For a few weeks now, the Freegan Pony, a "resto-squatt" in Paris, has been offering dishes made from unsold products from Rungis Market.
To discover the first restaurant freegan vegetarian of France, you have to go to the third arrondissement of Paris, on the 3rd floor of a building occupied without any particular title. One meets there a colourful youth following the freegan philosophy. We come there to eat on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for 5 euros (plus a free participation), leek cakes, apple or pear crumbles, various vegetable gratins,... But you have to come early because from 9 pm, the apartment closes for security reasons. It's a crazy world: sometimes we eat on the floor, in a joyful cacophony of mobilizing bric à brac de récup', lit by candlelight.
Half-squat, half-resto, the Freegan Pony therefore offers meals prepared from the fruits and vegetables thrown away each day by the "world's largest market".
"The point is not to make money, but to show that you can make good food out of food that's usually spoiled.". When leaving the restaurant, everyone can also help themselves to free fruit and vegetables.
Alladin, the founder of the restaurant, goes to Rungis in the morning with the members of his collective Probono Publico - "public service" in Latin - to collect the surplus from several stands at the end of the market. "We've been fighting for weeks with different vendors to give us their leftovers."he says. And once we arrive in Paris, around 10-11am, we have to be quick because the cook has to imagine the recipes to use them right away. "Nothing to fear on the cool side, says Aladdin. Unfit for sale does not mean unfit for consumption. Did you know that 60 % of the dishes served in restaurants are prepared in advance? The Freegan Pony dishes are made the same day! »
A global alternative movement
Freeganism (contraction of "free" and "vegan")(1)or gratuivorism, is an alternative way of life that consists in consuming mainly what is free and creating mutual aid networks that facilitate this choice in order to denounce the food waste and pollution generated by waste but also the problems of transport (ecological transport), work (reduction of working time) and housing (citizen requisition) in Western society. (Wikipedia).
Why not enjoy unlimited reading of UP'? Subscribe from €1.90 per week.
Born in 1999 in the United States, the freegan movement is an ethical and alternative movement. After Boston, it began to spread to Europe, particularly to Copenhagen. "Freegans are those who eat or consume only what is free. It doesn't mean to be a vegetarian, but I don't think it would have attracted people to eat steak at the end of life, explains Aladdin, the night of the magazine's opening night. We demain.
According to figures put forward by the governmentOn average, each French person throws away 20 kg of food per year: 7 kg of food that is still packaged, 13 kg of leftover meals, damaged and uneaten fruit and vegetables. It is often because of an expiry date that has passed, which is often followed too scrupulously while the product is still good for a few days, that the waste becomes indecent.
According to a TNS Sofres survey, 54% of the French consider that the fight against waste is something important to be carried out on a daily basis and 57% talk about it with their entourage.
The Freegan Pony should therefore have good days ahead of it, if it is left in its current location, which is now threatened with closure...
Freegan Pony, 64 rue de Saintonge - 74003 - Paris
(1) consumption pattern based on non-animal exploitation
