The Land of Plenty.

 

The night was perfect. Stormy, near freezing and windy.

A perfect night to go dumpster diving. 🙂

Why? A storm means supermarket workers won’t feel like adventuring outside to lock their bins. The freezing temperature means that the food will be fresh. And the wind and rain will mean very few pedestrians will be about town.

Result: The photo at the top of this blog is all the fresh food I harvested in approximately 2 hours of fossicking. 

 Bagel House Plain Bagels 480gms x2, Abbotts Village Bread 750gms x2, Tip Top Damper Rolls 540 gms x1, Golden Crumpets 300gms x8, Golden Pikelets 200gms x6, Berg Turkey Breast 280gms x12, Bluegrass Bourban Whiskey Cola Cans 375ml x3, Storm Beer 330ml x3, Table Grapes 1kg x2, Fuji Apples 1kg x1, Parsnips Packs 250gms x2, Stir Fry Mix 400gms x1, Bag of Mandarins 750gms x1, Lebanese Flat Bread 400gms x2, Lettuce 520gms x1, Loose Bananas x3 (420gms).

Australia is the driest continent in the world, with huge unending inland deserts, even so the coastline is green and rich with good soil to grow (especially here in the state of Victoria.) My country has a small population of less than 24 million (at the beginning of 2015), so there is a lot to share around. It has been estimated we produce enough food to feed 60 million people.

In Australia the majority of surplus food is not composted; instead the food is dumped with chemicals, toxins, plastics and all sorts of other unsavory nasty’s at the local garbage tip. The nutrients of discarded food that could be returned to the soil are gone forever, deep in the ground. The only thing produced from this is methane gas, which is causing climate change.

It is estimated that 1/3 of fresh food goes to landfill. Much of which is unsuitable for the supermarket to sell and the rest from stuff we don’t eat in our own fridge.

That’s a waste of globally 1.3 billion tons a year.

Please Note: If you are Dumpster Diving for the first time, please click on the post Header below. It is critical that you become aware of how to handle the rescued food correctly.

Preparing Dumpster Food: Mold and Mycotoxins.

Cheers

Loxley Smithett earthknight.org