This text was beforehand revealed July 6, 2019, and has been up to date with new info.
Have you ever ever needed to develop your individual meals however did not know the place to start out? Entry to recent, wholesome meals is a human proper, and probably the greatest methods to train that proper is to develop your individual meals. You do not have to be a farmer or have a background in agriculture. You do not even must personal your individual land.
The industrialization of our chemical-dependent meals system has brought about issues which are practically insurmountable, together with soil degradation, water air pollution, lack of biodiversity, a decline in public well being and local weather change. However meals manufacturing doesn’t must be globalized, industrialized and even monetized.
That is the message environmental activist and humanitarian Rob Greenfield needs to convey in a brand new challenge wherein he goals to develop and forage 100% of his personal meals for one 12 months. The problem is featured in a two-part movie produced by Peter Kanaris of GreenDreamsFL titled, “Rising & Foraging 100% of His Meals WITHOUT LAND OF HIS OWN: 1-Yr Problem w/ Rob Greenfield.”
The movie, set in Orlando, Florida, reveals Greenfield 138 days into his yearlong challenge of rising and foraging all of his personal meals, and a few of his personal medication, too. The perfect half? Greenfield would not personal any land. He is rising meals in six privately owned yards and a handful of different spots that whole lower than 4,000 sq. ft of area.
Greenfield didn’t go to high school for horticulture, both. And, he would not have any expertise in agriculture. He does possess a certificates in permaculture, however says it by no means taught him learn how to truly plant something. As an example, he needed to find out how a lot solar is required to develop carrots, how a lot water kale requires and what time of 12 months is finest to plant sure vegetation.
Rising and Foraging 100% of His Personal Meals
Regardless of his lack of expertise, he discovered learn how to efficiently develop a wide range of meals and herbs together with inexperienced onions, carrots, beets, celery, spinach, kale, cabbage, tomatoes, garlic, cilantro and dill. Remarkably, in lower than one 12 months (about 10 months), Greenfield was capable of develop 100% of his personal meals.
However it will get higher. He is rising a lot meals that his challenge doubles as a neighborhood backyard, the place locals can pattern recent, regionally grown produce, and depart feeling impressed to attempt to develop a few of their very own.
“A minimum of that is my hope,” says Greenfield within the movie. “I took on the problem to not simply feed myself, however to encourage others to attempt to do the identical. That would imply planting your first tomato plant, beginning an herb backyard in your residence balcony or turning your entrance or yard right into a full-on backyard. Rising your individual meals is one thing all of us can do.”
In an effort to preserve water, Greenfield makes use of a drip irrigation system that delivers water on to the roots of vegetation. Drip irrigation is without doubt one of the best watering techniques, as it will probably scale back water utilization by 30% to 70%. Greenfield says he might develop the meals with out a drip irrigation system, however with all the totally different gardens he’s rising, it could add as much as 10 hours extra per week of labor on prime of the 40 to 60 hours he already spends tending to his gardens.
Along with his gardens, Greenfield additionally helped plant greater than 200 neighborhood fruit bushes in Orlando, together with cherry, peach, mulberry, avocado and loquat bushes. The bushes are marked with an indication that claims: “I’m a neighborhood fruit tree. Please get pleasure from my fruit.” The neighborhood bushes act as a reminder that meals will be accessible outdoors of the grocery retailer.
‘Meals Is a Gateway to Getting Individuals to Rethink All the pieces’
The movie reveals Greenfield munching on recent mulberries from one of many neighborhood fruit bushes he helped plant. “Meals is a gateway to getting folks to rethink every thing,” says Greenfield, including:
“The thought is to attempt to get meals grown freely throughout us. Lots of people after they see meals that is rising free, that is nutritious and scrumptious, for the primary time, and so they understand that it would not have to come back from the grocery retailer, that may be a fairly revolutionary second.
I am tremendous obsessed with rising meals. However the ardour is equally as a lot about inspiring folks not simply to develop their very own meals, however to have a look at the world differently, to begin to see the world as one thing to work with, somewhat than towards, in all sides of life: our meals, our water, our vitality, our waste and our transportation.
Simply each method we cope with the Earth. I feel meals is without doubt one of the biggest gateways as a result of we eat meals 3 times a day, and a few of us, extra like 10 occasions a day. It is our connection to our neighborhood. It is our enjoyable. It is our social life. For lots of us, we eat to dwell and we dwell to eat. So, if you may get folks actually fascinated about their meals, I feel you may get folks fascinated about their total lives.”
There is not any doubt that Greenfield is an inspiration to us all. He is a drive to be reckoned with with regards to elevating consciousness about a number of the most urgent social and environmental problems with our time, together with meals waste, plastic air pollution, local weather change, corporatism and homelessness, simply to call just a few.1
‘Stay Easy and You Will Stay Free’
With greater than half one million “likes” on Fb and practically 100,000 YouTube subscribers (a few of his movies have views numbering within the hundreds of thousands), Greenfield has captured the eye of audiences worldwide.
His motto “Stay easy and you’ll dwell free” summarizes his perception that happiness is just not derived from cash and possessions, however somewhat comes from the significant connections we make with others, and having a profound appreciation and respect for our planet’s pure sources and the life that exists inside it.
Greenfield isn’t simply obsessed with rising his personal meals and exhibiting others they’ll do the identical. He’s additionally devoted to creating consciousness about meals waste and meals insecurity.
People discard an estimated 34 million tons of meals yearly — that is like tossing 1 / 4 of your groceries into the trash. The meals waste drawback is just not restricted to America’s dwelling kitchens, but additionally happens in eating places, grocery shops and on farms.
By means of his marketing campaign “The Meals Waste Fiasco,”2 Greenfield created consciousness round meals waste by diving into 1000’s of dumpsters to point out how practically half of all meals within the U.S. is wasted.3
In one in all his movies, “Dumpster Diving for Meals with Rob Greenfield,” he confirmed how he was capable of fill an empty pantry and fridge with greater than $1,000 price of completely good meals after simply 5 hours of dumpster diving.4 “That is accumulating $200 an hour price of meals,” he says.
Greenfield can be an enormous advocate of exhibiting that individuals are good. In an effort for example this, he bravely traveled to Rio, Brazil, with zero {dollars} to his title. He was capable of journey 7,000 miles to Panama, counting on nothing aside from the goodness of others, who kindly provided him meals, shelter and transportation.
He even used different folks’s cell telephones to seize the footage, a few of which was utilized in a six-episode sequence referred to as “Free Trip” that aired on the Discovery Channel. To be taught extra about Greenfield and his adventures, take a look at his web site, RobGreenfield.TV.5
