Saving the planet
by eating garbage.
NEW YORK -- For lunch in her modest apartment, Madeline Nelson tossed a salad made with shaved carrots and lettuce she dug out of a Whole Foods dumpster. She flavored the dressing with miso powder she found in a trash bag on a curb in Chinatown. She baked bread made with yeast plucked from the garbage of a Middle Eastern grocery store.
Nelson is a former corporate executive who can afford to dine at four-star restaurants. But she prefers turning garbage into gourmet meals without spending a cent.
Why does this sanctimonious prattle make me so angry? I guess I was ahead of my time. When I was a small child--6 or 7--a friend and I took some perfectly good sandwiches out of the family garbage can and ate them. Instead of being hailed as a pioneer, I was put to bed early! There was no justice, back in the twentieth century.
And they didn't even make me sick--unlike this article, which has a high eeuw! factor.
Ht to classical values.
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5 comments:
Let her try to save the planet in some "unpriviledged" country; I don't think she could find anything eadible in a typical garbage can in rural China or Africa.
Tatyana: Good point!
My friend read an article about these people which I ended up writing a blog post about, she said they are called "freegans". They hang out around dumpsters eating bagels thrown out with yesterday's trash. This may be pure snobbery on my part, but I have a hard time trusting people who willingly eat out of garbage cans.
I realize there are some people in dire situations that might be forced to do this, but I'm talking about people such as the lady the article referenced. As long as she doesn't maintain that I must do this, I guess I can tolerate her, from a distance.
I wouldn't like to be near her in case she has a communicable disease.
After reading this I think I can contribute to the overall design of the dishes by some creative barfing...
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