Freegans eat garbage by choice

It's stories like these that make me wonder if we will survive as a civilization (ht: Club For Growth).

Update 09.16.07: New Yorker pushes limits of the "locavore" life - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - One of Manny Howard's discoveries during the month this summer he ate only the plants he grew and the animals he raised and slaughtered was that his tough-talking plumber was too squeamish to watch chickens be killed for supper."

Free-lunch foragers - Los Angeles Times: "NEW YORK -- For lunch in her modest apartment, Madeline Nelson tossed a salad made with shaved carrots and lettuce she dug out of a Whole Foods dumpster. She flavored the dressing with miso powder she found in a trash bag on a curb in Chinatown. She baked bread made with yeast plucked from the garbage of a Middle Eastern grocery store. Nelson is a former corporate executive who can afford to dine at four-star restaurants. But she prefers turning garbage into gourmet meals without spending a cent. On this afternoon, she thawed a slab of pate that she found three days before its expiration date in a dumpster outside a health food store. She made buttery chicken soup from another health food store's hot buffet leftovers, which she salvaged before they were tossed into the garbage. Nelson, 51, once earned a six-figure income as director of communications at Barnes and Noble. Tired of representing a multimillion dollar company, she quit in 2005 and became a "freegan" -- the word combining "vegan" and "free" -- a growing subculture of people who have reduced their spending habits and live off consumer waste. Though many of its pioneers are vegans, people who neither eat nor use any animal-based products, the concept has caught on with Nelson and other meat-eaters who do not want to depend on businesses that they believe waste resources, harm the environment or allow unfair labor practices."

'Freegans' make 'locavores' appear quite normal, perhaps mildly eccentric.

2 city families pledge: Eat 'local' - Democrat & Chronicle: Living: "(September 11, 2007) — It's dinnertime. Do you know where the food on your table comes from? Two Rochester households are taking the Eat Local Challenge, pledging to eat primarily within their foodshed for all or part of this month. Taste and freshness are the most common reasons people buy locally grown foods."

And there's always this piece of work. The farther he is from impressionable children, the better.

Vegan teacher won't return to school until school stops serving milk and meat -- chicagotribune.com: "Dave Warwak's campaign to teach his 8th-grade art students about the evils of an omnivorous lifestyle is officially over the top. Warwak, who says he was removed from his McHenry County classroom last week by the 'ardent meat eaters' who run Fox River Grove District 3, had predicted he would be fired at a Monday meeting with his bosses. That didn't happen, but Warwak now says he won't return to work unless the school cafeteria goes vegan, eliminating meat, milk and other 'poisons' from the menu. He also wants the state's attorney to charge the district with child endangerment."

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