Food For Free: Interview with the Freegan

After being introduced to freeganism several months ago by friends, Antoine de l'Entropie* had been supplementing his weekly shop with foodstuffs from the bins of Marks and Spencers, Sainsburys and others. He became a full time freegan a month ago. It's fair to say he is one of the healthiest looking people I've ever met, his bin raiding lifestyle obviously agreeing with him. Antoine's reasons for choosing to live this way are the same ones we've heard before, the guilt surrounding the tons of wasted food while others starve; the massive damage to the environment and the exploitation of growers and pickers at the other end of the food chain. But that reasoning seems to resonate more coming from someone who is obviously healthy, sane and showered. "Anything the supermarkets tell us about their concern about the environment is PR greenwash," he says. "Take Marks and Spencer for example, I have found bags of air freighted exotic fruits outside their bins still in date. Any company that cares about the environment is not still flying fruit halfway across the world to be packaged and thrown in the bin."

"I've never got ill from anything I've found, although there are times I've bitten in to something and then thought better of it." So is there anything that can still tempt him to spend? "Booze obviously, and onions – nobody ever seems to throw out onions."

The bureaucratic nature of the major supermarkets means that food is thrown out in accordance with arbitrary best before dates, employees are not free to use their common sense. Because of nonsensical rules like this Antoine has rescued bags of still green bananas from bins – otherwise destined for landfills. Surely this is a practice the supermarkets should be encouraging? Instead, apparently malicious precautions are taken to prevent this – locking the bins, slashing open packaging and contaminating with blue dye packets of food that are otherwise edible. But it seems apparent that freegans will find a way. "I've considered going to war with them,"Antoine tells me. "Every time I find a bin locked I consider turning it upside down and we'll see who tires of it first."

* Unsurprisingly, not his real name