In the global food system, food is considered a disposable commodity and waste is produced at extraordinarily high levels. In a number of affluent nations, including Canada, "dumpster diving" for food has emerged as an approach to food provisioning. This article is based on a research project conducted for an honors thesis that examines dumpster diving for food in Vancouver, British Columbia. While an earlier report (Miewald 2009) identified dumpster diving in Vancouver as a survival strategy for people living in poverty who experience food insecurity, research for this article reveals that motivations also extend beyond economic desperation. The data contest some common assumptions and provide explanations of people's motivations and their means of "dumpstering" in the Vancouver locale. As such, the article reveals divers' broader political, social, and economic motivations in a specific locale, enabling an exploration of some systemic contradictions of food production, distribution, provisioning, and consumption.This article explains Dumpster TM1 diving for food in Vancouver, British Columbia, and why people do it. Diving has emerged as a food provisioning practice occurring in affluent urban centers, including Canada. 2 People who provision food from dumpsters-dumpster "divers"-have transformed their own behaviors-their foodways-to take advantage of an opportunity that our global food system creates: massive levels of food waste, some of which ends up in waste receptacles referred to in North America as dumpsters.We wish to thank the dumpster divers and everyone else who shared their views, experiences, stories, and food with us.
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