For the Freegan in Your Family

It's the holidays and friends and family alike are hovering around the dinner table expecting to be fed. And like any good host you have tofu quesadillas with soy cheese for your vegan cousin, a low-carb salami side salad for your sister and her boyfriend who are working on their ketosis, and you've decided to go pesco-vegetarian eco-conscious for the rest of the meal with a beautiful wild salmon, organic brown rice and a wildcrafted salad. But what about your freegan guests?? What have you made for them?

"Freegans are probably best known for the practice of refuse recovery... A freegan may obtain the food by asking a retailer for what is to be discarded or by taking it from waste bins, a practice known colloquially as 'dumpster diving'... They view the advertising-driven push to constantly purchase new commodities as a form of manipulation for profit." But do not think that because the word 'freegan' seems like a play on 'vegan' that the two are of the same ilk. "Freeganism is also often used incorrectly to describe people who will pay for vegan food, but will eat non-vegan food if they can get it for free... Misconceptions of freeganism stemming from this usage of the term have led to derision of freegans by some vegans." You may need to sit your cousin and freegan guest at opposite ends of the table. Okay with that settled, where are you going to get the grub for your guest?

From the 'Dumster Directory' off the Freegan info website, the spots to go 'shopping' in Vancouver are: JJ Beans Coffee-house, Stuart's Bakery, Deep Dish Pie Shop and Island Pizza. Granville Island (which would have been my recommendation) clearly gets top honors, its indulgent disregard for less-than-perfect produce creates the kind of waste that get the pilferer's palate moist. According to this website JJBean on the island will provide free coffee for those with their own mugs, if you get there just before closing time at 7pm. After that, meander to the dumpster closest to Island Pizza, because at 7:30 all the leftover slices get ousted. And then, if that's not enough, the Deep Dish Pie Shop has a dirth of disspensible desserts.

If you recall, I listed Granville Island as one of my top ten favorite spots in Vancouver, and now it gets further kudos for its one-stop shopping for all the characters in your Christmas catalogue. But seriously, I had never heard of the term freegan until recently, and now that it has been brought to my attention I intend to gather more information for those of you whose socio-political ideologies are so strong that you will eat my excesses. I thank you for your resourceful and important place in the circle of life. And if you can position yourself so that you get free Internet on your discarded laptop I hope to soon make a more comprehensive list of the more worthwhile waste in this city.

The quote and photo was borrowed from www.freegan.info