Those red heels are like a personalized "fuck you" from Jessica Seinfeld!

My first thought was that the skinny girl certainly looked fashion-forward for not having shopped for three years. Then I realized it was Lisa Ling. Shout to the Sac native!

Also, this is stupid. Plant a garden, don't dig through the trash. Anyhow, homeless people who don't make 6 figures need that shit more than you.

what does this woman with a 6 figure salary, do for a living?

For someone who hates consumerism, she sure has a nice kitchen.
I'm sure she found those granite counter tops and stainless steel appliaces in a dumpster too.

My God...a little extreme no? What happened to growing your own food? Its cheap, anti-consumerist, and its healthy.

Madeline reminds me of my crust-punk HS classmate and fallen Mormon who never showered for a year and ate out of garbage cans at school to prove his capacity for survival after society collapses.

Classy, all around. I remain fascinated by the addition of "-an" to a given trend, and the spontaneous birth of a movement that people in search of meaning can attach themselves to.

I think she had a 6 figure income but gave it up and now gets all her food from dumpsters....That takes food away from other dumpster divers who really need to eat and don't have 6 figure income skills...am I overanalyzing?

@ineffable.me: @Archetype: At the beginning of the clip, it says she "opted out" of the 6 fig gig, so my guess is she saved her dough when working, and doesn't work now or does something with much less compensation.

@Archetype: Sorry - I repeated your sentiments. Call me freegan repelled by this woman.

Yawn. So tired of freegans. Not that I don't occasionally grab great stuff that my neighbors throw out.

This fucking pissed me off so bad. Seriously? You make six figures... buy food! Buying food doesn't make you consumerist; it makes you a human being. If you want to be all anti-consumerist then fine, don't buy Louboutins like mama O and instead help others who dont have a choice BUT to be anti-consumerist... like actual homeless people. I'm glad Oprah wore her Louboutins. Slap. In. The. Face.

@keldo: Yeah, she's a total asshole.

@OhhYeah: Or, you can buy Louboutins AND help others, like Oprah. Ain't no shame!

Freegan or Freetard?

How has Oprah not heard of freeganism?

The claim that they are "opting out" of capitalism is exactly what kills me. They depend on the effluvia of a market economy (and, frankly, it is better than totally wasting it), and yet they abhor the very system that sustains them.

Mama O noted, when talking to the freegan lady, the irony of breaking away to commercials, the point of which is to get people to buy more stuff. She did not, however, take note of the irony in her own contribution to the cult of conspicuous consumption (i.e., Louboutins, the frenzy of Oprah's favorite things episodes, etc.)

@misanthropologist: I'm sure she voted for Ron Paul.

Agnes Varda made a fantastic documentary a few years back called "The Gleaners and I"--all about people living on society's leftovers. I can't really hate on people who have the balls and resourcefulness to send a big eff you to the man.

my friend went through a pretty extreme dumpster diving phase. we found this out AFTER eating a dinner which she supplied all of the ingredients for, including produce.

if it's not meant to be frozen and it's not past its expiration date and it's very well sealed, okay fine, I will be polite and eat your dumpster food. but mushrooms? no. how could you even be clear those didn't just grow there?

@AnnieGetYourFun: I am the queen of picking up crap by the side of the road, but I draw the line at edibles. Give me an ugly chair or velvet couch anyday.

Freegans taste like garbage.

@katastic: Oprah's never heard of anything until she does a show on it. Cooking? Babies? Vegetables? Shit? Don't exist until Dr. FamousPants explain them to her.

Um, nice Le Creuset set of pots on that stainless stove!
Oh she must've bought those BEFORE she opted out.
What.Ever.

Damn the man, but I like my stuff.

@Archetype: I really like Lisa Ling too! I can't explain it, but I think she's underrated.

@yourbffjill: Oh jesus! That is crazy. Did any of you guys get sick? If not, it's kind of awesome that your friend made a meal like that.

@katastic: @blondegrlz: Well, I didn't know about freegans. But I tend to ignore stupid people.

@allora: No way, Le Creuset? Man, I can't even afford that shit.

Maybe if I got all of my food from my neighbor's garbage I could buy some.

Who cares what Oprah wears? She builds schools and homes, which is a little bit more than I do.

Wow.

You know, there *is* a middle ground...

How ironic. In high school I staged a walk out to protest enforced Channel One watching during homeroom (Channel One being Lisa Ling's former employer). I put up signs of Lisa Ling looking evil and trying to sell us junk food and stuff. I objected to being forced to consume capitalist advertisements for shit when we were supposed to be learning something. (Never mind all of the precious educational time I was losing to cut class and smoke Camel lights) In the end the school compromised by letting me air videos of me making compost and shit with the environmental club afterwards.

@Cam/ron:
Shit, I'm friends with a kid like that! He makes his own clothes, but says that ideally he wouldn't wear any. I know I'm a bad person, but what he does, its just soooo stupid. But hilarious. I sort of hate him though, since he has more money then most kids at my school and I guess hes not as hardcore as the kid you talked about, since he still has some, um, consumerist tendencies.

I'd imagine the our Freegan has one helluva stomach to handle all of that expired food. But seriously, there is a strong whiff of smugness when a rich person brags about buying nothing and sleeping in a comfortable bed every night while homeless folks who dream of escaping their lives don't have that luxury.

God how annoying is this! I'm all for freecycle and thrift shops because well, it's good for the environment. But dumpster diving and taking what could be a meal from someone who has No $ when you can afford to buy food is the pits!@yourbffjill: haha and ew about the mushrooms

hahhaha - oprah sure was convincing in making me believe that a six figure salary was a lot given that she prob throws that in the trash bin by mistake, maybe i should dive into oprah's dumpster

@Cam/ron: More like a festering pile of steamy smugness.

I seriously dislike this woman. And that's only because I am trying to not use the word hate as much.

@Archetype: I'm cool with folks resisting mindless consumerism, but the extremists (especially when they look down on everybody else as sheep or simpletons) bug the hell out of me.

@misanthropologist: Exactly. It isn't "opting out" if you live on teh crumbs of said capitalistic system. If I don't have anything to throw away, you die.
@Cam/ron: I know, they are usually really smug and preachy. Garrr. Why isn't this woman organizing meals for the homeless? Why isn't she working to shelter those who didn't choose to dumpster dive? Helping to arrange counseling and rehab for those lost to the scourges of drug/domestic abuse and mental illness?

@AbbyNormal: Indeed, living like a stray dog off of table scraps ain't liberation, y'all.

@h_a_l: honestly, considering that 50% of food is thrown out before it makes it to our homes, I think there's enough trash to go around. Both for the people who really need it, and the people who choose to eat that way.

This self-righteous prig annoys me. And I'm not talking about Oprah.

What about the small local farmers trying to make ends meet? How bout the freegans help them out? Or the people who work at the grocery store...they need jobs. I'd get it if it was to save money for more important things or to help the environment but to do it just to stick it to the man seems to ignore the middle to lower class workers who are also making a dime off of what you buy. It's just another case of extremism. Things are not all black and white people!

In the bad old days (1980's) there were shops in poor areas of the UK which sold food that was collected from the back of supermarkets which had chucked it out because it was past the sell buy date. We povs ate like kings on M&S frozen meals. Why would live like this if they don't have to boggles my mind. Support your local small business and leave the dumpsters to the poor.

Sorry that was utterly incoherent - I day dreaming about M&S frozen meals and not paying attention to my typing.

I had to turn off the TV because I could not listen to Oprah say, "what do we really need, people" one more time. I noticed the shoes too. Oprah is the epitome of consumerism . . . the whole show just seemed a little hypocritical.

in theory, freeganism is really what most folks did during the great depression, except they didn't have six figure salaries. i don't have a problem with it, regardless of how much money the freegan may make per year. we don't need to buy all the crap that advertising and society at large tells us to buy. hell, aside from the dumpster diving, my entire living room is furnished from castoffs of other people. i'm into freegan furniture. who isn't?

@Fatdogsmells: i did find it fascinating that during this episode - miraculously there weren't any other freegans diving the dumpsters. i wonder how the piece would have turned out if these freegans were fighting with the homeless for the stuff in the dumpsters.

@hannahwilde: Povs! I haven't heard that word in so long!