Some excerpts:
Sounds like Lord Shiva, the very first yogi:
"The freegans' real antecedents are Utopian and religious communities like the Shakers and Amish, and the hermits, mendicants and holy fools who have been rejecting the corrupting influence of civilization since it was invented."
And St. Francis was a perfect fit:
"Saint Francis of Assisi might have made a passable freegan. We do know, according to Katherine Ashenburg's forthcoming history of cleanliness, "The Dirt on Clean," that like many early Christian saints he "revered dirt" and regarded bathing as a decadent pagan luxury."
Freegans
For those new to the term (free + vegan), a freegan is a person who has decided to boycott capitalist society by severely curtailing consumption of resources through reusing, recycling and Dumpster diving. Taking the expression "Waste not, want not" to its extreme conclusion, freegans try not to purchase anything up to and including food. Instead, they rely on bartering and what the rest of us leave for the garbageman. At a time when the environmental movement is gaining mainstream acceptance, the freegans are actually living the most hard-core beliefs about consumption and sustainability.
