Freegans and the Politics of Waste in New York City Alex V. Barnard
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Waving the Banana at Capitalism: Freegans and the Politics of Waste in New York City Alex V. Barnard University of California, Berkeley* * Please acknowledge any quotations and citations of this manuscript. Direct all correspondence to Alex V. Barnard / Sociology Department / University of California-Berkeley / Barrows Hall / Berkeley, CA 94702-1980 or via e-mail at avbarnard@berkeley.edu. Barnard i Preface ...................................................................................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION: A BRIEF HISTORY OF A TOMATO .................................................................................... 1 The Anti-Capitalist ......................................................................................................................................... 6 Freegans and the Politics of Waste ......................................................................................................... 10 Ex-Commodities and the Fetishism of Waste ...................................................................................... 17 I: UNEARTHING THE EX-COMMODITY: THE ORIGINS OF FREEGANISM .................................................. 24 1. The New Anarchists and the Wastes of Capitalism ............................................................ 24 The Rise of Direct Action ............................................................................................................................ 27 Waste: A Prefigurative Goldmine ............................................................................................................ 35 Sasha and Karl: Value, Surplus, and Capitalism ................................................................................. 41 A Brief History of Waste in America ....................................................................................................... 50 Neo-Liberalism and the Birth of the Ex-Commodity ......................................................................... 56 2. Wasted Food and the Emergence of Freeganism ................................................................ 62 Ex-Commodification From Farm to Fork .............................................................................................. 65 Going Public with Waste: Food Not Bombs .......................................................................................... 73 The First Freegans and the “Ultimate Boycott” .................................................................................. 80 Garbage in Gotham ....................................................................................................................................... 88 Freegan.info’s Wetland Birth .................................................................................................................... 94 Anarchism in its DNA ................................................................................................................................... 97 II: UNVEILING THE FETISH OF WASTE: THE POLITICS OF FREEGANISM ............................................. 102 3. Diving In: Becoming Freegan .................................................................................................. 102 Freegan From Birth? ................................................................................................................................. 106 Frustrated Lifestyles and Vegan Disillusionment .......................................................................... 114 The Limits of Pocketbook Politics ........................................................................................................ 123 Searching for an Activist Fit ................................................................................................................... 130 Taking the Freegan Plunge ..................................................................................................................... 137 4. Trash Tours and the Theatre of Anti-Capitalism ............................................................. 144 The Sidewalk as Stage .............................................................................................................................. 147 Guerrilla Redistribution and a Bonanza of Bagels ......................................................................... 153 Putting Trash on Camera ........................................................................................................................ 161 “Waving the Banana” and Anti-Capitalism 101 ............................................................................... 170 Thrift, Profligacy, and the Spirit of Capitalism ................................................................................ 177 Fetishism and the Strange Appeal of Eating Trash ......................................................................... 183 5. Back to Nature in NYC? Prefiguring with Waste .............................................................. 191 The Freegan Community and the Natural Ethos ............................................................................. 194 Foraging, Wild and Otherwise ............................................................................................................... 201 Freegan Senses, Freegan Bodies ........................................................................................................... 206 The Rhythm of Freeganism .................................................................................................................... 213 Skills, Knowledge, and the Freegan Bike Workshop ..................................................................... 219 Festivals of Use Value and the Gift Economy .................................................................................... 226 De-Constructing Waste, Re-Constructing Nature ............................................................................ 232 III: RECLAIMING THE EX-COMMODITY, RE-SPINNING THE FETISH: THE DECLINE OF FREEGANISM 238 6. Boundaries, Limits, and Ambiguities: The Paradoxes of Freeganism ...................... 238 The Limits of “Dropping Out” ................................................................................................................ 242 Barnard ii Working Through Contradictions ........................................................................................................ 249 Isolation and Alienation .......................................................................................................................... 255 The Boundaries of a Freegan Appeal .................................................................................................. 259 Scavenging for Survival, Scavenging as a Statement ...................................................................... 267 Profligacy, Parasitism, and Hoarding ................................................................................................. 274 7. From Freeganism to Freeloading: Conflict, Backlash, and Decline ........................... 282 The Politics of Disappearance, Defense, and Displacement ........................................................ 286 Garbage-Bag Backlash .............................................................................................................................. 292 Waste(d) Celebrity? .................................................................................................................................. 299 Naming and Shaming ................................................................................................................................ 305 Troubles with Newcomers ...................................................................................................................... 310 Theft and the Clash Between “Anti-Capitalists” and “Anti-Wasters” ........................................ 316 Discarding Freeganism ............................................................................................................................ 323 CONCLUSION: THE AFTERLIVES OF FREEGANISM ................................................................................ 330 Works Cited ....................................................................................................................................... 355 Barnard iii “The decay spreads over the State, and the sweet smell is a great sorrow on the land. Men who can graft the trees and make the seed fertile and big can find no way to let the hungry people eat their produce. Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby the fruits may be eaten… The works of the roots, of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit… There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success…” - John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) Barnard iv Preface This book continues a process that began in 2007. That summer, I read a New York Times article—“Not Buying It”—that explored the ideologies and practices of a new, and supposedly growing,