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Cycling 4,700 miles across America?
That's the easy part.
Try doing it with almost
no negative impact
and while paying attention
to how every single one
of your little daily actions
affects the world around you,
both near and far.
That's what I did 2 summers ago,
And I learned all about the
pressing environmental issues
of our time and how I can be
part of the solution.
Now I'm sharing with you
what I learned, in a series of 5 videos.
This one is about food.
I was determined to eat only
food that didn't cause
environmental and
social destruction.
This meant eating only:
local, organic and unpackaged foods.
And it meant giving up
almost everything at
a typical grocery store.
Local, meant I would eat only
food grown and harvested
from within the state I was in,
or within 250 miles.
Organic, meant that the food
had to be grown naturally
without using any pesticides,
herbicides or other chemicals.
Unpackaged, meant there couldn't
be any packing on the food,
even if it was recyclable.
>From what I had learned
about food in America
I knew this wasn't going to be easy.
But I had one exception
to these guidelines.
I could eat food that was going to waste.
Especially from dumpsters.
If it's still good? Why waste it?
My journey started in California,
where I had no trouble
finding the food I needed.
California produces more food
than any other state in America.
We're setting the farm record
for most number of raw eggs eaten.
In my 7 days cycling across the state,
I didn't purchase a single item
that went against the guidelines.
It was pretty easy.
The only waste we've created here
is 2 stickers and this receipt.
So, with all this shopping...
No waste, just food that
we are going to eat.
Getting a bit of a late start,
but we're hoping for a 100 mile day.
When I made it into Nevada,
I had to cross 500 miles
of barren desert.
There were long distances with
no civilization, let alone,
a farmers' market.
I managed to get by mostly on
food I had left from California.
After a month of cycling,
I had gone into a dozen supermarkets
and found that most of them
carry no food from within the state.
What you're seeing here, is lunch.
...couple different potatoes, mushrooms...
We've also got onions,
these onions are locally grown
right here in Utah.
The only locally produced item
that I could find in Utah so far.
These grocery stores I've been to
in all these small towns,
don't have any food, hardly at all
that's grown within the state.
and that's what I'm doing,
I'm only eating food
from the state that I'm in.
I learned that the average meal
travels over 1,500 miles
from farm to fork in our
industrial agricultural system.
And simply by reading labels,
I discovered many items,
like fruits, veggies and cheese,
travel up to 7,000 miles from places
like, Chile, Spain and New Zealand.
By not growing food locally,
we've become almost completely
dependent on fossil fuels
and huge corporations.
Instead of nutrition and flavor,
they grow food that is durable
for shipping, has a longer shelf life,
and above all else, is profitable.
When I reached Boulder, Colorado,
I let out a big sigh of relief.
screaming
They have one of the largest
farmers' markets in America,
and I was able to eat local,
organic food to my hearts content.
Friend:
Rob:
So, some of the stuff I got,
I got these wheat berries...
This is grown 30 miles from here,
There's 1 ingredient and that's apples.
A whole bunch of arugula as well...
Friend:
may the wind be at your back.
After Colorado, I descended
into the Great Plains,
where I was surrounded by
monocrops of corn and soy,
that expanded as far
as the eyes could see.
Food was everywhere,
but I couldn't eat any of it.
Very little of the food was organic,
which was a reflection of how
less than 5% of all food
in America, is grown organically.
37 days on the road, and I just bought
my first not local, not organic food.
Didn't have a whole lot of a choice.
Not only is this detrimental
to the earth but it's taking
a huge toll on farming too.
Our soil is being depleted,
making land less productive,
chemicals are running
into the ground water
and pesticides can now
be found in tap water.
Native plant and animal
diversity is being destroyed.
And corrupt coorperations like
Monsanto are reeking havoc
socially and environmentally
and seeking to control
our seeds and our food.
I also passed factory farms,
where much of our nations
beef, chicken and pork is produced.
These places were mostly closed off
to hide the conditions
inside from the consumer.
Chickens are crammed 30 to a cage,
so tight, that they can barely move.
Male chicks at egg farms are
thrown away by the millions.
Pigs are confined in cages
they can't even turn around in.
And cows are treated in a way
that no consumer would
want to know about.
The food created from these animals
is of poor nutritional quality,
playing a huge part in Western diseases
like diabetes and heart disease.
Once I hit the Midwest
it was growing season
and I was able to find a lot of
locally produced and organic food.
Farmers' markets, local farms
and health food stores
started to pop up around me.
I even found local and organic food
in the big supermarkets
but most of it was in packaging.
Almost everything at grocery stores
is in a package and this can be seen
in our polluted oceans,
littered roadways and
overflowing landfills.
When you eat a bag of potato chips
you get about 5 minutes of enjoyment.
And then that bag is still here
for 500 years.
All that packaging takes energy
and resources to create
and to dispose of as well.
Not so long into the trip
I simply stopped going
into regular grocery stores.
Instead, I started to go around back.
to the stores dumpsters
and I was blown away.
I found this grocery store
and boy is this dumpster
a treasure chest.
In most towns I went to
dumpster after dumpster
was full of perfectly good food.
I learned that we throw away
nearly half of all the food
we produce in America.
About $165 billion worth annually.
Meanwhile, 1 in 7 Americans
are food insecure.
That's a monstrosity in itself
but when we waste food,
we waste so much more
than just food.
We also waste the water,
fossil fuels and energy and resources
it took to grow it, harvest it,
transport it and sell it.
When I arrived in New York City,
I had eaten over 280 pounds
of food from dumpsters.
About 70% of my diet.
But when I wasn't resorting
to the dumpster,
I was almost always able to
stand by the local, organic,
unpackaged standards.
I had purchased only
22 packaged, 8 non-organic
and 12 non-local foods.
One trip to the grocery store
for the average American,
would involve more packaging,
pesticides and long distanced
shipped foods than
I purchased the entire summer.
For as many bad things as I learned,
I also saw a ton of good happening.
Here are some simple ways
that you can be a part of it.
Buy local food.
Go to the farmers' markets,
participate in CSA's
and know your local farmers.
Buy organic food.
Buy unpackaged food.
Simply bring reusable containers
to the store and buy from the
fruit, vegetable and bulk food sections.
Stick to whole foods over processed foods.
If it's in the same shape as it was
when it came from the earth,
you're probably good to go.
Eat a plant based diet.
This means more fruits, veggies
grains, legumes and nuts
and less animal products
such as meat, dairy and eggs.
Grow your own.
It's incredibly satisfying
to eat homegrown food.
Start growing in your backyard
or help out at a community garden.
Or make seed bombs
and do your gardening freestyle.
And lastly, don't waste any food.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community