My name is Rob Greenield. I am an
adventurer and environmental activist.
And, generally, a guy trying to live
a good life and make a positive difference
on the world around me while I'm here on earth.
(music playing)
The reason I am doing this project right now,
growing and foraging 100% of my food for a year,
is because I believe that our current,
globalized industrialized food system is
destroying the very world that I love and
that everybody around me loves.
And I want to, first of all, learn.
Is it possible for us, in the 21st century,
in a Western society, to grow all of our
own food and to work with nature rather than against it?
And I, at the same time, want to show an
alternative to this destructive system
that we have going now. And show people
this is a different way and inspire people,
not to grow and forage 100% of their
food, but to take some small steps.
To start to grow a little bit, to plant
one seed, to plant one fruit tree in their front yard,
to join their community garden,
to go to the local farmer's
market and support local farmers.
That's what it's about.
I do sort of extreme things
with the intention
of inspiring people
and educating them, getting them to
join me on this adventure in life.
(Music playing)
eye for art "of living"
I just made it past the half way point of this year.
Today is around day 195, and so far I
have learned an incredible amount.
When I started this project, I didn't know
how much water a carrot seed needed, how
much sun you should put on your garden.
You know, just the absolute basics of growing food.
I was pretty clueless. And after ten months
of preparing, I got to the point where I
could now be growing and foraging
100% of my food.
So the amount of knowledge that I have in my head today,
compared to when I started preparing for this
is unfathomable. And to me, that's really
special because in this short period of
time, in a place that was unfamiliar
to me, I went from 0% to 100%
and I think that's pretty powerful as to
what we can do together as a community.
The ability to turn our yards into gardens.
To start community gardens together,
to plant fruit trees all through our communities.
I am pretty excited by what I have seen
so far, and what is possible if
we come together.
(Music playing)
I think for people that are wanting to get
out of the rat race, you know, are feeling
stuck. One of the biggest suggestions
I can give is not necessarily what people
would think of. It's just to stop worrying
what people think about you.
Because so much of what's trapping
ourselves, is trying to impress other people.
To having possessions that we think will
make us look better to others. To spending
time on our clothes, on our personal looks
to impress anyone, whether it's our
co-workers, our friends, our family, and
if we can drop all that, we can stop
looking at life through a lens of 'What
will other people think? and instead, a
lens of What do I want? What will
make me happy? What will make me
healthy? What will make me live in the
service of my community and humanity? it changes everything.
Simply looking at life through How can
I be a benefit to the world? instead of
What will people think about me?
And that changes everything. It frees
our self from ourselves. And that's,
for me, the biggest breakthrough that
I ever had, was just, when I said
It doesn't matter what people think anymore.
I'm just going to do what I feel is right.
(Music)
I don't have a mission statement per se.
But my mission is pretty simple.
To try to live a good life while I'm here
and to try to have a positive impact on
the world around me. I'm not trying to
save the whole world. I don't live in
this delusion that I think that I can fix
all of the world's problems or that if,
you know, even if most of my friends and
everybody I knew come together
that we can fix all the problems.
But I do think that together we can make
our communities a better place. We can
improve our own lives. We can improve
the lives of many of the species that are
around us. And I think that 's worth it.
So my mission is really just, use my time
wisely while I'm on earth and try to
live in a way where I can wake up
feeling good and I can go to bed feeling
good and I can be proud when I die of the life that I lived.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community