I've recently been introduced to the concept of 'Freeganism'.
Freeganism is a way of life where.....well, the rules (guidelines) explain it far better than I ever could:
*My thoughts about each of the guidelines are in itialics*
1. I will not buy anything except for food, medical needs or in case of emergency.
That seems pretty easy. However, 'emergency' is pretty subjective.
2. I will be a vegan.
Not so easy. I've tried it - and I didn't realize that animal products and by-products were in so many foods!
3. All my food will be organic (and local if at all possible) and only from local sources such as New York City's greenmarkets or the Park Slope Food Co-op. I will also investigate waste reclamation and wild foraging. (Gross maybe, but Americans waste more than 90 billion pounds of food a year, and that can feed a lot of starving activists.)
That's not so easy in some areas. For instance, I know of three farmers markets in the area I currently reside in, but at our last base there weren't any. And, if you live far away from a farmer's market and you have to drive there, aren't you doing more damage to the environment than if you stayed home and ate produce you got from the supermarket?
4. I will scrupulously recycle, reuse and compost. If I want something, I will barter for it or go to freecycle.org or try and find it in that house of horrors I call a storage space.
That seems easy enough. I recycle as it is....haven't bartered for anything yet, but I'm willing to give it a try!
5. I will not throw away what I already have and buy "green" items. I will use what I have until it's gone.
I'm doing that already - and it IS pretty sensible.
6. I will aim to reduce my energy bill by 50 percent and be carbon neutral.
The energy bill reduction part is do-able - maybe not by 50%, but I think I could comfortable reduce my consumption by 30%. However, being carbon neutral is easier said than done.
7. I will only use eco-friendly transportation (including the subway), but I will take a car if it is a matter of personal safety (such as late nights).
Again, easy to do in an urban or suburban area. However, some places have NO public transportation, so if you want to go anywhere in those areas you HAVE to drive. I think that a reasonable alternative would be riding a bike for short excursions or carpooling for longer trips.
8. I will open a Freedom Savings Account where I will put the money I save. This money will, in time, give me the freedom to quit working if I want to. And when I get the Man's foot off my neck, I'm going to move upstate and read used books.
Ha! I WISH that this were do-able! I don't think that there's any way I could save enough money to retire on by adopting Freegan-ism as a lifestyle....and I read used books as it is.
9. Most importantly, I will mindful of the impact of my actions on the earth.
I think that this is the most important part of the ideaology; being mindful of the impact of your actions. I think that if we all stopped and thought about the repercussions of our behaviour and habits, we'd have a lot less crime and strife. However, I don't believe it's in most people's nature to stop and think before they act; I think that for most folks mindfulness is a learned behaviour.
So, is the freegan-ism described in these rules really possible? In an ideal situation, yeah. However, most of us don't live in an ideal situation. We live in reality; in a world where you HAVE to drive to get places and where we're bombraded with messages telling us that bigger and better and faster and more are what we should be aspiring to. It's difficult to ignore those messages. It's difficult to NOT buy things.
I'm going to give this a shot. I'm going to try to NOT buy anything for a month - I'm only going to buy food, 'emergency' items and medical supplies. I'll try to keep a log of my experiences here.
My husband is going to love this.....
Whilst I agree with most of the guidelines in principle, I'm not so sure that they're practical and achieveable in reality.