OUTDOOR KITCHEN
For most people, food comes from the grocery store. For environmental activist and educator Robin Greenfield, food come from forests, lakes, roadsides, and fields.
Greenfield is currently immersed in what he describes as “a year of foraging 100 percent of [his] own food and medicine.” There are no grocery stores, restaurants, gardens, supplements, or pharmacies involved. Instead, wild rice, mushrooms, berries, fish, venison, seaweed, and foraged herbs make up his daily diet.
Speaking in San Luis Obispo as part of Ecologistics’ Critical Conversations series on June 2, Greenfield explained that his project is about much more than food. It is a personal experiment in “reconnecting with the natural world.”
“One of the greatest threats that I believe we have as a humanity is this illusion of separateness,” he told the audience. “This idea that we’re separate from the earth, we’re separate from the plants and animals, we’re separate from one another.”
For Greenfield, foraging is a way to challenge that belief every day.
“In order to eat, I have to go outside,” he told New Times. “I have to build relationships with at least 100 different plants to be able to thrive in this way.”
The journey that led him to this lifestyle began far from the woods. Raised in northern Wisconsin, Greenfield grew up with a love of nature but also a strong desire to achieve financial success. After studying biology and building a successful marketing business in San Diego, he set a goal of becoming a millionaire by age 30.
But documentaries and books changed his perspective.
“I just learned that the way that I was living was causing so much destruction,” he said. “The food I was eating, the car I was driving, the stuff I was buying, the money I was spending and investing.”
Rather than becoming discouraged, Greenfield was inspired by alternatives. He began making one positive change each week, gradually reducing waste, consuming less, and focusing on local foods and community connections.
After two years and more than 100 lifestyle changes, he decided to make activism his life’s work. Inspired by a call to “be the change you wish to see in the world,” Greenfield launched a series of highly visible environmental projects.
Among them was a month-long experiment in which he wore every piece of trash he generated. By the end of the month, his custom suit was stuffed with the waste produced by living like an average American.
But food remained at the center of his work.
In 2018, Greenfield undertook his first year-long challenge to grow and forage all of his food. Starting with no land and little practical experience, he transformed six residential lawns into productive gardens. The experience taught him valuable lessons about abundance and ecological stewardship.
Standing in one of the gardens after a year and a half, Greenfield noticed that the soil level had risen significantly due to mulch and organic matter.
“I realized that after a year and a half of harvesting hundreds of pounds of food and medicine, there’s not less to give. There’s more to give,” he said.
Years later, he pushed the idea further. Instead of growing food, he decided to rely entirely on wild foods and medicines for a full year.
Today, his pantry contains jars of wild rice, venison, fish, mushrooms, herbal teas, berries, seaweed, maple syrup, salts harvested from the ocean, and fermented plants. Wild rice is one of his most treasured foods.
“This is a plant that’s very dear to me because when I take part in this plant, I’m taking part in an unbroken relationship, human-plant relationship, of at least 700 years,” he said.
The project has transformed the way he sees the world. Where many people see an empty lot with weeds, Greenfield sees food.
“In the past, I would drive down the highway, and I would see the billboards for the fast food and the grocery stores,” he explained. “But now I saw the billboards of Mother Earth.”
That shift in perception lies at the heart of his mission. He wants people to recognize the abundance that already exists around them and to rebuild relationships with local ecosystems.
Greenfield emphasized that foraging does not require all-or-nothing commitment. Instead, he encourages beginners to start slowly and safely.
“The No. 1 rule of foraging is you only eat something if you are 100 percent certain you have identified it,” he said.
He recommends learning one plant at a time.
“If you learn one plant per month, for a year, that’s 12 plants,” he told the audience. “Imagine being able to walk out your door and to be able to harvest 12 different plants as food and medicine.”
Ultimately, Greenfield’s year of foraging is less about survivalism and more about belonging. Through daily interactions with plants, animals, and ecosystems, he hopes to cultivate a deeper sense of connection to the Earth.
“Theoretically, I know that I am not separate, that I am nature, that nature is me,” he said. “But I am working to be able to feel that in every cell of my being.”
As his year-long experiment continues, Greenfield remains committed to living what he teaches. His goal is not sacrifice but enrichment.
“My activism and my work is not about sacrificing,” he said. “It’s about instead just finding a way to live on this earth in the most rich form that is enriching the world around rather than pillaging and taking from the world.”
For Greenfield, every meal is both sustenance and a reminder that humans are not separate from nature but part of it.
This article appears in Get Outside – Summer/Fall 2026.