Article from : BlueJumpers magazine > "Urban self-sufficiency (or, 'Who needs an allotment when you're knee deep in garbage?')"

Wouldn't it be nice to own an allotment and grow your own food instead of buying it? To have a place where you can escape, where everything you do you're doing for yourself? To feel that when the system finally collapses you'll be okay, because as long as it's still raining outside those potatos, carrots and peas are going to be just delicious.. 

Sure it would, but we're all living in cities and the only available soil in a five mile radius is on the Tesco roundabout. The art of agriculture is dead and we seem to have reverted back to the days of hunter gatherer, except now you're wielding your wallet instead of a spear. This inability to fend for ourselves is tragic and embarrassing. 

Worse still it costs us our money and our environment. Only 5% of the money spent on food goes to the people who grow it, the rest is absorbed by packaging, transportation, marketing and supermarkets' profit margins. So in theory (and ignoring economies of scale, because economics is fucking boring) you could eat for a twentieth of the price you currently do if you grew it all yourself. This isn't peanuts either, in 2005 the average family spend on food was equivalent to over a third of their disposable income (i.e. after tax, mortgage, rent, bills and food). That's a lot of beer money. 

If I could be bothered to look up some statistics on commercial waste I would make this paragraph shock and awe, but the stats aren't important because you can go out and see the waste for yourself. It's in those dumpsters behind shops and down the sides of supermarkets, the ones that are full of perfectly edible food that's only there because supermarkets can't be bothered to deal with it properly. It's slightly out of date so it goes in the bin, because there are hungry people who would eat that. The packaging is slightly damaged so it goes in the bin, because what else would they do? give it away? 

The food is there and you don't even have to spend time growing it, you just have to hunt and gather it. Yes out of a bin, but those bins are cleaner than the polluted soil covering that roundabout, and you'll find more of your food groups there than you will in McDonalds (that's not saying anything, i just wanted to make the obvious comparison). 

This is the new self-sufficiency, but most people just call it Dumpster Diving or Skipping. On any given night a supermarket's dumpsters will be full of vast quantities of perfectly edible food, your only problem is finding the accesible ones. A lot of places will lock their bins or keep them in compounds, and if you mess with these you're breaking the law - don't forget that when you're dressed all in black with a torch strapped to your face you're going to look suspicious. This is maybe why people in Ontario go dressed in furry raccoon suits. 

Seriously though, taking food from dumpsters is easy and safe (if you're sensible). There are just three rules:

• Be discreet
• Leave no mess (else you'll ruin it for everyone)
• Don't take more than you need.

And if anyone asks, you're looking for boxes, and you're leaving now thank you very much. 

This isn't for everyone of course; if it was then you wouldn't be able to do it.
Hurry though, before the bananas make you free fruit and veg rippen too quickly.