Urban orchard

The apples got picked, only one remains.

sullivan street orchard

Will anyone pick an apple? Will anyone notice?

Apple tree

I have decided to make a tree an apple tree. Why? Many reasons....
Starting with reminding people about the food chain. Then hoping to make people think about food on the street, everyone is talking about rooftop gardens. Why not roadside orchards? Next to see if people are willing to pick food from off the streets, hopefully leading to increased thought on the waste that enables freeganism. Another aspect is promoting the numerous green market varieties available, this is where i intend to purchase my tree apples. The hardest part due to my waste obsessive nature is to make people feel comfortable enough to pick and eat one. Seem like a street art project for the lower east side but may experiment with soho first.

What can we do?

After a brief stint in a commercial kitchen again I am left pondering a way to reduce waste. The top end fine dining establishments have good margins so only worry about wasting high cost product. The overworked chefs finish a 6 day 70 to 80 hour work week and have to do the weekly clean down. Involving cleaning/throwing out the fridges, mainly prepped produce that is currently good. Just hours ago it would have been a component in a $120 meal but now it is headed for landfill. Similar practices going on at the other thousand restaurants in Manhattan combine to produce tonnes of wasted waste. This is a resource still fit for human consumption, pig food, compost, biogas or for something for anyone able to figure out the logistics. A legitimate fear, lost sales, causes much of the retail waste. Who will buy a sandwich at 930pm if they know it is free at 1000pm. The reality at many Manhattan supermarkets as long as you are willing to pull your sandwich out of a trash bag on the curb.

Food on the curb

If all the good... well edible food discarded daily could speak up about its mistreatment. What would it say? Does food actually want to be eaten? Well it sounds better than rotting or being discarded. After experiencing a Freegan trash tour I have become very concerned about the nightly calories bagged and tossed out to the curb. What a shame this resource is destine for landfill

True cost plan

I think a product's price should reflect it's true cost to society, what a delight it would be to read of implementation in the The New York Times, Saturday, July 4, 2009.