Dumpster diving to live off America’s food waste

August 15, 2013

Screen shot from “DIVE: Living Off America’s Food Waste.”

Story from Here and Now. Listen to audio for full report.

How much food do you throw out? As a country, we waste 96 billion pounds a year and according to filmmaker Jeremy Seifert, you’d need a train long enough to go from Los Angeles to New York City and back again to hold it all.

Seifert learned about food waste when he started scavenging in dumpsters behind grocery stores and found what he thought was perfectly edible food — everything from fresh, organic blueberries, to imported German cheese. He started eating the food and feeding his family with it — even his pregnant wife.

Seifert told Here & Now’s Robin Young that he never had any fears about feeding his children and pregnant wife with the dumpster food. He learned to trust his nose, and only take meat that was cold, and thus, recently refrigerated.

Seifert made a documentary about his dumpster diving, called “DIVE: Living Off America’s Food Waste,” and in it he calls on others to join his movement “to end food waste.”

He’s petitioned grocery stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Vons to donate more food waste to shelters or pantries. Some individual stores were donating, but entire chains had not committed — a step that Seifert is still advocating.