by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
While dumpster diving and the Freegan lifestyle is a good green option in many cities of the European Union all kinds of people are no forced to check the dumpsters outside the back of stores for food (and other items).
No one, bar Freegans, some other greens, and some of the welfare recipients, would have, until recently, thought about checking through the dumpsters outside stores for still edible foods for their dinner but it now is becoming a very common sight.
In the UK, on the other hand, with many store dumpsters, it is not a very good option as many stores are pouring bleach over the food that gets thrown into the dumpsters to prevent people from taking it.
Much of that food that stores throw out nightly is still perfectly safe to eat but they rather destroy it so that the poor, and those who wish to help reduce the waste of food, cannot make use of it. They claim that is is being done in order to prevent anyone picking up food that may be off and, more importantly, then turn round and try to sue the company.
The truth, however, is that they do not want to enable people who cannot even afford to buy their food to have it for free. It is greed; pure and simple, and I am sure that we could also find some other, stronger, words for that.
However, as said, in mainland Europe people are now scavenging in dumpsters of food stores (and stores in general) for anything usable out of necessity as the austerity measures of the governments are biting very hard indeed.
We have not seen this, in most countries of the European Union, especially not the old founding countries, ever since the end of the Second World War, and it falls, definitely, under the disgraceful category.
The governments have, in the good times, squandered money left, right and center, and many are involved in foreign conflicts where they have no business in being, and invested in ponzi schemes in often foreign banks, such as local governments in the UK, which then collapsed and they were left holding the baby. Now it is the poor that have to carry the can for the incompetence of their actions.
We need a new system, not a new government.
© 2012
