maintain their freegan lifestyle. Far from not participating in the system, they were supported by it, carried by it. For one thing, it seems a big reason they're able to eat this food they find is because of all the packaging these companies use. Furthermore, eating trash is a health risk, and they're probably quite aware that, if they eat something deadly, there's always an urgent care around the corner to take care of them. They also probably know, coming mostly from wealthy families, that if things don't work out for them, they have a Plan B.
Nonetheless, freegans made some very good points, which definitely hit a nerve in our society, hence all the media coverage. People are unhappy about all this waste, and they're very concerned about the cavalier attitude corporations have toward inequality and the environment. This was why Occupy Wall Street was so popular as well. These are problems, something that can be overlooked in all the hustle to maximize profits. And it is certainly a clever idea to use dumpster diving as a tool for demonstrating how wasteful the system is. But a replacement for capitalism? Hardly.
It's apparently not as crazy as it sounds. There is a tremendous quantity of delicious, high-quality food that can be easily found in dumpsters. So much so that their most effective recruitment tool is "trash tours." Seeing is believing. They simply take people to the dumpsters and show them, all the while discussing their anticapitalist philosophies.
This fascinated me because it was a line of thinking I went down pretty heavily 20 years ago. I resented the system so much--it's so wasteful, toilsome, and destructive to the environment--and all I could think about was boycotting it by refusing to buy anything, no matter how small. I lived an extremely frugal and minimalist lifestyle. If I'd met freegans at the time and had some guidance I have no doubt I would have lived on the street and ate out of dumpsters. So, it was important to me to read this book, to understand better the philosophical basis for what was calling to me so many years ago, and contrast it with my current thinking.
This was extremely enlightening for me. There were a number of questions I had, which I hoped the book would address. It didn't. It was really only an expose on their community and some of the issues they faced. For example, their relations with businesses, their disagreements with each other, and whether or not shoplifting was a legitimate form of protest. They also had public relations problems. The media became really interested in them, and this caused a lot of difficulties. Businesses didn't like being portrayed in the media as wasteful, so they would lock their dumpsters, or pour bleach on the food. People were drawn to the movement who didn't care about the anticapitalist philosophy but just wanted free stuff. Ultimately, the movement died off, as people became disillusioned, and Occupy Wall Street absorbed what was left.
A lot of the philosophy is standard Marxist stuff. They clearly hadn't thought it through very much, being mostly young drop-outs from wealthy families. The most glaring oversight in their philosophy, the same misunderstanding that Marx had, is that everything an inherent value built-in, called "use value." It horrifies them that capitalism is a system that just throws away so many things of value. They overlook that most of that value was added by capitalists, and it can fluctuate with supply and demand. These aren't just things you pull out of the ground, but products of value-adding efforts. The upshot is, what freegans referred to as "waste" is not so much a bug, but a feature of capitalism. Perhaps a word for it is "abundance." Hunger and poverty weren't created by capitalism. It has always been a horrible characteristic of life. But capitalism, through its tremendous capacity to add value, has done wonders to alleviate hunger and poverty. It's true that capitalism generates an enormous amount of waste, and hunger and poverty continue to persist. But even after all the waste, we still have far more value with capitalism than without. The freer the market, the less hunger and poverty there tends to be.
They sincerely believed that they weren't just boycotting, but creating a whole new economy, a sharing economy, that they were quite sure was going to replace capitalism some day. Some day as in imminent, as in, the system is on the verge of collapse. They actually thought that, once capitalism was gone, all these goodies would continue to flow to these dumpsters, and the whole world could live on that, sharing their finds with one another. This goes beyond naive.
They overlook all the infrastructure provided by capitalism, which they heavily rely on to maintain their freegan lifestyle. Far from not participating in the system, they were supported by it, carried by it. For one thing, it seems a big reason they're able to eat this food they find is because of all the packaging these companies use. Furthermore, eating trash is a health risk, and they're probably quite aware that, if they eat something deadly, there's always an urgent care around the corner to take care of them. They also probably know, coming mostly from wealthy families, that if things don't work out for them, they have a Plan B.
Nonetheless, freegans made some very good points, which definitely hit a nerve in our society, hence all the media coverage. People are unhappy about all this waste, and they're very concerned about the cavalier attitude corporations have toward inequality and the environment. This was why Occupy Wall Street was so popular as well. These are problems, something that can be overlooked in all the hustle to maximize profits. And it is certainly a clever idea to use dumpster diving as a tool for demonstrating how wasteful the system is. But a replacement for capitalism? Hardly.
January 9, 2018
Ex-commodities. You will hear a lot about them in this book! Although the writing was a bit dry for me, I was fascinated by the subject matter. I too am horrified by the waste that occurs in the world; it just seems to be getting worse despite recycling efforts. I would not go dumpster diving though; I guess I am too afraid of the disease etc. that could accompany the goods, and, yes, the attached stigma.
We are all entwined within capitalism/corporatism and this book really is eye-opening in that respect. It goes beyond "dumpster diving" to reveal many aspects of society and examine them through a different prism. I was impressed at how freegans in Brooklyn taught folks to work with their hands (bike repair/sewing) and that "gave back" to the community in a big way.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in what freeganism entails and/or anyone interested in a usually hidden sociological topic.
We are all entwined within capitalism/corporatism and this book really is eye-opening in that respect. It goes beyond "dumpster diving" to reveal many aspects of society and examine them through a different prism. I was impressed at how freegans in Brooklyn taught folks to work with their hands (bike repair/sewing) and that "gave back" to the community in a big way.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in what freeganism entails and/or anyone interested in a usually hidden sociological topic.
January 3, 2023
I expected a book about food waste, and got an introduction to anarchy instead. It's not hard to find food policy books that discuss public health, environmental issues, or poverty as it relates to the food system, but this is the first time I've seen someone use a radical anticapitalist lens. It was fascinating, partly because I have never had good exposure to such ideologies, but also because it had some good points with which I sympathized. I'm not quite ready to dumpster dive yet, but I see food in a whole new way now, mostly through a conundrum I may never be able to answer: is capitalism inherently unethical, or can it be reformed?
January 19, 2025
*Read for SOCY4931*
Great read, very interesting! I like how the author provides an overview of the freegans from a pretty objective standpoint. He shows their flaws and weaknesses while still appreciating the kinda crazy thing they’re doing. Not too overly academic so it’s a digestible read. Basically abt ppl who are so anti capitalist they only eat out of dumpsters. Worth the read imo.
Great read, very interesting! I like how the author provides an overview of the freegans from a pretty objective standpoint. He shows their flaws and weaknesses while still appreciating the kinda crazy thing they’re doing. Not too overly academic so it’s a digestible read. Basically abt ppl who are so anti capitalist they only eat out of dumpsters. Worth the read imo.
April 14, 2022
A phenomenal book about the history of the freegan movement from the perspective of a former member. The book is written with insight and intelligence, and both critiques and celebrates the movement. Will recommend this to all my environmentally-conscious friends.
November 6, 2022
I was expecting something else from this book on food waste in America. The book was more about Freegans and I was looking to learn more about food waste. An interesting read if you want to begin the dive into the land and politics of food excess.
January 24, 2018
Well written and thoroughly researched, inspiring, and interesting.
March 28, 2016
Freegans way of life should not be seen as radical - this type of survival is the norm in other parts of the world where inhabitation is within or near trash and earned income is less than $2/day. Ergo, the appalling revelation in this book is what a food giant, such as Trader Joes, does when it discovers people are subsisting off of their trash - bleach?! security guards?! padlocks?! This book is another reminder of just how removed we have become as a society to the 'haves and the have nots'. Any waste is bad, but food waste at its current level in the U.S. is simply disheartening considering that there is at least one family down the street from any of us who is worrying how to buy food for the next week.
March 22, 2016
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
An in-depth look at the freeman movement, perhaps a little naive on the subject of capitalism, but all in all an informative study of waste and how freeganism exposes the practice of basically throwing food away. Creative use of food from our throw-away society and the reduction of food waste are most important and this is a valuable reference.
An in-depth look at the freeman movement, perhaps a little naive on the subject of capitalism, but all in all an informative study of waste and how freeganism exposes the practice of basically throwing food away. Creative use of food from our throw-away society and the reduction of food waste are most important and this is a valuable reference.
May 15, 2016
Very interesting look at how waste is a necessity for the capitalist system, with a particular look at food waste. It also encourages readers to take a hard look at how they decide if something is desirable (i.e., on the shelf at Whole Foods), or garbage (i.e., that same tomato five minutes later out in the bin out back). It does a great job of turning a critical but sympathetic eye to the freegan movement.
December 25, 2016
Freegans is a look at the anti-capitalist activists who dumpster-dive and recover discarded food and goods. Though I’m very interested the subjects of food production and waste in our country, freeganism strikes me as a naïve distraction, and Barnard’s presentation here dense and unconvincing.
March 5, 2016
Awesome!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews