It's just a bunch of dirty hippies, why can't anyone see that.

I believe this is wrong in the following sense:

There is so much energy in the universe that we can't put into good use. I mean stuff like energy from the Sun that we don't use, or wind, or a river current..

I think if someone really cares about the World so much that he will live a life that is not considered normal by the majority of people, that's very good for him. But is this time really best used for getting your food from trash?

I believe, if you were to get grind during the time you would've spent for searching trash, save the extra money, give it to a PR agent, and have him try to make charity deals (like convincing factories not to throw away stuff, give it to shelters etc.) you'd do a 850 times better job. Or just save it, and donate it into an organization researching cheap cure for some diseases in Africa... you get my meaning. My meeting just started so that's all I can say

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I think the reason why you typed that (should also apply to all other hate in the thread) is that this thread makes you feel bad about how wasteful, ungrateful and ignorant most people including yourself are.

At least that's how it makes me feel.

Unfortunately charity isn't that effective. Africa doesn't need cheap cures, it needs to stop their absolutely criminal population growth. No charity is going to change that. The problem with developed world is extreme wastefulness and just flat out ignorance. I think OP is doing a better job at changing that than most people, though I'm not sure he's even eating trash strictly for that purpose.

Charities that provide education on and access to modern birth control can help change that.

Charities that promote education and community infrastructure to make an area more prosperous also change the situation. There is a direct link between prosperity and slower population growth.

Charities that provide vaccination, nutrition, and basic medical care to an area can also do what you claim charities can't do. One of the reasons for high population growth in third-world nations is the need to have many children to insure that some actually survive into adulthood. This both satisfies the natural urge to pass on your genetic material and helps to create the support structure that you will require when you can no longer take care of yourself. I don't think they have a lot of 401Ks in the poorer parts of Africa. If you can have two or three children and be reasonably certain that they will make it to adulthood with functioning limbs, eyesight, and so on (the situation we have in first-world nations), then you don't need to have sixteen children in order to beat the house at infant mortality roulette. Couple this with #1 (access to birth control) and you have a great recipe for reduced population growth supported by charities.

SpaceAce

This thread makes no sense. What kind of a vegan eats Pizza Hut? To be a vegan means no animal parts or animal products at all... including cheese.

Jimm, would you be willing to compare/contrast your lifestyle with veganmav's? I feel like the two of you have a lot in common.

There was a Tv program on this last year, pretty crazy.

this thread

you eat garbage. Sounds healthy.

Oh, I'm sure there are similarities, though I'm from a middle-class background and never experienced want or hunger growing up, and didn't get into "dumpster diving" until six months ago, aged 30, when I moved in with a crowd of art squatters in Mayfair. I'm still living with them in another part of town, and we feed ourselves 90% from free food. Pretty much everyone here goes out and gets food, without any need for a rota; it's just routine, something we know needs to be done. It's fun, an excuse to get out on our bikes.

We get a lot from Starbucks, EAT, Pret a Manger, and ITSU sushi, but living off this kinda stuff gets boring and unhealthy long term so we try to avoid it. With these places, you're never actually going through a dumpster. What you're doing is going through the binbags as soon as they're placed on the street in the short time before they're collected. There's a circuit of people who go round central London getting food, mostly on foot, mostly homeless, mentally ill, or otherwise sketchy. Since we've got bikes we try to avoid the central places these guys go, since their need is greater than ours, and they're less mobile.

I never tried getting food from a pizza place. There's a Krispy Kreme we've got from before, but we try not to eat crap. Supermarkets haven't been much use. Tesco's bins are always inaccessible. I only ever found one Sainsburies I could skip from, and that was just pastries, doughnuts and cookies which they put in a clean bag in a dumpster on the street.

We had an amazing run at a Marks & Spencer which every day filled two dumpsters with thousands of pounds worth of unsold high-end food. For a few weeks we were eating lamb shanks, joints of beef, chicken wrapped in parma ham with gruyere cheese, etc. We got so much food it was sick; we all got really fat from ready meals. But too many people found out about it, and the bins are now kept inside. (By the way, yes, we often eat skipped meat, and nobody here's ever gotten sick. It's all sealed up and not contaminiated. You can tell when you cook something if it's off).

I'm carniverous, but I've certainly encountered people who only eat meat that's been skipped.

Really we have two staple places: we go to the the French patisserie PAUL for bread and occasionally sandwiches and pastries. All of their branches seem very wasteful.

But the most important place is the New Covent Garden wholesale fruit and vegetable market, which is open overnight. For decades people like us have gone round and picked up the food thrown out by stallholders, which is put in plastic bin boxes marked 'food waste only'. We can fill up our rucksacks with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, onions, garlic, courgettes, aubergine, asparagus, leeks, apples, oranges, bananas, melons, fresh mint, parsley, basil, and sometimes eggs and even dragon fruit. Often better quality than you'd get in the supermarket, and all free. We use all this to make curries, pasta sauces, etc.

I never saw a rat. All the food we're eating is sealed-up, apart from the fruit and veg which isn't really in bins.

My diet now I'm dumpster diving isn't much different from the preceeding 12 years living in London in which I paid for all my food. It's probably healthier in that I'm eating more fresh fruit and vegetables. But less healthy because I'm eating more now I've discovered food can be free.

vegans are hypocrits. plants are just as worthy to be here as animals, yet you care nothing about eating plants but killing animals is soooo bad to you

God-damned Hippies

Heh, this thread is 3 years old.

luckyjimm, why do the stores and supermarkets care so much about people dumpster diving that they go to means to keep bins inside or w/e? Are they really thinking that the people doing this would be otherwise shopping there and they are costing themselves?

I guess they aren't donating all this food to charity since they are only throwing away out of date items and don't want the possible legal headaches?

You should also start a food blog of everything you eat everyday. I'd be extremely interested, take pictures when you're getting it all, pictures of how it's left, and then pictures of whatever meal you cook up.

Also, is dumpster diving becoming more 'competitive' now with the easy access of information about it?

Some divers probably leave a mess, and maybe if more people knew about the place, which would happen over time, you would get people fighting over the food too.

The thing is though, you can never solve world hunger. These children must die, its just the way it goes, if they didnt the populations would explode in number, making the situation worse. There is overpopulation and not enough food, even if you saved them for a year, then what after that? Unless you can provide billions of $ every year to buy the food, and transport it to hundreds of millions of people.... (impossible)... they are utterly doomed regardless.

There will always be vast amounts of hunger related deaths. With the added population growths from 3rd world counties, the number of deaths will most certainly increase in the next 10 years+ not decrease.

Thats just the way it is, I predict it will never change, not in my lifetime anyway. (im 20)

+1 for the food diary.

epic thread

You kidding? Who bumped this dumb ass thread.

BTW for the thread starter my dog wants to tell you what he thinks of not eating meat.

this thread makes getting mad/upset/insane crazy over something like poker very stupid. imagine dying from hunger. what could make a person feel more worthless. go out and feed someone today. care a little bit more than b4. bcuz compassion is somethin thats missing from this generation.

if people gave away things they had to people that have nothing why is anyone doing anything

everyone can just sit around do nothing and all be rich

What does this even mean.

I think it would be sick if no one had to do anything. Then smart people could work on making us all immortal and everyone else could just get wasted and *&@ a lot.

Net human race happiness ++ imo.

well i hit some low times in my life and ate food from a dumpster
better then robing people or begging for food.
well if you never been in these shoes you don't know the feeling of hunger.