- Hi, I'm Rainn Wilson and I'm an actor
and considering adding to my resume urban farmer.
You know, you read so much product information these days
and there's all of the stuff in there,
you have no idea what it does and why it's there.
It really doesn't make any sense.
You pick up an orange juice box
and it's got sugar and preservatives
and different kinds of additives that you've never heard of
and this got me started thinking about clean eating,
whole, real ingredients.
Today we're in Carson, California.
We are definitely in the Los Angeles grid
and there's a lot of little single family homes like this
but over here, we've got something a little bit different.
An urban wonderland.
I heard about this guy named Dan McCollister,
a world renowned urban gardener
and an authority on these topics
and I'm really interested at what I put in my body
and what my family eats and how we eat
and I wanna learn more.
Come on, America.
Hey Dan!
- Good morning, my friend, come inside.
- Thanks for having me over.
You kinda look like a hippie a little bit.
- I kind of am.
Well, we are looking at a garden.
- [Rainn] Well that's true.
- My name is Dan McCollister, I'm an urban gardener,
and I created the app Cropswap.
Cropswap is an app where people can buy, sell, or trade
things they grow in their house.
- [Rainn] Oh man fantastic!
- [Dan] Yeah, isn't it mindblowing?
- [Rainn] It's a wonderland-- - [Dan] It is a wonderland.
- [Rainn] Of verdant vegetation.
- Let's go over here, we got a banana tree
over here that'll blow your mind.
- You know there's a common misconception
about what it means to eat clean
and it's not just about eating
kale and carrots all day long.
You can eat a clean cookie, but you have to look
at what's in the ingredients and the way
to find that out is on the packaging.
This is a rare commodity in Las Angeles.
- [Dan] Absolutely.
- A backyard Lakatan.
- What we wanna do today is actually
convert this into some more food.
So we have our bananas and our melons.
- [Rainn] Open up the app here.
- [Dan] Let's get some kale.
This is a person named Natalie
and she's coming over with a bunch of kale.
- Hello!
- [Rainn] Hey, hey
- Hi! - [Rainn] you must be Natalie.
- I am, it's nice to meet you.
- Let's do a swap, come down here.
- Awesome!
- Wow, fantastic.
I think we said three bananas?
Enjoy these bad boys.
- Wow these are great!
- I am not very excited about this kale, but.
- I'm very excited about the kale.
- Okay, that's enough Dan. - [Dan] So it works for me.
- Thanks so much for coming by.
- [Natalie] Thanks so much, yeah.
- Pleasure doing business with you.
- So good, so good to meet you.
- [Natalie] Yes, okay bye y'all.
- Dan where are we, let's go, what are we gonna do?
We gotta move some merchandise here.
- Let's go get some, there's a guy nearby with oranges.
Yeah, let's go get some oranges.
- Let's hit him up.
You wanna leave your door open?
- I'll get it.
Another way to eat clean, if you don't have space
even if you have a balcony, even if you have a closet,
you can grow something on your countertop.
Just get a little light, grow food inside,
you don't need a big yard, just start with what you have.
- Hello!
- Oh hey!
I grow my own food because I think it's healthy
and just being able to hand people food
so when people eat an orange for the first time
off the tree, that look on their face is amazing!
So welcome to the urban citrus grove.
We've got lemons and tangerines.
- This is great, this is what I wanna feed my kid you know?
Right off the tree.
Open up the bag.
- Okay.
- [Rainn] C'mon!
- Really good.
And Rainn, that is how you use Cropswap.
- We swapped some crops.
- We are done my friend.
- Oh no we're not, we're just getting warmed up.
- Not done?
- No, no, no, check this out.
Linda right down the street is gonna meet us
with some, America's favorite vegetable.
- Beets, okay.
- Beets.
- If you say so.
- My goal is to connect humans.
I want people to eat cleanly,
I want people to eat healthfully,
I want people to meet their neighbors
they might not otherwise talk to.
I think the fun thing is that we
can do all of these concurrently.
- Here we go, hold that.
- Okay, well I mean, can you hold anything, or?
- Dan has a great vision which is to connect people
and food is the great connector.
It doesn't matter your political views
or what social class you're in,
food connects and unites us all.
- Rainn Wilson, you Cropswap?
- I Cropswap.
- Can I have a selfie?
That's awesome!
- Alright, alright.
- Sadly so much of the food that is in our lives today
is quite artificial.
I think when you know what's in your food
you feel so much better about
what you're putting in your body.
I'm just looking for simple ingredients.
- Good luck with the gardening, alright.
- Oh, oh alright, okay.
- Thanks you guys, okay see you later.
- [Rainn] Bye.
- Can we, you wanna call an Uber?
Call a ride or something? - No I'm good, I'm good.
This feels good, it feels right, feels natural.
- Yeah.
The most satisfying part of gardening
is interacting with people I might not otherwise talk to.
You know if I go to my neighbors house
with a basket of tomatoes it's just
this instant ice breaker.
Food is a connector.
- Fabulous, wow.
We took, what?
10 bananas and parlayed that into a feast!
- We did it, absolutely!
Hug!
- Thanks for the tour brother, the garden, and the app.
- Absolutely, thank you so much, enjoy it.
- It was a real pleasure.
- See ya Rainn!
- Bye bye!
Well there's a lot of ways to eat clean.
You can certainly grow your own food,
it's important to make sure to hit
the outside of the grocery store
that has the fruits and vegetables
and not the boxed and processed goods.
It's about knowing exactly what you're getting
in any kind of food that you're eating.
Whether it's a fruit or a vegetable
or something in a package,
or something that you get in a restaurant.
Sometimes do you just eat dirt?
- [Dan] No!
- Do you ever just stick your head and face
in a pile of dirt, just?
- But I'm not gonna be, so if I take this leaf
that has a little dirt on it I'm not gonna be
all scared if there's dirt on it.
I mean what's dirtier?
Eating something like that or eating something
that's just highly processed?
- Hm, good point.
- Yeah.
♪ Soul Pancake ♪