Rotting Food Bank
Food Bank (#66) — by Joe Reifer
While exploring Mojave Desert night photography locations with Troy Paiva of Lost America, we stumbled upon an abandoned junkyard and got out to have a look. Smelled like an animal had died. We thought maybe it was the nearby sewage treatment plant.
We shot some images of abandoned cars and trailers, and in a few minutes figured out where the smell was coming from — palettes of food that had been left to rot out in the desert. The stench was unbelievable. There was canned food, drink boxes, packaged food, spinach, yogurt, whipped cream…even some tooth whitener. A truly disgusting spectacle.
UPDATE: This story just made the front page of MSNBC. Troy was contacted by a reporter earlier today. Turns out the Second Harvest Food Bank gave this expired food to a pig farmer who was evicted from the ranch in January. This stuff will apparently all be properly disposed of now. Don’t miss the interview with Troy and slideshow at the top of the article.
UPDATE: The food bank cleaned up the mess. More details in the LA Times article.
Andy Frazer:
Was it a vegetarian food dump? Did they have any Krispy Cremes for Troy?
Andy
23 March 2007, 10:45 amjoe:
No donuts. There was plenty of Reddi Whip, along with strange items like tooth whitener and emergency drinking water.
23 March 2007, 2:54 pmJon Haeber:
I can’t believe the waste. Just think what good all that food could’ve done if sent off to Darfur.
27 March 2007, 5:38 pmJoe Reifer - Words » Blog Archive » First Quarterly Report:
[...] Photographer Troy Paiva and I discovered an acre of rotting food out in the Mojave. Just another crazy scene out in the desert. Then MSNBC notice the photos on Flickr, and did an investigation that lead to a cleanup effort. [...]
4 April 2007, 4:28 pmRaisondeBlog:
The Food Bank was not responsible for the mess, but they cleaned up anyway. That says alot for the Food Bank.
9 April 2007, 5:16 pmJoe Reifer - Words » Blog Archive » Words: Best of 2007 part I:
[...] Rotting Food Bank – a bizarre and disgusting discovery in the desert [...]
22 December 2007, 12:38 pm