Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to read my copy of The New York Times until after I finished my breakfast. I was a struggle to keep down my banana topped with peanut butter and blueberry yogurt after reading an article entitled “Not Buying It”.

This lovely piece focuses on people in New York City who voluntarily dig through dumpsters for food, furniture, appliances and anything else needed to maintain a happy home. I’m a libertarian on most issues. So, if these people are consenting adults who choose to live knee-deep in trash, more power to them. I also have the right to share my opinion that the practice is disgusting.

Freegans are scavengers of the developed world, living off consumer waste in an effort to minimize their support of corporations and their impact on the planet, and to distance themselves from what they see as out-of-control consumerism. They forage through supermarket trash and eat the slightly bruised produce or just-expired canned goods that are routinely thrown out, and negotiate gifts of surplus food from sympathetic stores and restaurants.

There is no doubt that a lot of somewhat edible food gets thrown away by grocery stores and restaurants every day. I believe there should be more programs that are set up to gather this food and deliver it to shelters. However, I do not recommend choosing to eat these delicacies after they have been lying with other refuse in the hot Manhattan sun. I wonder what people who actually have to dig in trash to eat think about these middle-class kids from the suburbs who come into the city and shout with glee upon finding an open bag of veggie fries or the dredges from a jar of peanut butter.

Many freegans are predictably young and far to the left politically, like Ms. Elia, the 17-year-old, who lives with her father in Manhattan. She said she became a freegan both for environmental reasons and because “I’m not down with capitalism.”

That’s very deep. I’m sure this young lady has a Che Guevara t-shirt and some sort of attire adorned with the phrase, “Corporations Suck!” I wish the reporter who did the interviews for this story would have asked Ms. Elia to define capitalism. That most certainly would have been enlightening.

My favorite paragraph in the entire article has to be the one that focuses on the dedication of Adam Weissman, age 29, who spends his life educating people about being “freegan”:

But New York City in particular — the financial capital of the world’s richest country — has emerged as a hub of freegan activity, thanks largely to Mr. Weissman’s zeal for the cause and the considerable free time he has to devote to it. (He doesn’t work and lives at home in Teaneck, N.J., with his father and elderly grandparents.)

Awesome! This slacker is mooching off his family so that he can focus on creating a world utopia through dumpster diving. He is a grown man (at least chronologically) who apparently has no work ethic and believes he is entitled to let others take care of him. I imagine he thinks that getting a job would just be giving into “the man” who is trying to hold him down and make him a hamster on the giant wheel of capitalism. I’m sure he is too old to be covered by daddy’s health insurance, so I’m not sure what the plan of action will be when that first nasty bout of food poisoning hits him.

Some final words of wisdom come from Christian Gutierrez, former model and investment banker who now devotes himself to living off garbage:

As people began to load plates of food, he leaned in and offered a few words of wisdom: “Opening that first bag of trash,” he said, “is the biggest step.”

So true, Christian. Perhaps one day we will all be brave enough to hold our noses and open up that trash bag filled with possibilities. My neighbor’s house smelled really good when he opened the front door. I think I’ll hit his trash can tonight and see what I can score!