One Man’s Garbage Is Another's Thanksgiving

Folks looking for food in a back alley these days might be “Freegans” - that’s “free” plus “vegan” - who are “opting out of capitalism in any way that we can,” one says. Their New York trash tours have already trained 14,000 people, all trying to dig out the routine waste of cast-off food. “We’re doing something that is really socially unacceptable,” says Madeline Nelson, an ex-Barnes and Noble exec.

She converted to freeganism in disgust over her $100,000 executive lifestyle, the Los Angeles Times reports. She's now down to $25,000 a year and even cooked Thanksgiving dinner from refuse, although supermarket officials advise against it. She counters that two or three-day "past due" food is entirely edible: “It's not like it's Cinderella's coach and it's going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight.” (More trash stories.)