Newsweek Writer Raina Kelly Goes Freegan for Thirty Days

Almost fifteen years ago, MTV introduced us to reality television with their hit show, The Real World. Based on a look-in, cameras followed strangers who gave up their personal existence and moved into a loft apartment and did life together while the world watched. Since then, we have seen similar excursions take place in various forms from the summer reality show hit, Big Brother to all of the cable networks pushing their own variety shows like American Chopper and Gotti. Along the same lines, magazines have begun to make similar pushes, allowing writers to embed themselves in various environments and pen their findings, opening readers up to a world otherwise shut off.

This is what Newsweek magazine is undergoing currently with writer Raina Kelly who is spending the next thirty days of her life as a freegan. A well-respected journalist, Raina has embedded herself in a culture that marries vegan eating habits with a passion towards monitoring ones impact on the environment through social and consumer behavior. Does it sound different? It is. According to the freegan website, the organization defines freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.

It is a mouthful as well as a lifestyle. According to Raina's blog, Freegan Girl, which can be found on the homepage of the Newsweek website, the focus of her blog is to introduce us to a burgeoning part of our culture, a rich community of non-capitalistic people who believe in more than a change of place and a change of lifestyle, but a reforming, excessive removal. I think her simple goal is something she stated in the first day of her blog. Raina really wants to do is examine the impact of her lifestyle not just on the Earth but herself. And that will make for valuable reading.