Abstract
This paper explores North America’s food waste issue associated with our current industrial globalized food system. Through a sociocultural lens, this essay examines the new social movement of dumpster diving among food waste activists and ‘freegans’ in urban areas. Millions of people are currently unaware as to where their next meal will come from, yet Western households and supermarkets waste massive amounts of edible food. Dumpster divers do not just encourage us to be mindful of the choices we make with respect to food waste; they seek to challenge pre-existing capitalist structures and conventional ways of thinking. Analyzing the counterculture movement of dumpster diving can help us better understand the role food plays in our daily lives, and can provide an important ideological template to follow in order to mitigate this pressing social and environmental injustice.
Recommended Citation
Vaughan, Brock J.. 2018. "Combating Food Waste: Dumpster Diving as a Form of Consumer Resistance." Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections 3, (1). https://scholars.wlu.ca/bridges_contemporary_connections/vol3/iss1/1
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