A year ago, Rob Greenfield made a commitment to not buy any groceries for a whole year.
Instead, he wanted to grow or forage all his food.
Yesterday, he completed the 365-day challenge, which also saw him build a tiny house from scratch – costing just £1,160 – and turning the land surrounding it into his fruit and veg garden.
Rob, who lives in Orlando, Florida, put the house together himself with basic materials to keep costs very low.
He explains: ‘I built it out of 99% secondhand materials along with volunteers from the community.
‘I created just 30 pounds of trash in the build.
‘The materials were largely leftover materials from construction sites, secondhand items at Habitat for Humanity and some materials I reclaimed from dumpsters.
‘It is mostly wood. It held my basic possessions and food. A bed, shelves, desk, chair and freezer.’
For food, he found himself catching his fish, pulling weeds from the ground and foraging for berries and nuts to create filling and nutritious meals.
Although his challenge is officially over, Rob claims that he will continue to forage wherever he goes to help cut down on plastic and food waste.
Rob said: ‘When I set out to do this, I wasn’t sure if it could be done, but I really wanted to find out.
‘I have never met a human in our current society who lives independently of the globalised, industrialised food system.
‘I’m standing here today, one year later, and I did it.
‘Not only did I make it, but I feel healthier and happier than when I started.
‘I maintained my weight – my body fat measurement is 15%, so plenty of fat on me and I didn’t get sick once.
‘I expected it to be extremely difficult and it was, but no more than expected – my body feels about as good as I can recall in my adult life.
‘This was my personal quest to see whether I could step away from my usual way of getting food and grow and forage every bite of my own – but at the same time I want to inspire others to question their food.’
Although he ate for free, Rob says that finding food was like working a full-time job.
He said: ‘I often worked 40 to 80 hours per week to plant, harvest and maintain the garden, forage foods, cook, preserve and clean dishes.
‘It’s safe to say it was a very demanding full-time endeavour.
‘I often couldn’t take a true break from it, because if I did then I would either not have all the food I needed, or something would fall apart.
‘I generally didn’t miss any particular food, but what I did miss was convenience.
Rob's diet before and after
Breakfast: bowl of cereal, milk
Before the challenge:
Lunch: lunch meat sandwich
Dinner: frozen pizza
Snacks: string cheese, yoghurt, banana
Challenge diet:
Breakfast: mango, starfruit, coconut, moringa, turmeric, holy basil smoothie
Lunch: yuca, green papaya, greens and herbs
Dinner: yuca, fish, greens, herbs
Snacks: coconut, honey, greens, starfruit
‘I missed having other people make meals for me and even more so just making meals with friends.
‘I still did that sometimes as I had a lot of friends over for dinner, but I was sometimes socially isolated by how demanding this year was.’
Although he no longer plans to follow the challenge full time, Rob is going to continue practising some of the things he’s learned.
He said: ‘For the next year or two I intend to do a lot of travelling, which means I will not have my own garden.
‘Everywhere I go I intend to forage whether it be the edible “weeds” in people’s front yards or taking trips to the public parks or deeper nature.
‘I will seek out local foragers who know the region who I can go out with and share the experience with.
‘As much as this may seem like an individualistic project, it was all about community.
‘I could not have done this without the support of community – everything I learned came from people before me.
‘It’s all about coming together as communities to care for one another and make sure that everyone has their basic needs met to live a happy and healthy life.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/12/man-gives-groceries-forages-food-free-year-11078089/
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