Last night my girlfriend and I were watching a show called Taboo that featured a segment on the Freegan lifestyle. Freeganism is an anti-consumerist lifestyle choice that focuses on living as inexpensively as possible. From what I could gather – they lifestyle consists largely of not buying anything and gathering your belongings and food from other people’s trash. The segment included clips of people foraging through dumpsters digging up all sorts of food including:
Fruits
Vegetables
Meat
Breads
Soda
Basically – you name it and they were dumpster diving for it. It was like frugal living taken to the extreme.
Now – to be totally honest: I have on occasion picked a couple of items in the past out of the trash. Mostly a piece of furniture here or there that was left next to the dumpster. My first entertainment center came from a neighbor that was throwing one away. I figure if something is in good condition and I have a use for it then why not? One person’s trash is another person’s treasure right?
However – the thought of digging through dumpsters looking for food never really crossed my mind. The folks on the show seemed to pull quite a bit of decent looking produce out of dumpsters and they claimed that they have not ever gotten sick from the food. They also noted that they do wash all food that they gather through a bleach mixture prior to cooking and eating just to make sure any nasty bacteria are killed off. I found the idea rather intriguing but also a bit dangerous with some possible serious health risks (hazardous or medical waste in the dumpster with your food? Not for me).
On the other hand – I did start to think more about how wasteful we are as a culture. We throw away a lot of food on a daily basis that is perfectly good for consumption and I would like to see that diminish a bit. The concept is great for those that do not mind gathering their meals from the trash and I think the concept is somewhat admirable – just not for me and my family.
Over the weekend I discovered that I have a new favorite television network: Planet Green. I had seen a couple of clips from shows on the network but had not sat and watched for an extended period of time until Sunday afternoon. My girlfriend had hurt her back so we were having a mellow afternoon and she told me about a show called Off the Grid she had seen the night before after I had fallen asleep. She said it was pretty cool and that I would have really liked it.
The show is a documentary starring Les Stroud (also known as Survivorman) and his family as they purchase 150 acres of Canadian wilderness and move off the grid. I was just amazed at the lifestyle the family chose and really just could not stop thinking about how cool their plan was.
The best part – they went green on a budget! Obstacles like not being able to drill through bed rock due to cost constraints were real and they faced the challenges like a regular family. Once completed the family produced their own power and water which left them both living green and free of utility bills.
I personally dream of a day when I can go somewhat off the grid with my family in our own home. I do not think we will be using any self composting toilets but I am open to the idea of a gravity feed from collected rain water (provided my better half agrees). However – I do not want to go totally off the grid at this time. While I strongly believe in trying to live a greener lifestyle I also think that we may be able to give back additional power generated if we were to produce our own energy via solar or wind power. From the setup that Les Stroud and his family had it appeared that once their batteries were charged the system just stopped producing energy. I figure that if the system is producing energy anyway and we have the ability to be wired in then why not give some of it back to the power company? I have also heard that the power companies will also reimburse you for the power provided back but my goal would be more in line with providing a little bit of green power back more than making money. Anyway – at this point it is more or less just a wishful dream of mine but I hope someday that it will be a reality. I suppose when the time comes then my girlfriend and I will talk it out and make decisions based on what we can and can not do.
In the mean time – while digging around on the show a little bit I found it over on YouTube. Here is an embedded clip of the show for anyone that wants a preview. For the rest of the episode just head on over to YouTube and search “Off the Grid Les Stroud”.
