In times where all we hear about is "green", "eco" and "sustainable"... Are you doing your part to help the environment? Start by knowing How Green Is Your Diet?
If you have problems viewing any of the links, please find them below.
I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly 10 years. I genuinely thought that just by being one for so many years, it classified me highly as having a green diet. In addition to this, I though it gave me a sort of “free pass” to all the other issue that concerns having a green diet. Little did I know!
After testing several quiz/games found on the TreeHugger website I came to realize several things:
First of all, as previously mentioned, I didn’t have an eco, or green diet as I thought I did. Before the begging of this project my fridge was literally crammed with food that not only came in a lot of packaging, but was also not in season or grown locally. Not good!
Secondly, in terms of the quiz and games themselves, I thought they were patronizing, impersonal, random at times, generic, gave silly recommendations, and didn’t address a particular issue. Clearly when designing my own quiz/game I thought of doing it as entertaining and useful as possible.
Personally, I think a quiz works well as a tool kit because to be honest, everyone enjoys doing a quiz every now and then and if done properly it’s an interesting and entertaining approach of conveying a message. People are always looking for an easy way of getting a quick and right answer to things. So my aim was to design a straightforward, normal and conventional quiz, but with no right answers. Instead a quiz streamed towards the Freeganism movement. No matter the answer, the player would always be directed to an answer in pro of Freganism. Additionally, I believe that giving it a slight sense of irony and humor makes it so much more appealing. Hence, all the answers encouraging joining the Freeganism movement were elaborated in an ironic and humorous manner to create a greater impact.
Freeganism is an organized movement that fights against this inequity. Through the practice of dumpster diving (amongst others) Freegans recover fresh food that has been tossed out daily, mainly for cosmetic purposes: consumers want their food to look right and supermarkets want to replenish their shelves with a constant stream of new stock delivered to them.
One thing I need to emphasize is I’m not trying to encourage people to become Freegans. I’m trying to create awareness. I’m conscious of the fact Freganism is not a solution in itself to the immensity of the problem; but thus viewed as a protest against the extent of food waste carried out throughout the world.
After doing an extensive amount on of research on the subject, both for the development of this project and my own personal knowledge, I’ve drawn up several conclusions on the matter:
I believe Freganism is a good solution if carried out properly. I admire the people that practice this movement to a certain extent. But as all things in life, excessiveness can lead to counter productiveness. I also strongly believe, as Freegans do, that we can truly reduce our impact on deforestation, soil erosion, water depletion and world hunger simply by wasting less food. Its not the only thing we need to do, but its one of the big measures we can take and one of the easiest.
The approach I chose for this project is a direct criticism towards society and its response towards the Freeganism movement. I’m against it becoming a “trend” and a fashionable thing to do, instead of valuing for its good purposes.
Not being a Freegan myself, I had every intension of going dumpster diving. I discourage the fact of doing a project on something I’ve never even done. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do as it illegal in the UK. During the development of this project I visit dumpster outside of one of the supermarkets in London and was asked to leave the premises as it qualifies as theft (Theft Act 1968 for England). Clearly being of Colombian nationality, I didn’t want to put my migratory status at risk.
Nevertheless, I encourage to live one day in the life of a Freegan, to draw up your own conclusion and to play the game. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did designing it… possibly you will learn something from it!
♥
