Traveling and being Vegetarian

[hustin]

Hello! Well I decided to take the plunge and leave the life of living in houses, living the normal life.
So I sort of wander the city, no money of course. At all, or job. And I know I can dumpster dive for food, such as prepackaged food, but more than likely it'll be meat or animal products, and I'm a vegetarian. So, does anyone have any tips or knowledge on how to get food that I would be able to eat? With no money. Maybe it's not possible, but I'd like to ask.

I thought about food stamps, but I'm still a dependent of my father, and if I was an independent, I don't know if I would be eligible for them.

 

[nickt29]

as a vegetarian, ive really never had any difficulty finding food suitable for me. and whenever i come up on meat containing food from dumpster or kick down, i just give it to the carnivores that im usually with. the most important thing is though, you just cant complain if your hungry and the only shit available to eat is meat. being vegetarian is your choice and you also have to deal with the consequences of sometimes not having food to eat. its as simple as that. youll be fine as long as you assume full responsibility for your dietary choices...

 

[Desperado Deluxe]

bagel places are good cause they throw a shit ton of bagels away almost everyday bakerys too
smaller health food stores are pretty good because big ones like whole foods have fucking trash compactors but somtime you can still salvage some stuff outta them
a pnywhere that has produce and a dumpster trader joes is retty good sometimes they donate it but they usually still toss a certain percent of shit out
i wouldnt eat any dumpstered dairy tho if you eat dairy probbly not eggs either unless that shit has been cooked like pastrys and shit starbucks usually toss lots of em out
food stamps really help if you can get em

 

[coldsteelrail]

i'm not sure where you live, but vegetables, often in better condition than the ones you find in the grocery aisle, are generally abundant in dumpsters, or behind the store in a separate container. Check out small businesses, especially those that are fruit and vegetable market-ish. If you happen to have a local farmers' market, go there, and directly ask the vendors for anything they might be throwing out. I would suggest you get yourself a bike-build one if you don't have the money, or keep your eyes out for one that has been rotting on the same pole for years, and cut it off...just watch it for a week or so, and make sure no one is coming to get it. Most large supermarket will have vegetables too. The trick is to search the dumpster world far and wide, and you will find your veggie haven. Get involved with the local food not bombs, if there is one in your town, and find out where they get their food. Go to the food bank, and ask for veggie boxes or food stamps. Sometimes soup kitchens will have a lot of bagged fruit and veggies that is largely ignored. If there's vegetables in the store, than there are vegetables in the dumpster. If you can't find 'em, people enjoy being generous, ask and you might receive. In terms of eating dumpstered dairy, eggs, and even meat- you can smell dairy, eggs and meat when it's rotten. Eat up all the yoghurt and eggs you find, my friend! If it smells bad (crack an egg, open the carton), don't eat it. Same goes with veggies. If you find a veggie dumpster that consistently has soggy veggies, seek out another. The trick to dumstering is to go as often as possible, and to as many vendors as you can. In small towns, where there are other small towns near by, i sometimes do trips to a good dumpster out of town (hitchhiking with a big backpack), but generally finding good food isn't difficult at all, if you are dedicated (wasteful, capitalistic world is about the movement of trade).
You could also do odd jobs, and pay for the food as you need it.

 

[Desperado Deluxe]

yes trust your natural senses when it come to dumpstering anything.. eg smells bad, taste bad, it is bad ..
on the bike thing some cities have co ops where they will teach u to build your own bike and let you keep it for free u just gotta put some time into their shop.

 

[Desperado Deluxe]

oh yea i fergot eating a little bit of mold aint bad either it raises your immunity to it it might make you a little sick at first but after a while u will be able to eat more of it dont be too afraid of it but try to avoid eating mass amounts of it

 

[joaquim33]

for small amounts of money you can buy large amounts of whole grains like brown rice and oats which are great non-perishable nourishing travel food

 

[Belogenberg]

ive usually found that its much easier to find fruits and veggies out of dumpsters than to find animal products anyhow

 

[bananathrash]

definitely safer to eat veggies from a dumpster than meat.

 

[xRastaxRuggzx]

dude and as soon as your not dependent on your father anymore, you could get EBT, if you are homeless, hungry, etc.

 

[Meek1]

I feel that fruits and vegetable are much easier to come across than meat when dumpster diving. Plus(in my opinion) meet tends to spoil faster when left outside than fruit does.

 

[Cardboard]

Also you could just drop your idealist diet in favor of a better one which it seems you are on your way to anyway. Being a freegan sort of trumps all idealist diets, because eating trash is in no way supporting any industry. If you eat meat out of the containers, you are also making sure that animals are not industry raised for nothing. Have some respect for those poor animals and dont let their death
go to waste!

 

[dharma bum]

Also you could just drop your idealist diet in favor of a better one which it seems you are on your way to anyway. Being a freegan sort of trups all idealist diets, because eating trash is in no way supporting any industry. If you eat meat out of the containers, you are also making sure that animals are not industry raised for nothing. Have some respect for those poor animals and dont let their death
go to waste!

i'm going to have to agree. even though my partner is a vegetarian, i love meat. also, if you don't pay for it, don't let it go to waste. or if you just love animals, keep loving them. just remember that we have THUMBS.

 

[Meek1]

Also you could just drop your idealist diet in favor of a better one which it seems you are on your way to anyway. Being a freegan sort of trups all idealist diets, because eating trash is in no way supporting any industry. If you eat meat out of the containers, you are also making sure that animals are not industry raised for nothing. Have some respect for those poor animals and dont let their death
go to waste!

Just throwing this out there, what if your a vegetarian simply because you hate the taste of meat?

 

[Cardboard]

find someone who knows how to cook better... No, Then keep being a vegetarian, I suppose. I have had this debate with soo many people that it gets kind of old, but this is of course, the non-idealist version of vegetarianism. However, hating the taste of anything is still no excuse not to eat when you are hungry. I mean, I hate the taste of raw onions, of celery, of a lot of things, that if I were living the life of luxury, I would probably choose to avoid.
But, I'm eating out of the garbage. I can of course often choose really nice luxurious things from said garbage, but the less choices you have, the more creative you have to be, and the lower your standards tend to go.
I dont think "meat" is exactly a flavor either. maybe just try cooking it some other way?

 

[Meek1]

find someone who knows how to cook better... No, Then keep being a vegetarian, I suppose. I have had this debate with soo many people that it gets kind of old, but this is of course, the non-idealist version of vegetarianism. However, hating the taste of anything is still no excuse not to eat when you are hungry. I mean, I hate the taste of raw onions, of celery, of a lot of things, that if I were living the life of luxury, I would probably choose to avoid.
But, I'm eating out of the garbage. I can of course often choose really nice luxurious things from said garbage, but the less choices you have, the more creative you have to be, and the lower your standards tend to go.
I dont think "meat" is exactly a flavor either. maybe just try cooking it some other way?

I have tried meat multiple ways and ive always hated the taste. To each his own i suppose. I find vegatables to be in greater abundance when dumpster diving.

 

[Cardboard]

it totally depends on where you are though, and how abundant dumpster diving might be at all. we are quite spoiled in the northern western part of the world, and everything is quite abundant in the trash. I guess its not very likely that meat would ever be more abundant than veggies, but what is more likely outside of this area, is that somone would offer you food that is not vegetarian. or rather that the opportunites to have free food will not often cater to idealist (or prefferential) diets.
Sure, everywhere in the world, you can go out and buy food. And that includes veggies.
I just worry that people take this societal training of thinking that capitalism has blessed us poor folk, and in the heads, apply it to a lot more than it should be. no one on this website is poor. Maybe by western standards, but they have mostly chosen to be that way, and they still stand high above many people in the rest of the world. and if you are in africa, asia, south america... and someone offer you some rice and pork, My opinion is that you should humbly accept, and appreciate the free food. its just an opinion, but I really think that promoting sharing and generosity is better than promoting a non meat lifestyle any day.

 

[coolguyeagle76']

Also you could just drop your idealist diet in favor of a better one which it seems you are on your way to anyway. Being a freegan sort of trumps all idealist diets, because eating trash is in no way supporting any industry. If you eat meat out of the containers, you are also making sure that animals are not industry raised for nothing. Have some respect for those poor animals and dont let their death
go to waste!

idealist diet? really? i think it would be preferable to live with an idealist diet. Even if its not as easy sometimes as having no ideals like freeganism which is the biggest cop out ever. if you dont want to support industry go grow your own AND DONT LEACH OFF OF INDUSTRIAL WASTE

 

[Cardboard]

true enough. people should be growing their own, but this is a website full of travelers (fuck, the OP is about "TRAVELING and being a vegetarian) , who I am guessing are not having room for a garden in their packs. Freeganism is also an idealist diet, not about having no ideals in any way. I believe the industrial waste is a shameful disgusting waste, as are as the massive food surpluses that are destroyed every year. I am quite happy to take my part in reducing that, and in no way suporting the industry. I have also grown up with family farms, studied permaculture, and worked on various farms on three continents, in just about every ecosphere there is. I certainly would be growing my own food if I were not traveling, and even still, can often return to farms on a circuit and harvest things I have earlier in the year planted. I have mycelium patches I have spread on BLM land up and down the west coast of the US, wild crafted so I can return and harvest whenever I am around.
Sorry, this is too personal now.
Concerning the OP:
Traveling as a vegetarian is ALWAYS an option. not always a free option, and even less often an EASY free option. If you stick to the US, or western Europe, you should always be able to find plenty to eat in the containers, if you can bring yourself to "leach off of industrial waste".
Outside of this area, things get a bit harder, and you may often be competing with local people, who probably have a harder time getting the resources we have available in the western world. If you are prepared to fight with the locals, the containers may still have some to offer. You can find work on farms (in exchange for room and board) in many parts of the world, again, consider your impact on local communites (please).
Also, a bit difficult, considering the different ecospheres you may pass through in your travels, offering different food sources, but foraging is also an option to consider. There is often an abundance of food right at our feet, we have just been trained to overlook it, and head to the markets instead.
If you are motivated enough to travel, your diet will be secondary. I travelled 2 years as a vegan, 6 months as a raw foodist, and 5 years as a vegetarian (all of these mix together somehow). I was in 15 countries on 3 contients, and my diet was always fullfilled. Never once was it dictated by my locale. For the last year I have chosen to be freegan, and do not understand why I was ever anything else. I guess I dont like to define any of these things, but if I had to choose a defining word for my diet, I would call it freegan. this allows me to eat all the tasty vegan food I want, and not have to deal with dogmatic assholes who get upset when I eat some table dived peperonni pizza, or some freshly prepared veal cutlets out of the container. I still mostly cook vegan, out of respect for the other people aroune me, but wont hesitate to fry up some bacon in the same kitchen, as long as said bacon was garbage first.

 

[Kay Dennizen]

Hey all. I have an issue that I would like some advice on, but don't feel it warrants a new thread..
So I have been traveling on and off for a few years. I adopted a vegan diet for idealistic and health reasons ( I like the critters, and i'm mega lactose-intolerant, and it was a way out of being force-fed antidepressant medication, long story) in my early teenage years. Since then, I have sustained myself on food stamps and income but primarily dumpstering. Of course eatin' out of the trash can present some issues for vegetarians and even more so to vegans, but I have always had omnivorous pals around to feed and often use of a kitchen to wash and cook grub. Employing a little creativity and knowledge, eating vegan out of the trash has become relatively easy. In the past few years I have began occasionally eating fish and eggs but still don't mess with mammal products. I have never turned up my nose at 'non vegan' alcohol and while traveling I will eat foods containing some dairy product, cause really, two days on a train without any food besides a bag of fritos mocking me is my breaking point.

THIS ALL SAID- in the last year I have developed some extremely weird chronic gastrointestinal problems (bloody stool, constant bloating/cramps/gas/ Diarrhea) that seem to persist regardless of what I'm putting in my body, and its been a year... I have a sibling who is gluten-intolerant, and after years of her pushing me to consider it (IE NO BEER, at least nothing inexpensive and easily obtainable), I'm avoiding gluten for a few weeks to see whats really good. So far my mystery symptoms seem better?
SO- I'm going to be back on the road/trains/living off gas station grub and the odd supermarket run in a few weeks and need advice on how to survive without Dairy or Gluten (anything containing wheat rye barley etc etc). thoughts?