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The wonders of dumpster diving
- Thread starter storafötter
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Dumpster diving means taking food from grocery store bins behind the stores where they throw away massive amounts of food. The baby diapers are not gonna be there.
I presume that for many divers it's the other way around. In their opinion they're reducing their load against nature and taking advantage of big money corps, sticking it to the man etc.. Of course, I could be wrong.
I'm just going by the documentary I saw, but the guy went every 2-3 weeks, for around 40-60 minutes.
storafötter;37164434 said:
I'd like to go ahead and nip this in the bud. If you dumpster for person political/tactical reasons, fine, but let's not make that an argument for the practice as a whole. I think as far as your own personal liberation goes, that's great, but although I love diving, I also recognize that personal lifestyle changes are not politically or socially revolutionary or tactical. Let's just avoid making that the crux of this conversation.
I eat roadkill from time to time. Same fucking story. If a deer gets knocked in the head by a car and I can get to it within a couple of hours (up to a day, depending on the weather), that meat is no different than if the deer got knocked in the head by a round of .308.
Cause you are giving the middle finger to society.
way more
Member
You should try going to a local food bank. There they collect day old breads, overstocked fruits, canned items that don't sell and sell them back to the community for incredibly reduced prices. In Boulder they often get great stuff from the trendy food boutiques. A better option if you don't want to debase yourself rummaging though other peoples trash.
Yes, really. Adjacent to refuse is refuse.
Too bad, i was hoping i would finally get my labeling machine to work.. Now i still don´t have any use for it.. guess i´ll just have to trow it..
Kidding aside, i can understand the reasoning behind it, i just don´t think i would ever be able to do it, i rather do my part on keeping the economy going.
GremlinFool
Member
This is ludicrous. Farmers institute quotas on agricultural harvests already to keep supply in check. Tons upon tons of agricultural yields are routinely destroyed year after year to artificially inflate prices in the food market because of the inelasticity of the demand for food (you learn this in your first econ class). A direct consequence of the advent of dumpster diving as a substantive social movement (incredibly unlikely, considering how it's complete lunacy) would be food prices being driven even higher, because most Americans still earn their keep and pay for their own food. The end game? More crop yields being destroyed as America generates more waste to compensate for a movement of entitled morons. The productive capacity of agriculture falls even shorter than before, and the honest Americans are hurt by the collective egocentrism of dumpster divers.storafötter;37164434 said:
Dear lord.
wow
what is your argument for meat?
Sorry but if you think dumpsters don't have any kinds of bad bacteria in them and that MAY come in contact with the food you live in a fantasy world. Looking it up even interviews with dumpster divers admit to that.
As I said, I've been doing this for 4-5 years and I know people who've been doing it for closer to 20 or even 30 years and none of them have ever had any problems. If you have any brains at all, then there is a very, very small chance of anything bad happening.
just watch the 3m intro video in the OP. do you really think flies and bacteria had a chance to get into all of that stuff?
Beerman462
Member
Yeah can't let good meat go to waste.
You should probably stay away from slaughter house videos.
I have more respect for someone that shuts up and does what it takes to survive than someone that constantly ponders how if what they're doing is respect worthy or not.
Yes. And I love the fact that they are the ones taking it, eating it then going "why isn't this going to poor people?!". Well, why the fuck don't THEY give it to the poor people? Hypocrites.
GremlinFool
Member
Precisely the same one.
You said it doesn't matter how sanitary it is so I'll ask this...
If I toss something out by accident and go back in to get, I would lack self respect since I'm taking things out of the trash to get it?
That would make me socially awkward?
Why? Sounds pretty sensible to me, although that's why I'd never be a mod.
5 second rule.
What's to say that none of them do?
way more
Member
As a cook who has it drilled into me why you avoid cross contamination and maintain a level of cleanliness I'm disgusted by that claim. You can go be Robin Hood of the Dump, just accept that yes, it's not as safe as eating non-trash.
Communities do have food banks and soup kitchens which accept food that grocery stores have set aside for them. Hell, I remember picking up like 30 personal pizzas from Pizza Hut to donate once.
But food banks and soup kitchens don't accept contaminated, dangerous, un-refrigerated foods. That's why they don't dig though dumpsters for it.
Haha.
It's funny since I'm known by some as being socially awkward due to me being an OCD neat freak.
Can't win either way lol
Because it shows them stuffing their own face with the food and getting "first dips" sure doesn't sound like a community effort to help poor people.
No one is talking about people taking food to survive here, if you'd bother to read the thread beforehand.
Squeamish at that? God forbid you people find out where fish or game meat comes from. If a moose or reindeer gets chopped down on the road in an accident, you can be it's gonna get eaten by someone.
I've read a lot of (annoyingly) hippy articles saying that we've lost touch to where food comes from and how it works due how it's worked over and packaged, but only now in this thread I understand what they're trying to say. Food's a messy thing but it's easy to forget that.
why else would you take food?
What do you gain by posing such a ridiculous question, may I ask? If you can't see the clear difference between going back into your trash to retrieve something you've accidentally thrown away and looking over at a supermarket skip to see a group of people inside it looking for carrots with mould on the outside but 'fine inside' then I'm wasting my time answering it.
GremlinFool
Member
Hogwash. "Shutting up and doing what it takes to survive" hardly describes the underlying motivation for dumpster diving. The rhetoric of most of the self-proclaimed dumpster divers in this thread is tinged with contempt for the hoi polloi in being fooled into buying fresh food. The snooty self-righteousness about the whole ordeal is orders of magnitude more odious than making a conscious effort to uphold the rules of propriety in society.
So eating in a restaurant like this here...
...wouldn't be as safe as eating a sealed box item that was put in the trash <20 minutes ago?
That's why places like that are forcefully shut down by the health department.
I know a thing or two about legitimate dumpster diving. It's not a new thing. Movements have been born and died based on it. Hippies, Freegans, urban-reclamationists, have all dove into dumpsters to get food since the 60s. If you know where to go, you can make out ok. You don't go to some random dumpster by an apartment complex. You go to a restaurant or supermarket, at the right time, just as 'recently expired' goods are being tossed. Supermarkets do throw out hundreds of pounds of perfectly edible but past sell by date produce and packaged products. It's stuff that would legitimately be fair game in a restaurant, or something that a soup kitchen would be grateful for, but it gets tossed out because it isn't prime commercial commodity.
In a perfect world, stuff like this would be processed, and donated to needy people, but since this is all about commerce and making money, and fear of negative public image, or that someone might possibly get sick and sue, food businesses throw away tons of safe and edible good daily. It's a fact. There were some programs set up to allow stores to donate things like this, but many stores refuse to, over liability and insurance issues. So, you have savvy homeless and adventurous types who go to restaurants, grocery stores and the like to get free foods. Yes it's kind of gross, you may encounter some gamey and overripe smells, but lots of that stuff is salvageable and perfectly fine.
That said, having so extreme an aversion or advocacy for this that you come to insulting arguments is not worth it. People do it. It's a thing. Not your thing? Ok then. It's over.
In a perfect world, stuff like this would be processed, and donated to needy people, but since this is all about commerce and making money, and fear of negative public image, or that someone might possibly get sick and sue, food businesses throw away tons of safe and edible good daily. It's a fact. There were some programs set up to allow stores to donate things like this, but many stores refuse to, over liability and insurance issues. So, you have savvy homeless and adventurous types who go to restaurants, grocery stores and the like to get free foods. Yes it's kind of gross, you may encounter some gamey and overripe smells, but lots of that stuff is salvageable and perfectly fine.
That said, having so extreme an aversion or advocacy for this that you come to insulting arguments is not worth it. People do it. It's a thing. Not your thing? Ok then. It's over.
DietRob
i've been begging for over 5 years.
If people want to do this then more power to them. I certainly understand the concept of not wanting food to go to waste.
Not something I would do myself but I'm not one to judge what others are willing to do for a meal. It would be really great if instead of the food getting thrown away it could be donated to food banks, shelters, soup kitchens and the like.
Wouldn't there be a tax break involved in those types of 'donations' for the companies donating? Maybe not, I'm not too knowledgeable on tax law.
edit: Ah ok, the post above explaining about liability issues makes sense I guess. Maybe the soup kitchens and shelters could sign release waivers or something?
Not something I would do myself but I'm not one to judge what others are willing to do for a meal. It would be really great if instead of the food getting thrown away it could be donated to food banks, shelters, soup kitchens and the like.
Wouldn't there be a tax break involved in those types of 'donations' for the companies donating? Maybe not, I'm not too knowledgeable on tax law.
edit: Ah ok, the post above explaining about liability issues makes sense I guess. Maybe the soup kitchens and shelters could sign release waivers or something?
Broder Salsa
Banned
You've never dumpster dived. You don't know the culture behind it.
But that's okay. Just buy your shit. And look down on people who DD. It's fine.
way more
Member
It would be criminal and the owners would be shunned from general society.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
This is the type of stuff I get yelled at for sometimes, categorizing all people as doing things for the same reason. I'm actually considering starting this, and not for the reasons you just said. But because quite frankly food is expensive as hell and I'm having trouble affording it on a regular basis. Of course I'd buy it if I can just for convenience sake, but it's nice to know there are other options should I simply be unable to buy food at some point. And it's nice to know that chances are I probably won't get sick from exercising those options.
No one takes carrots with mold on the outside (or any food of that kind), don't be stupid. We take stuff that still looks (& smells & feels) edible. Clearly rotten food is not that.
I see the difference, however you were the one who stated that going into a trash no matter if it's sanitary or not is an act of "lacking self respect".
Just because you won't do it =/= people who do lack self respect
I stated in this thread that I wouldn't go dumpster diving but I don't see people who do as lacking self respect.
Alligatorjandro
Banned
Im gonna go look for some used underwear and wear them.
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