How to Grow and Forage Without Owning Land

This article was previously revealed July 6, 2019, and has been updated with new details.

Have you ever wished to improve your have food but did not know where to commence? Entry to refreshing, nutritious food stuff is a human right, and 1 of the most effective methods to exercising that appropriate is to mature your very own food items. You don’t have to be a farmer or have a qualifications in agriculture. You never even have to possess your possess land.

The industrialization of our chemical-dependent foods system has induced complications that are almost insurmountable, together with soil degradation, drinking water air pollution, reduction of biodiversity, a decline in community wellness and local climate transform. But food stuff creation does not have to be globalized, industrialized or even monetized.

That is the concept environmental activist and humanitarian Rob Greenfield desires to express in a new venture in which he aims to increase and forage 100% of his individual food for one 12 months. The obstacle is featured in a two-portion movie produced by Peter Kanaris of GreenDreamsFL titled, “Escalating & Foraging 100% of His Meals Without LAND OF HIS Own: 1-Year Challenge w/ Rob Greenfield.”

The film, established in Orlando, Florida, displays Greenfield 138 days into his yearlong job of growing and foraging all of his personal meals, and some of his very own medication, far too. The best element? Greenfield does not own any land. He’s developing meals in six privately owned yards and a handful of other places that complete considerably less than 4,000 sq. toes of room.

Greenfield did not go to college for horticulture, either. And, he doesn’t have any encounter in agriculture. He does possess a certification in permaculture, but states it never taught him how to actually plant nearly anything. For instance, he experienced to learn how much sunshine is desired to mature carrots, how substantially water kale involves and what time of calendar year is very best to plant particular vegetation.

Escalating and Foraging 100% of His Individual Food items

Regardless of his deficiency of expertise, he acquired how to successfully grow a wide variety of food and herbs like environmentally friendly onions, carrots, beets, celery, spinach, kale, cabbage, tomatoes, garlic, cilantro and dill. Remarkably, in significantly less than a person year (about 10 months), Greenfield was equipped to develop 100% of his own foodstuff.

But it gets superior. He is rising so substantially food items that his job doubles as a neighborhood backyard, the place locals can sample clean, domestically grown make, and depart emotion inspired to try and increase some of their individual.

“At least that’s my hope,” suggests Greenfield in the movie. “I took on the problem to not just feed myself, but to encourage other people to try and do the very same. That could necessarily mean planting your 1st tomato plant, starting up an herb back garden on your condominium balcony or turning your front or yard into a comprehensive-on yard. Increasing your have food stuff is one thing we all can do.”

In an exertion to preserve drinking water, Greenfield utilizes a drip irrigation procedure that provides drinking water instantly to the roots of crops. Drip irrigation is just one of the most productive watering units, as it can minimize drinking water utilization by 30% to 70%. Greenfield states he could grow the food stuff without the need of a drip irrigation process, but with all of the diverse gardens he’s rising, it would insert up to 10 several hours far more for each week of labor on major of the 40 to 60 hours he currently spends tending to his gardens.

In addition to his gardens, Greenfield also helped plant additional than 200 local community fruit trees in Orlando, together with cherry, peach, mulberry, avocado and loquat trees. The trees are marked with a indicator that says: “I am a local community fruit tree. Be sure to take pleasure in my fruit.” The group trees act as a reminder that foods can be accessible outdoors of the grocery keep.

‘Food Is a Gateway to Obtaining People today to Rethink Everything’

The film reveals Greenfield munching on contemporary mulberries from a person of the neighborhood fruit trees he served plant. “Food is a gateway to having folks to rethink every thing,” claims Greenfield, including:

“The concept is to check out and get meals grown freely all all over us. A ton of people today when they see food items that’s rising free, that is nutritious and delectable, for the initial time, and they realize that it would not have to come from the grocery retail outlet, that can be a rather innovative instant.

I am tremendous passionate about escalating food items. But the enthusiasm is equally as considerably about inspiring people not just to expand their individual meals, but to glimpse at the planet in a distinct way, to commence to see the globe as a thing to function with, instead than from, in all aspects of lifestyle: our foods, our h2o, our electricity, our squander and our transportation.

Just every way we deal with the Earth. I consider foodstuff is one of the best gateways for the reason that we consume foods 3 occasions a day, and some of us, more like 10 moments a working day. It really is our connection to our neighborhood. It is really our enjoyment. It is really our social everyday living. For a good deal of us, we take in to live and we stay to take in. So, if you can get people today genuinely contemplating about their meals, I think you can get folks thinking about their full life.”

You can find no question that Greenfield is an inspiration to us all. He is a drive to be reckoned with when it arrives to boosting consciousness about some of the most urgent social and environmental issues of our time, which includes food stuff squander, plastic pollution, climate transform, corporatism and homelessness, just to title a handful of.¹

‘Live Straightforward and You Will Reside Free’

With extra than half a million “likes” on Fb and just about 100,000 YouTube subscribers (some of his movies have views numbering in the millions), Greenfield has captured the interest of audiences around the world.

His motto “Stay simple and you will are living free” summarizes his perception that contentment is not derived from income and possessions, but rather arrives from the significant connections we make with other individuals, and owning a profound appreciation and respect for our planet’s normal resources and the life that exists inside of it.

Greenfield is not just passionate about expanding his possess meals and demonstrating others they can do the similar. He’s also committed to creating recognition about meals waste and food insecurity.

Individuals discard an believed 34 million tons of food stuff every calendar year — which is like tossing a quarter of your groceries into the trash. The food waste difficulty is not restricted to America’s residence kitchens, but also takes place in places to eat, grocery merchants and on farms.

By his campaign “The Meals Waste Fiasco,”² Greenfield established recognition close to food items waste by diving into hundreds of dumpsters to present how approximately 50 percent of all foods in the U.S. is wasted.³

In 1 of his video clips, “Dumpster Diving for Meals with Rob Greenfield,” he showed how he was equipped to fill an vacant pantry and fridge with more than $1,000 truly worth of perfectly good food stuff soon after just 5 several hours of dumpster diving.⁴ “That’s amassing $200 an hour worth of foods,” he claims.

Greenfield is also a major advocate of showing that people are fantastic. In an hard work to illustrate this, he bravely traveled to Rio, Brazil, with zero bucks to his identify. He was ready to vacation 7,000 miles to Panama, relying on practically nothing other than for the goodness of some others, who kindly supplied him food items, shelter and transportation.

He even applied other people’s mobile phones to seize the footage, some of which was made use of in a six-episode sequence called “Free Ride” that aired on the Discovery Channel. To understand extra about Greenfield and his adventures, verify out his website, RobGreenfield.Tv.⁵