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Let's skip lunch...

Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? In New York City, it is easy to live on free food every day - if you do not mind diving into the skips (known here as dumpsters).

That is what a growing number of mainly middle class alternative types - including assorted hippies and punks - are doing. They may be able to afford to do a big supermarket shop, pay for convenience foods at the local deli, or eat in a fancy restaurant, but instead, they choose to spend evenings pouring through skips outside food stores and cafes.

They call themselves 'freegans', a word adapted from vegan - the name for vegetarians who eat no animal products. According to the website, freegan.info, freeganism is 'the practice of consuming food that has been thrown away by someone else (for example, supermarkets) in order to minimise the destructive impact consumption has on the environment.'

Freegans often start working at 9.30pm, a time when food stores and restaurants start to discard their leftovers. Freegans rebut the critics who say they risk sickness by going through other people's rubbish. 'In most developed countries, the quality demands and hygiene standards of consumers are so high that many foods stay perfectly edible for long periods of time after their expiry or 'best before' dates,' said Adam Weissman, a 26-year-old security guard from New Jersey, in a posting on the website.

Certainly, there may be plenty of food to go around. About 43 billion kilos of good food goes to the landfills each year in the US, according to the Department of Agriculture. The real challenge for freegans is to only take the food they need - and leave the rest for the destitute and other really needy people, and to avoid putting on weight, a side-effect that has been bothering Mr Weissman.

And as with any small movement, there are always internal squabbles. Look at any freegan web discussion and you will find arguments over whether they should eat meat and eggs found in skips, or whether they should take vitamin supplements.

Freegans tend to make a small investment in their counter culture. The essential tool, a 1.3-metre-long pole to pick things up from the bottom of the skips, without getting too dirty, costs from US$20 to US$30. A 22-minute how-to video is priced at US$20. And, if you wish to gain a deeper knowledge, a book called The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving will set you back US$15. But just one thought to leave you with. Next time a fun-loving hippie vegan friend invites you round for lunch - you may want to ask where he or she got the food.

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