This is what it looks like when the s...t hits the fan, not so bad actually

A beautiful Thursday Dec 3rd, 2009
in Lemland

The walk across the field to the mail box, hoar frost all over,
results.....

in finding...... my self!!!!!
YIKES!

Does that mean I'm closer to enlightenment now, over the hump....

.....or is it simply a good fortune that i was allowed to speak my mind about some issues dear to me, to a larger audience,
perhaps causing a few people to see things a little differently and even take action.
Perhaps another ball started rolling...into the mysterious future of this Universe?!

As Gandhi said:

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

Thank you for the opportunity to be myself once more
Have a great day!!
Your best day ever if you can, don't hesitate!
BBB

Letter to the editor of the Åland Newsapers Dec 2nd, 2009

The shameless installation of shiny new brass locks at one of the richest food/compost bins in Mariehamn really broke the straw, I had to do something about this.
So I decided to write a letter to the editor and got spelling help from my friend Åsa Darby, who's been helping me use up and even rescue the thrown out abundance.
Although fairly fluent with my swedish, my writing has always lagged a bit behind.....

such an honor really to appear in the same paper as the Dalai Lama, and with nothing less than real concerns regarding our food and the lack of respect for it!
The Dalai Lama: he was being taught details about Ålands autonomy by a member of the local government, well he wasn't here on Åland, but our messages were delivered into the same mailboxes that day. Hmmmmm, just noteworthy I thought ,-)

Well, here is the letter which went to the two major papers NYA ÅLAND and ÅLANDSTIDNINGEN, it's in swedish!
OBVIOUSLY MUCH MORE COULD HAVE BEEN SAID
but this just needed to get out somehow:

JAG UNDRAR VAD PIPPI LÅNGSTRUMP SKULLE SÄGA?

Om någon sade åt henne att bananerna är farliga...

Recept på räddade ekobananer i smoothie blandning och andra godbitar från lokala supermarknaders soptunnor.

Nyligen har Landskapsregeringen uppmuntrat Ålands befolkning i tidningsannonser : "Ät upp all mat", och att köpa helst ekologisk och lokalt producerad mat.

Det gällde veckan med mottot "Europa minskar avfallet" 21. - 29. Oktober

Det var på tiden att landskapsregeringen uppmuntrar folk till detta.
De sa i annonsen att ca 10% av all mat som köps, under julen ännu mer, slängs.
De påstår att "produktion och transport av livsmedel belastar vår miljö".

Jag håller med om det, med undantag av ekologiskt produktion, där är det nog bara transporten.

I många år har jag hållit på med återvinning och miljö vänlig levnadsstil.
Jag äger ingen bil och har kommit till Åland med cykeln hela vägen från Schweiz.
Där jag bor, producerar jag all min ström själv med solenergi, det räcker till elverktyg, elektriskt våffel järn som används dagligen, jag har en elektrisk kvarn för att mala säd till färskt mjöl, dator, radio, belysning, allt som behövs.

Jag kan absolut inte stå ut med slöseri....när jorden håller på att förstöras av oss människor eller när alla pratar om ekonomiskt kris......

Min tvåmånaders långa återvinningssuccé bakom affärerna resulterade i många goda måltider.Nu i söndags hämtade jag 30 kg Fairtrade bananer, 37 paket smör, flera kilo helt fina tomater, brocolli, isbergssallad, joghurt, ekofil mm både från Kantarellen och City Livs, sen på en liten routine undersökning hos Mathis-hallen, och fick upptäcka att de hade valt låsa sina komposttunnor med splitter nya messinglås, kanske för att dölja att de skäms kasta flera ton med fullgod mat varje år. Så nu slängs 100% av det de kastar ut. Riktigt organiserat slöseri! Helt sjukt men säkert lagligt.

Du kan gärna kolla i min blogg där har jag otroligt nog bildbevis över allt detta:

http://dumpsterdivingpippi.blogspot.com

Där har jag lagt in massor med bilder för att dokumentera slöseriet på Ålands mataffärer, mest handlar det om mat som slängs, som ofta har väldigt bra kvalitet, och är mycket ätbar. Om det slängs 10% i privata hushåll, hur mycket slängs då från affärerna förrän vi ens har hunnit köpa den. Landskapet bör uttala sig lite om det också!

Undrar du inte hur många ytterligare procent försvinner i transportlederna mellan åker, ladugård, lager, affär och hemmet, restauranger och alla andra ställen som serverar mat?

OK, är du nu fortfarande intresserad av receptet på räddade ekobananer i smoothie blandning?....så börjar du med att hämta slängda pappers kassar från återvinningen, ofta helt fina...sen fortsätter du till din lokala livsmedelsbutik's baksida....öppna de gröna eller bruna
komposttunnorna......av de massor av mat som du kommer att se, tänk på att du helst skall välja ekologiskt....ta hem så mycket du kan (även bananer kan skalas och frysas ner)....ta fram mixern, blanda dagens mandariner, melon, banan, ananas, äpplen, lite mango, även kokosmjölk och druvor, päron mm.......bon appetit.....ring och bjud grannen på ett glas, du kommer säkert att ha så det räcker!

Takk från en frisinnede cyclande människa och "världsmedborgare" med tysk pass
Robert Ammicht
c/o Bäckängsvägen 20
Lemland
och Jorden

The Shit hits the Fan.......Skiten träffar på fläkten!

My letter to the editors had an effect, I was invited to interviews with the local papers, stingy as they are regarding the use of my pictures, one offered me a "food coupon" for restaurants valued at 12 euro for the use of several of my great dumpsterphotos, and the joints don't even have organic food on the menu, but hey I wanted to get the info out and not bicker about peanuts, which by the way i don't like anyway!

So off I went on my bike the 18 kms into town on this dreary day

to do my bidding for a world with less waste and to raise awareness regarding sustainable food production, and why it is the only thing that makes sense, which unfortunately is quite the mental exercise for so many people, and so even repeated explanations why organic is better, didn't stick with the reporters, and so i will state one of the best reasons once more here as i wrote to one of the local reporters after reviewing a draft text:

"det var en ganska viktig sak jag kom på, som vi pratade ganska mycket om, som du inte skrev någonting om.
det var biten om priser av ekologiskt mat jämförd med vanlig giftmat eller genförändrad mat
jag försökte forklara en sammanhang. Att alla kostnader som uppstår sammhället med miljöforgiftning, drickvattenförurensning, folkhälsan, som hela samhället får betala för, mens i ekoproduktion betala kunden vid kassan medvetet mera för att han/hon tycker det är en bra investition i deras barn framtid, eller bara för egen eller djurens/naturens skuld. Samma kund får sen betala ännu mera i framtida höyda skatter som krävs för att återställer miljön..."

Well i just explained how the poison food most people seem to love, is cheaper than organics in the store, because the damage done by these destructive agricultural practices are only later paid for by the whole human society, their and our children's future and health, not to speak of aall the other earthlings, we share the planet with.
If all the costs caused were actually accounted for, that cheap poison and genetically modified garbage, would be probably triple the cost of organic food, if that's even enough!

Ironically even the customer, who out of their idealism buys organic at these unfairly higher prices, will help later with his/her taxes to defray the costs of the coming environmental degradation and the human societies health crisis, with more and more extremely costly chronic diseases coming down on us.....

Reporter Tone Nordling and Jacob Saurén (Ålandstidningen) after the interview receiving a practical demo of the merits of dumpsterdiving at City Livs.
Made my and her day to find these tulips among many other rather edible things, like cauliflower heads, i guess the theme of the day was flowers!

Here is a real good documentary for anyone who wants to get a visual of what I am talking about. I my mind the best film on organic farming I have seen to date, very heartwarming story of a real life farmer and his way to becoming an eco farmer.
Awesome Awesome film, must see

"the real dirt on farmer john"

You can buy it there, or better yet surely find a torrent site, download it and surprise John with some real money in an old fashioned paper envelope for a virtual disc only to be found on your harddrive if you wish....
That cuts back on the plastic avalanche of billions of plastic discs, shipping them around the globe, and keeps the energy flowing.
The future is open source, and so bright we all oughta wear shades!

http://www.angelicorganics.com/ao/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=148&Itemid=182

Here's the trailer:

Breaking News!! The Plot Thickens - Mathis-Hallen has locked all their dumpsters now!

Breaking News!!!!! Mariehamn, Åland November 29th, 2009

MATHIS-HALLEN HAS LOCKED THEIR DUMPSTERS IN RESPONSE TO SUCCESSFUL FOOD SAVING TECHNIQUES USED BY PIPPI'S DUMPSTERDIVING CLUB!!!!! and other resourceful common sense citizens who took to the streets after AND EVEN BEFORE ÅLAND's LANDSKAPSREGERING encouraged them to waste less food.

Here once again your license to save food wherever you find it wasted

SHAMELESSLY SHINY NEW BRASS LOCKS IS THEIR LAST RESORT TO HIDING THEIR SHAME FOR WASTING MANY TONS OF PRECIOUS FOOD EVERY YEAR!!!!!!!!!

TODAY ON SUNDAY November 29th, Pipp-i made a routine stop at Mathis-Hallen, to save some precious fruit from being wasted, after all the thousands of km coming to beautiful Åland from some sunny place in the world.

Often the only reason for ending up in the trash/compost bin is that for example bananas are starting to have a few brown spots, and so the greener or yellower ones are preferred. The shop keepers, disturbingly, play along in the game and throw out the ones people leave by the side, and simply order more. Instead they could just refuse and let people pick from a shrinking pile, but no!, people are so spoiled by the abundance, and take the nicest looking stuff for their money. The shop keepers could end this, by ordering new stuff less often, but then they probably feel they would loose against other shops who simply do not feel troubled by throwing out perfectly good stuff.
It's a feedback loop that needs to be enlightened, and dissolved.

It is a real shame so much food is wasted. How many tons a month just on little Åland, with a population of only 27000?

Folks! The problem of wasted food isn't going away by making it a more hidden/invisible thing.

It is a well documented fact, and my blog and my experience in several countries proves the point that big shops waste more, whereas in smaller shops employees can take things home, less is ordered in......
Locking dumpsters just adds insult to injury.
WE were ALL encouraged by the local government of Åland to waste less. While some, perhaps feeling exempt from this sensible request, seem to acknowledge this request by locking their dumpsters and hiding their waste!
What is the next step?
Write to your local government and ask them to do something about it.
miljobyran@regeringen.ax
Talk to the shop management and protest their waste...

Dumpsterdive wherever you can!

International Dumpsterdiving Directory

Welcome and add your local goldmine:

http://trashwiki.org/en/Main_Page

http://trashwiki.org/en/Finland#External_links

http://trashwiki.org/en/%C3%85land_Islands

http://trashwiki.org/en/%C3%85land/Finland