WEBVTT 00:00:01.726 --> 00:00:04.671 It's the dream of millions of people. 00:00:04.671 --> 00:00:06.872 Complete self sufficiency. 00:00:06.872 --> 00:00:09.377 To grow all of their own food and never 00:00:09.377 --> 00:00:12.150 have to take a trip to the grocery store. 00:00:12.150 --> 00:00:15.406 But for most people, it's just that, a dream. 00:00:15.406 --> 00:00:18.390 The ease of our current global, industrial 00:00:18.390 --> 00:00:21.642 food system is just that, too easy. 00:00:21.642 --> 00:00:26.046 Too convenient. Too time saving and too alluring. 00:00:26.046 --> 00:00:29.309 I've been exploring food for nearly a decade, 00:00:29.309 --> 00:00:32.893 and since the beginning, I've had the burning question- 00:00:32.893 --> 00:00:36.736 Could I step outside of the Big Ag system? 00:00:36.736 --> 00:00:39.918 Could I go without grocery stores and restaurants? 00:00:39.918 --> 00:00:41.564 Nothing packaged or processed, 00:00:41.564 --> 00:00:43.911 nothing shipped from a far off place. 00:00:43.911 --> 00:00:48.642 Could I grow and forage 100% of my food, 00:00:48.642 --> 00:00:51.490 everything that I ate, for an entire year? 00:00:51.490 --> 00:00:54.437 That's exactly the journey and the quest 00:00:54.437 --> 00:00:56.478 that I decided to set out on 00:00:56.478 --> 00:00:59.556 and now I am here to share the story with you. 00:00:59.556 --> 00:01:02.009 (music) 00:01:02.009 --> 00:01:05.142 (music abruptly stops) But one big thing- 00:01:05.142 --> 00:01:09.207 I had very little experience with growing my own food. 00:01:09.207 --> 00:01:12.006 When I lived in San Diego I did have a 00:01:12.006 --> 00:01:14.695 few raised beds where I grew some greens, 00:01:14.695 --> 00:01:18.524 tomatoes and herbs but as a traveller for 00:01:18.524 --> 00:01:21.164 the last seven or so years, I had never 00:01:21.164 --> 00:01:23.698 really settled in one place long enough to 00:01:23.698 --> 00:01:25.113 grow my own food. 00:01:25.113 --> 00:01:27.541 So, in order to do this I would have to 00:01:27.541 --> 00:01:29.608 settle in one place. 00:01:29.608 --> 00:01:32.750 And that place that I chose is Orlando, Florida, 00:01:32.750 --> 00:01:34.396 where I am sitting right now. 00:01:34.838 --> 00:01:38.118 Besides being really fresh to growing my own food, 00:01:38.118 --> 00:01:42.176 I was also fresh to the scene here in Orlando, in Florida. 00:01:42.176 --> 00:01:44.570 And I was giving myself just two years 00:01:44.570 --> 00:01:46.764 here before hitting the road again. 00:01:46.764 --> 00:01:50.805 So I had to get planting as soon as I landed here. 00:01:50.805 --> 00:01:54.083 But I didn't have a garden, I didn't own 00:01:54.083 --> 00:01:57.473 any land, and I had almost no experience 00:01:57.473 --> 00:02:00.175 with foraging in the state of Florida. 00:02:00.175 --> 00:02:03.664 I chose Florida so that I could grow food year round. 00:02:03.664 --> 00:02:06.063 And I chose Orlando because I had passed 00:02:06.063 --> 00:02:08.402 through here a few times and met a great 00:02:08.402 --> 00:02:12.719 community of permaculturists and people who grow their own food. 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:17.011 Specifically, I chose the community of Audubon Park 00:02:17.011 --> 00:02:19.138 because that's where Orlando permaculture 00:02:19.138 --> 00:02:21.613 and my friends at Fleet Farming were based 00:02:21.613 --> 00:02:24.247 and there was already a movement here of 00:02:24.247 --> 00:02:26.441 turning front yards into gardens. 00:02:26.441 --> 00:02:30.038 So I would have the support I needed in order to do it here. 00:02:30.038 --> 00:02:32.464 I quickly got to work meeting people in my 00:02:32.464 --> 00:02:34.663 neighborhood and proposing the idea to 00:02:34.663 --> 00:02:37.615 them of turning their front lawns into gardens. 00:02:37.615 --> 00:02:40.372 It really wasn't hard to find takers 00:02:40.372 --> 00:02:42.207 because it was a pretty sweet deal. 00:02:42.207 --> 00:02:44.428 Their boring lawn would be turned into a 00:02:44.428 --> 00:02:46.697 garden, I'd do almost all of the work, 00:02:46.697 --> 00:02:49.680 cover the costs and they could eat all the 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:52.432 food they liked right from their front yard. 00:02:52.432 --> 00:02:55.337 In fact, I quickly had a list of lawns 00:02:55.337 --> 00:02:58.612 longer than I could handle. 00:02:58.612 --> 00:03:01.245 The transformation was amazingly quick 00:03:01.245 --> 00:03:03.271 and within just a few months, I was 00:03:03.271 --> 00:03:05.576 growing more food than I could eat, myself, 00:03:05.576 --> 00:03:08.177 and sharing it with friends in the neighborhood. 00:03:08.177 --> 00:03:10.409 I ended up creating six small plots 00:03:10.409 --> 00:03:14.446 all within easy cycling distance of each other. 00:03:14.446 --> 00:03:18.463 I was just figuring out what I was doing the whole time. 00:03:18.463 --> 00:03:21.328 I went to local meet ups like Orlando Permaculture, 00:03:21.328 --> 00:03:24.206 volunteered in the garden with Fleet Farming, 00:03:24.206 --> 00:03:26.968 visited farms, and gardens and nurseries, 00:03:26.968 --> 00:03:29.629 took foraging classes with local foragers, 00:03:29.629 --> 00:03:32.081 like Green Deane, read books by local 00:03:32.081 --> 00:03:35.800 growers, and watched videos online, and more. 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:38.039 For a place to live, I built a simple, 00:03:38.039 --> 00:03:41.178 tiny house homestead in the backyard of a 00:03:41.178 --> 00:03:42.995 community member that I met. 00:03:42.995 --> 00:03:44.967 And in exchange for using their space, 00:03:44.967 --> 00:03:51.295 I turned their monoculture of grass into an at home supermarket. 00:03:51.295 --> 00:03:53.287 Starting from scratch, it took me ten 00:03:53.287 --> 00:03:57.510 months to be comfortable and ready to begin my year. 00:03:57.510 --> 00:04:01.308 November 11th, 2018 would be my first day. 00:04:01.308 --> 00:04:04.668 It was now time to eat 100% from my 00:04:04.668 --> 00:04:07.163 gardens and food that I would forage. 00:04:07.163 --> 00:04:10.930 Now, when I say 100% I truly mean it. 00:04:10.930 --> 00:04:12.917 No grocery stores or restaurants. 00:04:12.917 --> 00:04:14.833 No drinks at a bar. 00:04:14.833 --> 00:04:17.364 Nothing packaged or processed. 00:04:17.364 --> 00:04:19.575 Nothing shipped long distances. 00:04:19.575 --> 00:04:21.301 No farmer's markets. 00:04:21.301 --> 00:04:23.970 Not even going over to my friend's pantry 00:04:23.970 --> 00:04:28.474 or even going to their gardens or their food forests. 00:04:28.474 --> 00:04:31.237 Why not share food from my friends' gardens? 00:04:31.237 --> 00:04:34.778 Because I wanted to truly immerse in my food. 00:04:34.778 --> 00:04:37.478 I wanted to have to have to literally 00:04:37.478 --> 00:04:40.477 figure out how to grow every single food 00:04:40.477 --> 00:04:44.840 or ingredient that I needed or how to source it from nature. 00:04:44.840 --> 00:04:48.083 Many people know me for my dumpster diving 00:04:48.083 --> 00:04:50.159 to raise awareness about food waste. 00:04:50.159 --> 00:04:52.169 And a lot of people who follow me online 00:04:52.169 --> 00:04:55.515 assumed that I would still be eating from dumpsters. 00:04:55.515 --> 00:04:59.974 But, nope! No food from dumpster diving at all! 00:04:59.974 --> 00:05:01.972 I had already proved to myself that 00:05:01.972 --> 00:05:05.866 I could live off of the waste of our globalized food system. 00:05:05.866 --> 00:05:08.577 Now it was time to see if I could step 00:05:08.577 --> 00:05:10.673 away from that completely. 00:05:10.673 --> 00:05:13.815 That included everything that I put in my body. 00:05:13.815 --> 00:05:17.174 Even supplements, vitamins and medicines. 00:05:17.174 --> 00:05:19.678 Now, you'd think on day one, that maybe 00:05:19.678 --> 00:05:24.212 I'd have eaten a lot of 100% homegrown and foraged meals, 00:05:24.212 --> 00:05:28.641 but to be honest, my first meal on day one, 00:05:28.641 --> 00:05:35.238 was my first 100% homegrown and foraged meal of my entire life. 00:05:35.238 --> 00:05:39.028 It was day one and I was in the deep end. 00:05:39.028 --> 00:05:43.338 But I had laid the foundation that I needed. 00:05:43.338 --> 00:05:45.371 My gardens, scattered across the 00:05:45.371 --> 00:05:47.249 neighborhood, were full of food 00:05:47.249 --> 00:05:49.807 and I had scouted out food, both in the 00:05:49.807 --> 00:05:53.237 city and the countryside, to forage. 00:05:53.237 --> 00:05:56.236 My supermarket was on nearly every street 00:05:56.236 --> 00:06:00.484 I could walk down and the shelves were stocked. 00:06:01.684 --> 00:06:05.513 Over the last 365 days I grew and 00:06:05.513 --> 00:06:08.925 harvested over 100 different foods from my gardens 00:06:08.925 --> 00:06:13.564 and foraged over 200 different foods from nature. 00:06:13.564 --> 00:06:16.864 That's a new species for almost every 00:06:16.864 --> 00:06:19.408 single day of the year. 00:06:19.408 --> 00:06:23.178 I grew a dozen different greens packed with nutrients. 00:06:23.178 --> 00:06:24.104 Moringa, 00:06:24.104 --> 00:06:24.876 katuk, 00:06:24.876 --> 00:06:25.973 chaya, purslane, 00:06:25.973 --> 00:06:27.797 collards, kale, 00:06:27.797 --> 00:06:30.709 and perennial spinaches, just to name a few. 00:06:30.709 --> 00:06:33.217 I grew sweet potatoes, cassava and yams 00:06:33.217 --> 00:06:35.438 for my main caloric needs. 00:06:35.438 --> 00:06:37.776 Pigeon peas and southern peas for protein. 00:06:37.776 --> 00:06:40.908 Delicious fruits like papayas and bananas. 00:06:40.908 --> 00:06:43.804 Seminole pumpkins, carrots, eggplants, 00:06:43.804 --> 00:06:45.842 just to name a few vegetables. 00:06:45.842 --> 00:06:49.174 And garlic, onion, peppers and many herbs 00:06:49.174 --> 00:06:53.374 to add flavour and nutrition to all of my meals. 00:06:53.374 --> 00:06:57.113 And I raised bees for honey to satisfy my sweet tooth. 00:06:57.113 --> 00:07:01.564 Which, believe me, I do have quite the sweet tooth. 00:07:01.564 --> 00:07:03.873 All of the bees that I stewarded were 00:07:03.873 --> 00:07:06.397 rescued with my friend, Dennis the bee guy, 00:07:06.397 --> 00:07:09.880 from locations where people didn't want them living 00:07:09.880 --> 00:07:12.439 such as in the side of their homes. 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:16.841 I harvested giant wild yams from the woods. 00:07:16.841 --> 00:07:18.787 Picked coconuts to make coconut milk, 00:07:18.787 --> 00:07:21.318 butter and coconut curries. 00:07:21.318 --> 00:07:23.508 Foraged from fruit trees in the wild, 00:07:23.508 --> 00:07:26.463 growing in public parks and in the city, 00:07:26.463 --> 00:07:30.341 with the bounty of fruit falling onto the sidewalks. 00:07:30.341 --> 00:07:33.140 And, of course, wild bananas, too. 00:07:33.140 --> 00:07:36.171 I caught fish from the oceans, lakes and rivers. 00:07:36.171 --> 00:07:39.115 And even harvested deer that had been hit 00:07:39.115 --> 00:07:42.705 by cars during my visit to Wisconsin. 00:07:42.705 --> 00:07:46.337 I harvested over 20 species of mushrooms in the woods. 00:07:46.337 --> 00:07:49.975 Picked nutritious plants that people call weeds, 00:07:49.975 --> 00:07:53.141 that they walk by, unknowingly, or even 00:07:53.141 --> 00:07:57.043 constantly battle with in their yards and gardens. 00:07:57.043 --> 00:08:01.107 My caffeine came from the native Yaupon holly tree 00:08:01.107 --> 00:08:02.677 that I made a tea from. 00:08:02.677 --> 00:08:05.565 And I even harvested my own sea salt from 00:08:05.565 --> 00:08:08.217 the ocean by collecting the water, boiling 00:08:08.217 --> 00:08:11.005 it down in a pot, until I was left with 00:08:11.005 --> 00:08:14.003 just the sea salt for my meals. 00:08:14.003 --> 00:08:16.895 I grew and foraged all of my own medicine 00:08:16.895 --> 00:08:18.837 and vitamins, too. 00:08:18.837 --> 00:08:22.076 I grew fresh turmeric and ginger in my gardens. 00:08:22.076 --> 00:08:24.714 Foraged elderberries from the wild. 00:08:24.714 --> 00:08:27.811 I harvested reishi mushrooms and herbal teas. 00:08:27.811 --> 00:08:30.896 And grew moringa, also known as the 00:08:30.896 --> 00:08:33.765 vitamin tree, to make an easy to travel 00:08:33.765 --> 00:08:36.508 with multi vitamin powder. 00:08:36.508 --> 00:08:40.467 But most importantly, my food was my medicine. 00:08:40.467 --> 00:08:42.575 It's a different way of thinking for most 00:08:42.575 --> 00:08:46.265 people, but even the weeds that grow just 00:08:46.265 --> 00:08:48.645 outside of our doorstep, are some of the 00:08:48.645 --> 00:08:53.579 most nutritionally and medicinally dense plants on earth. 00:08:53.579 --> 00:08:55.907 For the last year, nature has been my 00:08:55.907 --> 00:09:00.206 garden, my pantry and my pharmacy. 00:09:00.206 --> 00:09:04.144 With the seasons my foods varied greatly. 00:09:04.144 --> 00:09:07.665 I cooked up dozens of different healthy meals. 00:09:07.665 --> 00:09:11.221 Fermented foods, like sauerkraut, with my 00:09:11.221 --> 00:09:14.306 homegrown cabbage and herbs, and fermented 00:09:14.306 --> 00:09:18.972 delicious beverages like honey wine and ginger beer. 00:09:18.972 --> 00:09:21.054 And whipped up delicious desserts, 00:09:21.054 --> 00:09:24.673 and ate the healthiest food of my entire life. 00:09:24.673 --> 00:09:28.603 This was food that I could feel truly good about eating. 00:09:28.603 --> 00:09:32.978 It was all local, all natural and all organic. 00:09:32.978 --> 00:09:36.072 I made it through the entire year without 00:09:36.072 --> 00:09:38.806 using a single pesticide. 00:09:38.806 --> 00:09:41.766 Now sure, I had my problems with pests, 00:09:41.766 --> 00:09:44.823 like when the cucumber worms decided to 00:09:44.823 --> 00:09:47.664 attack my seminole pumpkins. 00:09:47.664 --> 00:09:49.921 But when I was growing over 100 different 00:09:49.921 --> 00:09:53.689 foods, if the pests were attacking 4 or 5 00:09:53.689 --> 00:09:58.407 of them, I still had 95 other foods that I could eat. 00:09:58.407 --> 00:10:01.006 Just as importantly, though, I chose to 00:10:01.006 --> 00:10:04.471 grow the plants that thrived in this environment. 00:10:04.471 --> 00:10:06.873 When I started, I didn't walk down the 00:10:06.873 --> 00:10:09.967 aisles of the grocery store and ask which 00:10:09.967 --> 00:10:12.070 foods that I liked the most. 00:10:12.070 --> 00:10:15.103 Instead, I talked to local farmers and 00:10:15.103 --> 00:10:17.517 gardeners and my permaculturist friends 00:10:17.517 --> 00:10:19.806 and asked them what foods grow so 00:10:19.806 --> 00:10:23.772 ridiculously well and so ridiculously 00:10:23.772 --> 00:10:27.008 abundantly that I could hardly screw it up. 00:10:27.008 --> 00:10:29.697 And those are the plants that I chose to 00:10:29.697 --> 00:10:32.265 focus on, and that's one of the main 00:10:32.265 --> 00:10:35.156 things that got me through this year. 00:10:36.806 --> 00:10:40.074 This was, without a doubt, one of the most 00:10:40.074 --> 00:10:42.702 challenging things that I've ever done. 00:10:42.702 --> 00:10:49.765 A year is a really long time and I had my 00:10:49.765 --> 00:10:51.440 highs and my lows. 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:54.678 There were times when I felt my absolute best, 00:10:54.678 --> 00:10:57.178 and there were times when I just didn't 00:10:57.178 --> 00:10:59.377 know if I could go on. 00:10:59.377 --> 00:11:02.810 Generally, I did get enough food. 00:11:02.810 --> 00:11:05.514 My weight stayed the same about the entire 00:11:05.514 --> 00:11:08.163 time, so I did have enough calories. 00:11:08.163 --> 00:11:10.776 But there were times when I felt like 00:11:10.776 --> 00:11:14.852 I was really deficient, mostly in fat and protein. 00:11:14.852 --> 00:11:16.985 Those were the times when I found it 00:11:16.985 --> 00:11:19.837 really hard to want to keep going. 00:11:19.837 --> 00:11:21.872 And there was the social aspect. 00:11:21.872 --> 00:11:24.840 I was on my own a lot of the times, not 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:27.043 able to join other people for their meals 00:11:27.043 --> 00:11:30.038 and sort of isolated. Not being able to go 00:11:30.038 --> 00:11:32.873 to restaurants or eat with friends and family. 00:11:32.873 --> 00:11:37.020 Overall, with all the ups and downs, the 00:11:37.020 --> 00:11:40.588 year went about as well as I could have possibly hoped. 00:11:40.588 --> 00:11:42.719 I maintained my body weight throughout 00:11:42.719 --> 00:11:46.177 the year and I never got sick once! 00:11:46.177 --> 00:11:48.939 And I really attribute that to my food 00:11:48.939 --> 00:11:52.443 being my medicine. I think that nature is 00:11:52.443 --> 00:11:55.009 able to provide for our basic needs and 00:11:55.009 --> 00:11:58.673 I trusted earth. I trusted nature. 00:11:58.673 --> 00:12:00.883 Now, I want to say, though, that this 00:12:00.883 --> 00:12:04.202 project, it wasn't really about my health. 00:12:04.202 --> 00:12:06.075 It wasn't about a diet. 00:12:06.075 --> 00:12:08.308 And I don't believe that this is the diet 00:12:08.308 --> 00:12:11.110 for 7 billion people, I don't actually 00:12:11.110 --> 00:12:14.707 think there is one diet for the 7 billion people. 00:12:14.707 --> 00:12:17.374 I think we live on a diverse world where 00:12:17.374 --> 00:12:20.407 we have diverse cultures and people need 00:12:20.407 --> 00:12:22.806 to do things in a very different way. 00:12:22.806 --> 00:12:26.373 So I'm not trying to represent a diet for 00:12:26.373 --> 00:12:28.608 everyone or anything like that. 00:12:28.608 --> 00:12:31.337 This was just my own personal quest. 00:12:31.337 --> 00:12:34.683 To see if I could step away from Big Ag. 00:12:34.683 --> 00:12:39.104 Step away from what I see as a broken food system. 00:12:39.104 --> 00:12:43.703 And, instead, grow and forage 100% of my 00:12:43.703 --> 00:12:45.889 own food for an entire year. 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:49.503 This project wasn't just about growing and 00:12:49.503 --> 00:12:51.775 foraging all of my own food, though. 00:12:51.775 --> 00:12:53.837 It was about empowering others 00:12:53.837 --> 00:12:57.184 to grow their own food, to take back power 00:12:57.184 --> 00:12:59.818 from Big Ag and, ultimately, to take back 00:12:59.818 --> 00:13:02.875 their health and grow their communities. 00:13:02.875 --> 00:13:04.665 So during this time I started a few 00:13:04.665 --> 00:13:06.436 community initiatives. 00:13:06.436 --> 00:13:08.865 We built 15 gardens for the people, 00:13:08.865 --> 00:13:12.273 planted over 200 community fruit trees, 00:13:12.273 --> 00:13:16.173 and sent out over 5,000 free seed packs 00:13:16.173 --> 00:13:20.440 to help others grow their own organic, healthy food. 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:23.070 And I taught dozens of free gardening 00:13:23.070 --> 00:13:26.474 classes, in my gardens, to the people in my community. 00:13:26.474 --> 00:13:29.205 I'll be honest, though, I do have an agenda. 00:13:29.205 --> 00:13:32.375 I want you to question your food. 00:13:32.375 --> 00:13:34.634 Where did it come from? How was it grown? 00:13:34.642 --> 00:13:36.525 How did it get to you? And what was 00:13:36.525 --> 00:13:38.655 the impact that it had on the earth, 00:13:38.655 --> 00:13:42.239 other species and the humans that grow that food? 00:13:42.239 --> 00:13:45.079 And if you don't like the answers that you find, 00:13:45.079 --> 00:13:47.677 I want to empower you to change them. 00:13:47.677 --> 00:13:49.765 The good news, though, is that you don't 00:13:49.765 --> 00:13:52.245 have to grow and forage all of your food. 00:13:52.245 --> 00:13:55.464 The solutions are there in your community. 00:13:55.464 --> 00:13:57.523 You can grow a little bit of your own food. 00:13:57.523 --> 00:14:00.384 Maybe an herb garden on your window sill. 00:14:00.384 --> 00:14:03.965 Or some pots of tomatoes and basil on your balcony. 00:14:03.965 --> 00:14:06.067 Or a raised bed in your front yard. 00:14:06.067 --> 00:14:08.170 And if you don't have any space, at all, 00:14:08.170 --> 00:14:09.880 you can join a community garden. 00:14:09.880 --> 00:14:11.903 You can source your food locally. 00:14:11.903 --> 00:14:14.245 And purchase from local farmers and gardeners. 00:14:14.245 --> 00:14:17.311 The farmer's market is a great place to start. 00:14:17.311 --> 00:14:19.665 You can buy whole foods and cook more, 00:14:19.665 --> 00:14:22.283 rather than packaged, processed foods that 00:14:22.283 --> 00:14:23.748 leave trash behind. 00:14:23.748 --> 00:14:25.440 And you can work with your community to 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:27.477 make healthy foods for people in need. 00:14:27.477 --> 00:14:29.964 Grow a garden for your elderly neighbor, 00:14:29.964 --> 00:14:32.609 or start a grass roots organization to 00:14:32.609 --> 00:14:34.640 harvest the fruit trees in your community 00:14:34.640 --> 00:14:36.826 to distribute it to others. 00:14:36.826 --> 00:14:39.908 And this doesn't need to be a lonely journey. 00:14:39.908 --> 00:14:42.973 For most of us, food is at the center of our lives. 00:14:42.973 --> 00:14:45.750 And we can do this, together, in our communities. 00:14:45.750 --> 00:14:49.503 My year is over but my journey of food has just begun. 00:14:49.503 --> 00:14:52.533 A book is in the works and 100% of my 00:14:52.533 --> 00:14:55.576 proceeds will be donated to organizations 00:14:55.576 --> 00:14:57.910 working on the food solutions. 00:14:57.910 --> 00:15:00.078 And I'll be here, online, sharing 00:15:00.078 --> 00:15:03.174 inspiration and education on how you can 00:15:03.174 --> 00:15:06.703 get involved in gaining food freedom. 00:15:06.703 --> 00:15:11.368 (music) 00:15:11.368 --> 00:15:14.292 My mouth is cold now. 00:15:14.292 --> 00:15:19.218 (Muffled)...my own (laughs) medicine and vitamins to... 00:15:19.218 --> 00:15:23.249 (Laughing) 00:15:23.249 --> 00:15:25.687 Alright make note of that (laughing)