FreeganWikipedia has definition of a Freegan:

The practice of minimizing one’s impact on the environment by means of consuming food that has been or is about to be thrown away by someone else…..Many people exerting this practice have been forced into it simply by lacking the income necessary to purchase food normally, rather than making a conscious decision to sustain themselves by scavenging when other choices are available.

You could say curb crawling or grabbing a piece of furniture from outside the dumpster is being a freegan, however it seems to mean something a little bit more. It is about dumpster diving for food, waiting outside for a grocer or restaurant to pitch their food and go through it, pick out what isn’t spoiled or expired and use it to make food.

I also found that freegan.info takes the definition a step further to include not just people searching for food but also “People who are concerned so deeply with the social and ecological impact of economic over-consumption that they choose to buy and work as little as possible and, instead, to live directly off the massive waste created by our modern society.”

I am in total support of this and I think it is great that people are able to “live” off of our throwaway society with their creativity. As the article states, some people include in this freegan life transportation and housing. Squatting in an empty building is fine, in my opinion, as long as no laws are broken and the places are left as you found it. The same rules used when dumpster diving, make it look like you weren’t there.

Have I ever dived for food? No. Have I ever eaten food that was dived? Yes. My grandfather was a diver after he retired and one of his stops was a bakery near his home, since he had a sweet tooth, this suited him fine. He even grabbed some extras for us grandkids. Mom was hesitant at first and always checked the expiration dates, but we determined if we would eat it, based on whether is was stale or not. I have to say that my aversion to coconut covered marshmallow thingy’s is due to this.

If you are still unsure about all of this, Current.tv has a 4 minute video on freegans