Moneyless man reveals how to live a cashless life without starving

Separation between stomachs and the soil means most food comes in plastic packets, but eating for free can be fun

• My year of living without money
• I live without cash – and I manage just fine

When I began living without money 18 months ago, the most common question people asked me was "How on earth are you going to eat?". An understandable remark, but an insight into the burgeoning degrees of separation between the stomach and the soil.

For most of us, food comes in plastic packets from the supermarket. A friend, who runs tours of an organic farm for school children, gives much anecdotal evidence of this. One week, while pointing to a rosemary bush, he asked the kids if anyone knew what it was. After 20 seconds, one 12-year-old raised his hand and proclaimed it to be "corned beef". Worse still, none of the others laughed.

The answer to this FAQ is in the query itself – I eat from the earth. Food is free, and indiscriminately so. The apple tree doesn't ask if you've got enough cash when you go to pick its fruit; it just gives to whoever wants an apple. We are the only species, out of millions on the planet, that is deluded enough to think that it needs money to eat. And what's worse, I often observe people walking straight past free food on their way to buy it from all over the world via the supermarket.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/jun/02/mark-boyle-moneyless-man-food-for-free

...but the owner of the Apple Tree might.

Eat what is readily accessible to them and we are animals. Cows graze, giraffes eat stuff out of tree tops, etc. We were designed to eat fruits, berries, and other things within our grasp. We weren't designed to chase down cows or pigs and rip their flesh away. Judging by the morbid obesity in this country, most people couldn't chase down a turtle, much less a cow.

Even as fat as I am, I can find food-you just have to know how.

We were NOT designed to eat large amounts of meat, this is true, but some animal products in the diet are completely appropriate for our biology.

Veganism as a political movement has no basis in human biology. Try again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRSLQu-d6ZQ

Love Futurama.

Mmmm, escargot and a bowl of clam chowder, yum!

:crazy:

Most of us are isolated from the needs of the hungry. Sadly, children are a big portion of the hunger problem. Unemployment and the economy have added millions to the hungry population and fewer places are providing any food to those who need it.

Don't wait for the government to solve this problem......aint gonna happen. We, as humans and Americans need to step up to the plate and start feeding those who need it. We implemented a program at our school where we send backpacks full of food home with kids on the weekends for those who need it. For these kids, we found that they were getting their nutritional needs met at school and little at home. The program has been a great success for us. So, we set aside a room at our school to use as a closet for clothes and linens that are donated, and those in need can come in, after hours if they like, and pick out some clothing or linens at no charge! A lot of kids drop out of school because they don't have nice clothes to wear. They feel embarassed to show up in the tattered or outdated things they do have. That should not happen.

It takes effort. Someone has to solicit those clothes, collect them, and display them. Someone needs to be able to go pick them up if needed. It doesn't take a lot of time, but it does take SOME time, and someone has got to be willing to give that time for the less fortunate.

That's where I came in. I was fortunate enough to be able to retire at age 45. For the first time in my life, I had time to donate and I had no idea what to do. I live in an upscale gated lake community in the same rural area I was born and raised in. I have lived here my entire 55 years. A local teacher clued me in to the great needs of our kids and it was her idea to start the programs we now have. People in my community are affluent, but up to 60% of the families in our county are in need of some sort of assistance. After cleaning out all of my closets and seeing how much stuff I had that I was not using and would probably never use again, I knew that stuff would be able to help other families get by. The programs we have were designed for kids but we collect and distribute adult clothes, as well.

Please......I beseech thee!......clean out your closets and take your food, unwanteds and unneededs to a local shelter or clothes closet. Or, if you are so inclined, help start a program that benefits those in need in you area. There are people you know who are hungry and in need, though you may not be aware of it. It's not something people like to broadcast. By making things available at no cost, you can do your part in helping feed and clothe our friends and neighbors without subjecting them to the embarassment of asking for help. Don't think about it.....do it!.......NOW!

Our government is not going to solve this problem. We the people have a responsibility to take on this task and help out our friends and neighbors. DONATE!

:patriot::hug:

We've been doing it for most of out time on this planet. This guy, however, is living in large part on the discards of a money-based society. Lives in a travel trailer. Gathers stuff at the local dump. Works at an organic farm. And so on.

There is, quite obviously, room for a few to live on the fringes of our society. It's actually very easy, since we are quite wasteful, in general.

It is another matter, however, if everyone had to live that way, or even a sizable percentage of humans. It sounds romantic, but would soon turn otherwise. For a few people to scrounge off the leavings of society is simple. Most of us could do it if we had do. For society to live that way, however, is impossible.

That is the difference between this man's little adventure, which he'll be turning into a book or something, no doubt. It's different for the homeless who cannot participate in the society due to mental illness or some other calamity in their lives. It's different for the people living in the slums of Rio de Janeiro or any of a number of cities on the planet.

It's easy to live off the grid when you're surrounded by it. Solar laptop? Wow! Empty olive oil tins to make a stove? What luxury. A nice, weatherproof trailer to live in? Cool.

I am unimpressed. Truly.

He lives on virtually nothing and pays no income tax.
Barters for many things.
Does a work exchange for the place he lives in.
Drives a donated 1970's Toyota (when he drives at all).

You'd be amazed at how many times he's been hauled into hearings and reviews to defend and document his status.

What's REALLY funny, is that in April, he earns most of his yearly income doing tax prep (strictly cash, off the books, under the table, etc..)

The guy is freeloading on civilization, much the way people who don't get immunized are freeloading on the fact that the rest of the herd does.

The only reason why there might be unpicked apples on an apple tree nearby this person is because he is not competing with the rest of the people around him for those apples.

If everyone around him stopped paying for their food and resorted to only what they could find lying around nearby he would suddenly find food a bit harder to come by.