Freeganism is often described as a recent phenomenon, but its premises date back at least to Gerrard Winstanley, a 17th-century English cloth seller. In the 1640s, Winstanley’s business failed, and he resettled in the Surrey countryside, where he herded cattle. These were tough times in England, marked by violence, famine and low wages. Winstanley decided that the solution was to form a community without money. The poor would till the soil and fill communal warehouses with their crops, which would be distributed to all. Winstanley, who abhorred waste, eventually took over some uncultivated public lands along with his followers and founded what was known as a Digger colony.

The colony didn’t last long, but Winstanley wrote extensively about his utopia. Centuries later, in the 1960s, a group of radicals in San Francisco were inspired by his writings and dedicated themselves to creating a society without money. They called themselves the Diggers, and they opened free stores, distributed free food, set up free housing in squats, offered free medical care and even organized free concerts featuring the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.