Free Republic

Out: the media showing homeless people scrounging for food in dumpster as an indictment of the economy under conservative presidents. In: the media showing middle class young people scrounging for food in dumpsters as an indictment of capitalism’s success. Washington Post staff writer Megan Greenwell devoted her article on the front page of the August 16 Metro section to the new trend for young liberal dumpster divers. Prince Frederick, Md teen Bryan Meadows “considers himself a ‘freegan,’” Greenwell wrote, describing the term as “a melding of the words ‘free’ and ‘vegan’” because Meadows “tries not to contribute to what he...

Homegrown terrorist Jeffrey Leon Battle considered America the “land of the kaffirs,” or unbelievers, and the American people “pigs.” He once lamented to an acquaintance—who happened to be a government informant—that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks did not sufficiently damage the U.S. economy. “This is the land of the enemy,” he said of his own country in a May 8, 2002, conversation secretly recorded by the government. He explained to a friend how his “burning desire” to become an Islamic martyr had inspired his aborted quest to join forces with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, where he could kill American...

Dumpster diving has become popular among some fast-food consumers, thanks to a Wendy’s Restaurant promotion for free airfare. Wendy’s has partnered with Coca-Cola and AirTran Airlines in a promotional deal in which consumers who collect 32 soft-drink cups with a yellow ticket on the side can redeem the tickets for a free one-way ticket on an AirTran flight. Sixty-four tickets earn a consumer a roundtrip ticket. Those trying to earn the free airfare can go about it the old fashioned way by purchasing 32 soft drinks, sizes 20 or 32 ounces, from a Wendy’s restaurant. Other collectors have learned that...

NEW YORK -- Dinner shared by a group of friends at a well-appointed Greenwich Village apartment featured eggplant Parmesan with a salad of mixed greens and avocado dressing. The guests already had snacked on hors d'oeuvres of smoked mozzarella and crackers. Not bad considering the diners find their food by digging through garbage. They call themselves "freegans," a play on the words "vegan"-- vegetarians who avoid all animal products, including dairy -- and "free." In an ideological rejection of consumer waste, they only eat food that's been discarded.

Before I could write my column this week, I had to take an hour off to watch "Antiques Roadshow" on PBS, locally WHA. It feeds my fantasy of finding or buying an item and have it turn out to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The show always has a few people who either bought an item at a yard sale for a dollar or two or found it. For example, Monday's show featured a man who went dumpster diving and found a rare print by John Turnbull of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was worth...

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Peaches, plums, oranges, cantaloupe, butternut squash, red peppers, jicama, a mess of cucumbers. All fragrant, ripe, ready to eat. And all plucked out of Dumpsters by a squad of young friends who feed on the edible treasures they find in the garbage of North Jersey's restaurants and markets. They're known as freegans -- though Dumpster-divers might be more apt. They have the resources to buy their food, but they prefer harvesting it this way to make a political statement. "It feels good when you watch all those people paying for food," Jeff Wiesner, a 19-year-old from Tenafly,...

Americans Waste Vast Amounts of Edible Food BY DRU SEFTON    Adam Weissman finds bagels, croissants and other baked goods discarded in a trash bin in Hackensack, N.J. (Photo by Michael Falco) Passersby look on as "Freegans" Adam Weissman (l), Anji Shirai and Wendy Scher hunt through garbage for still-edible food outside a New York City restaurant. (Photo by Michael Falco)   Marge Danser still feels pangs about "the great freezer debacle." Two years ago she opened the freezer in her Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment and faced a pile of long-frozen packages of meat -- about $20 worth. "I thought,...