RODMAN: In this episode of Urban Conversion... GINA: The fact that he just went in there and threw it all right in the trash shows his lack of awareness on waste.

Gina and I will be getting to gleaning.

Not sure that I can pull 200 pounds of produce.

Foraging for fresh fruit.

If you want to collect a lot of apples quickly, you just... (screaming) And diving right on in.

Come in, come in!

Do I want to come in?

To find out what happens to food that doesn't find a home.

I just hope that I can stomach this Urban Conversion.

GINA: My husband Rodman is passionate about creating new businesses and opportunities, but let's just say he's not too eco-friendly.

RODMAN: My wife Gina, she's amazing, but she can be a little over the top when it comes to going green.

GINA: The sustainability movement is not just a trend.

It's a concept that will impact the future.

RODMAN: I'm not against sustainability.

I just need to understand it first.

Yeah, now we're talking!

So I'm taking myself out of my comfort zone... sometimes to extremes.

Wow.

GINA: And we're making it part of our lives.

(horn honking) RODMAN: Yeah, well, most of it.

GINA: Who knows where it will take us?

Welcome to Michigan, welcome to Detroit, Rodman.

RODMAN: It's all part of making our own "Urban Conversion."

♪ RODMAN: Today I have a day off.

I can relax, do a little bit of reading.

It's a great day.

Next thing you know, I get this odor and it's bad.

It's, I don't know where it's coming from, but it is somewhere in this house.

I'm looking upstairs and in the bathroom, I'm looking in the laundry room.

I'm looking everywhere for this odor.

Nobody wants a stinky house and our house stinks.

I had to find out where the smell was coming from.

I go in the kitchen and there it is.

Bam!

I mean, like a wall of smell.

It was bad.

Well, I don't want to go through everything.

Let's get of rid of what we have in there and let's replace it with some new.

GINA: I came home today and I opened up the refrigerator.

Rodman, did you throw all the food away?

Yep.

I threw everything that stunk away, gone.

The whole house was stinking.

That is hard to believe, Rodman.

The fact that he just went in there and threw it all right in the trash shows his lack of awareness on waste and where it goes and what we do.

There's a reason that they put expiration dates on food.

It says 'best by.'

You can still eat it the next day after.

I can't believe you'd throw it all away.

Well, it stunk.

Everything stunk.

The whole house stunk.

Nothing goes to waste in this house.

It either goes to the compost or the chickens.

One way or the other we have to replace things that were in the fridge so we have food to make for our friends this weekend when they come over.

Fine, I'll go to the grocery store... No, no, no, I don't want you to go to the grocery store.

Go to the farmers market.

Alright, babe, fine.

I'll go the farmers market.

We'll replace the food.

Happy?

Yes.

Alright.

Going to the farmers market will be a good experience for you.

So I'll get whatever she needs and we're gonna have a good party.

Don't forget the reusable bags!

(annoyed) Okay... RODMAN: You know, I like the farmers market, feeling the tomatoes, looking closely at the produce to see how fresh it is.

Going solo, it might be a little bit of an adventure.

Looks like a Christmas ball.

A couple earrings.

It's like a fan, you know, a big fan.

I'm gonna find some good veggies and some fruits to replace everything that I've wasted.

RODMAN: It's toward the end of the market and I see this guy and he's by these, he's struggling to put these bins in.

This guy came to buy some serious produce.

This is quite a contraption for a farmers market.

Yeah, well, I'm hoping by the end of the night it'll be full, but, just go to every stand and ask them if they've got food that they couldn't sell, and they don't, you know, won't be able to sell the next market.

For you?

No, so I'm doing it as a volunteer for this organization called the Boulder Food Rescue.

All this food that would ordinarily just get wasted, he's picking it up and he's taking it somewhere where it'll make a difference.

Really what we're trying to do is just make sure that the food that either can't be sold, you know, Okay.

'cause it's too late for it, and needs like a home now.

That's where we swoop in.

RODMAN: Next thing you know, I'm helping him load up produce to take down to the food pantry.

So, him and I start going to the market, collecting all this additional produce.

And I guess what we're doing today is gleaning, but there's also a freegan and foraging on the tree and I want to learn more.

ETHAN: I told him, you come out and help get some food donated, I will teach you how to get free food.

RODMAN: I'm going to go home, talk to Gina, I think we're in.

ETHAN: 40 percent of all food that's produced in the United States is wasted, so it's lost, thrown out, or goes bad along the way.

The food that ends up in dumpsters is often in excellent condition.

Packaging may have gone damaged, or there's just a general misunderstanding of what the dates on packaging even mean.

Even if it's like, 'best by,' it could be good for, you know, months to come, this ends up in the trash.

All the food that's being wasted could easily go to feed everyone who's hungry.

You just have to get the food to where it's needed most.

The Boulder Food Rescue is a nonprofit organization and what we do is, we rescue and redistribute food that would otherwise go to waste from businesses to agencies that serve homeless and low income people.

We have about 150 active volunteers that are rescuing about 500,000 meals for people every year.

A lot of grocery stores want to help out and want to donate the food 'cause they know it's still totally good food, they just have to kind of throw it away because of the way the system works.

But for them, it's really beneficial to donate the food because they can get tax credits.

Also, it's good for their community.

I'm gonna take Gina and Rodman on some modern gleaning, then some foraging.

Go looking for some free fruit.

And then, if they're down, I'll take them dumpster diving.

Really round out the experience.

What's gonna happen today?

We're gonna go to the back of the store out there, where the loading dock is and then we'll do our best to load on the trailer and then get on to Harvest of Hope, which is like a mile and a half from here.

Mile and a half?

Yeah.

On our bikes... RODMAN: I don't get on my bike very much, but it's going to be nice to get out in Boulder, ride around.

ETHAN: Gleaning inevitably, is a reference to the biblical mandate -- God is said to have told Moses, "Farmers will leave crops along the edges for the poor and the stranger."

So gleaning was this pseudo welfare system.

Boulder Food Rescue is essentially a modern form of gleaning -- collecting surplus and feeding the hungry.

MAN: This supports two of Whole Food's core values, the first being to promote environmental stewardship, not wasting, trying to keep anything from going into landfills that we can, also, to support our communities and the local vendors.

We donate based on damaged packaging, a ripped label, over ripened fruits and vegetables.

What's wrong with this?

Well, if you look closely, maybe there'll be one that has a little spot, you know, like this here.

A little mold on them.

Often much better than I think most people would expect.

Great finds, right?

Right.

ETHAN: Grocery stores stock these beautiful grocery aisles under conditions that we demand.

As soon as it's just below, they have to throw it out or maybe they got a new shipment in and they got to make room, throw it out.

The berries will have to go quick, so we'll get the food to them and then, you know, by this afternoon, there'll be people coming in, Yeah.

filing in through their doors... ...looking, and they'll be really excited by these berries.

It's a lot of food.

GINA: It's a lot of good food.

I mean, raspberries that look perfect, strawberries, they might have a little blemish on them.

Pastries.

I'm telling you what, if you took this through the register here, that's a lot of money.

ETHAN: Part of the challenge and the fun is to find a way to get it on to the trailer, maybe sideways so you get like full width.

Let's throw this on top.

It's full.

Ah, okay.

It's like shopping in scratch and dent a little bit, you know, but at the end of the day, it's all still good food.

I was thinking I'd give you the honors.

Of driving?

Yes!

What do you think of that?

To be honest with you, I don't know how this is gonna go.

Whoa!

I'm gonna do a wheelie the whole time!

I got this.

Brake!

Brake!

Whoa!

I can't stop!

I'm not sure that I could pull 200 pounds of produce.

RODMAN: I'm telling you, that is a load to carry uphill.

Luckily though, we get around the corner and it was smooth sailing, all downhill.

ETHAN: I think before he got on the bike he was a little scared, but once he got on, he started pedaling, he had his weight down, he took it like a champ.

RODMAN: You know, it was kind of nice to get back on the old horse, it was like I'd never let it down.

GINA: Rodman did excellent on the bike.

Didn't even break a sweat.

We are at Harvest of Hope, which are the lucky recipients of the food that we brought.

GINA: We'd walk in, it's really laid out so clients can get around easily.

There's a ton of fresh produce that will be gone by the end of the day.

Where we at so far?

200.

Nice.

That's decent!

Ooh, 287.

RODMAN: You look at what they're donating to this place and what it's gonna to do for people.

You know, it was worth every pedal on that bike.

ETHAN: The volunteers, they come out, sort the food, and we'll help the back putting it into the refrigerator, pulling out the few moldy fruit, put those in the compost, but you know, the rest is good to go and that gets put on the racks.

It's a free-to-rack, loading dock to belly.

These are all goods that would have just went in the dumpster.

There is a lot of food out there that might be a little bruised, but it's still very good.

Then there's also a lot of food that is growing on plants in our neighborhoods.

Next, we're going to be going out and get a sense of how much low hanging fruit is available in this forum.

ETHAN: Just being out in the city, keeping my head high, I started to see that there was apple trees, but also plums and peaches and apricots, just by choosing to look.

There are these stigmas that exist, maybe, someone who is foraging might be presumed to be homeless, you know, and needing food.

How terrible.

Firstly, I'm on a mission to make foraging as commonplace as possible.

I co-founded Falling Fruit, which is this collaborative map of the urban harvest.

We have users adding millions of locations across the world.

We have a mobile app so you can be interacting with our database of edibles on the go.

RODMAN: So we just got done at the food bank and now it is time to go forage.

Back here there's a, what's right now, a vacant lot.

No one is picking from the trees.

People though, shouldn't go, just go onto private land and start picking fruit, right?

No, it's like an opportunity to build relationships.

You just ask permission and if you pick a bunch, you know, leave 'em a jar of jam or a bottle of cider or something.

RODMAN: So we're coming up on this residential lot and we see this little path that's kind of winding back.

There's pallets just laying on the ground, there's old broken fences...

I didn't wear the proper attire to be foraging around in this abandoned lot.

Whoa!

RODMAN: I'm thinking, this is going to be a tough place to do business.

After we get into this lot, it opens wide up.

Everywhere you look, there's trees and there's fruit.

GINA: There's plum trees, apple trees, ready to be picked.

You think these apples are good?

Oh, that's a big one.

Go for it.

You really don't take notice of all these fruit trees that are around you every single day.

Oh, nice!

Oh my God!

Not a big harvest...

But that's a score though.

They ready?

Uh huh.

Another apple...

So in the grocery store, you're kind of limited, you know, four different types of apples, the same type of plum.

Out here we haven't found the same type of apple twice.

When it's really time to harvest and you want to collect a lot apples quickly, just do this.

Oh my gosh.

(screams) RODMAN: You can either shake the tree and see what falls.

You can pick directly from the tree.

My favorite way to pick the fruit was to send him up the tree and have him toss it down in my basket.

Good teamwork!

Nice.

Next thing we got to do is go through these and see what's good fruit and what's bad fruit.

Yeah, you got to willing to put up with, you know, variety.

That one had too much variety.

Press them into cider because Right.

then it really doesn't matter much.

And then we come across the awesome tree that had these apples that I had never seen before.

The skin is kind of rough, almost like an Asian pear.

So, I bite the apple and it's reddish flesh inside.

It's wild and it tasted great.

RODMAN: I have never found an apple like this in the grocery store.

I would have to say foraging is an adventure.

It's got to like tickle some deep instinct in us, hunter, gatherer, like you just found a bounty.

GINA: Rodman is enjoying himself, I'm loving it, I love urban foraging.

I can definitely see if we're walking along and we see a fruit tree, I wouldn't be afraid to pick from it.

I think in the past I may have hesitated.

When the city puts in tree plans, why don't they put in a lot more?

I wonder the same thing.

That's starting to become like a serious conversation all over North America.

Like it would just be part of policy for the city to plant not just, you know, crepe myrtles and like other stuff like that, but actually edible, like food-bearing trees everywhere.

Why just put in a regular tree when you could have something that bears fruit that can feed somebody who might be hungry?

Maybe they're starting to get a little bit converted, you know.

There's another tree I can think of that's, like it's the very opposite setting of this.

Alright.

Real peaceful.

Peaceful.

Shaded.

Sit down and we can take a nap.

Yeah we can, a really long nap.

Fantastic, let's do it!

GINA: We went to a cemetery and it was beautiful, so peaceful and quiet and there were actually fruit trees growing.

You know, Ethan, when you said peaceful, I didn't quite think you had this in mind, my friend.

I was thinking long term.

This is pretty long term.

I'd say it's like permanent.

GINA: We were able to harvest from a beautiful plum tree.

Kind of reminded me of a gift from the spiritual world.

RODMAN: Here we are, middle of the day, in a cemetery, eating plums.

GINA: We are cruising around finding parks where there're old fruit trees.

RODMAN: We pull up to Boulder Creek and back in this little clearing by the water and there it is.

What do you think of this?

It looks like a lot of berries to me.

There's blackberry bushes, every time I go there, there's something new I feel.

It was beautiful landscape from the city's perspective, but it was also food for those walking by.

RODMAN: So we come across this blackberry bush and it's got quite a few blackberries on it, but to get to the blackberries, you've got to work hard.

Ouch!

Ow!

These things are thorny.

You better appreciate it because that plant's got me.

Bring it out, bring it out!

Two blackberries, there I've got my legs are all torn up, two berries.

(laughter) Who wants to go to the pub for burgers?

Those berries were good, but they weren't that good.

ETHAN: There's challenges.

It's not quite as convenient as going to the grocery store and getting something that's like at any season, whatever you want.

GINA: It's amazing that we have this issue of hunger in the United States when there is food all around that's being thrown away or falling to the ground and rotting and it's just education, using our resources more wisely.

If we don't take advantage of this, it's probably just going to just hit the ground.

GINA: We got a pretty good haul.

Ethan said you had it good enough to bake one pie so that's what I'm going to do.

Amazed at how accessible this food is.

The best thing about this fruit wasn't necessarily the taste, it was the fact that it was free.

I was thinking like, we can go check out some dumpsters next.

Diving into dumpsters to get fruit?

I don't know, man.

You have to beat on this, babe.

I'm not sure I can do it, I think you might go solo.

It's just extension of the foraging really.

Diving in a dumpster though, it's... Yeah, well it means, it's like ripe all year round.

Gina, she is not in.

But me?

When and where?

Um, I'll let you know the address, but meet me at 11:00.

Okay.

I'm on it... PM?

11:00 PM.

Oh man... Alright.

This is a late night, late night activity.

It'll make him think twice next time he tries to throw things away.

RODMAN: What have I got myself into?

ETHAN: Freeganism, it's a reaction to the market mechanisms that make it desirable to waste large amounts for short term profit.

One in six Americans are food insecure.

It's really kind of a hard pill to swallow to imagine that we could feed everyone and it's really just a matter of distributing it in the right way.

In the end, it means that we're kind of choosing for these people to be hungry.

Dumpster diving, this is the food that, if there was no Boulder Food Rescue, there was no cooperative grocery store management, then the food falls through the cracks and ends up in the garbage.

This is for one's own use.

(footsteps) You ready for some dumpster diving?

Yeah, yeah, I'm ready for some dumpster diving.

Just keep me out of jail, that's all I ask.

What are the tricks of the trade?

Just want to keep a low profile, you know, I mean, we're on a mission, don't trouble anyone or make a mess.

Untie garbage bags and going through them and then tying them back up, being real neat.

Liberate some food we say, in the trade.

Liberate the food.

You got to have a little bit of the tools of the trade.

You need a good size bag and the ol' reliable headlamp.

Let's go.

We were right by the main drag so we wanted to be a little bit careful, so we were kind of a little bit sneaky and we made our way over to where they put their dumpsters.

Walked up, like any other dumpster, opened up the first door, nothing.

I think there was two bags.

We go to the next dumpster, nothing.

We go to number three, about half full.

Looks like a bunch of junk right now.

Yeah, from an outside looking in...

I've never really gotten terribly close to dumpsters.

I'm going to tell you one thing...

There could still be stuff in here.

...it doesn't smell too good in here.

They stink.

Only way to find out what's inside those bags is to jump in.

There goes Ethan jumping up on the dumpster and straight in.

Unfortunately, it was like really defrosted bacon and cooked fish and things that you definitely want to avoid.

Hoser fish is not a good idea.

(laughs) Come in.

Do I want to come in?

Yeah, you do.

It took me a little bit more time because, I mean, how do you get into a dumpster?

They're a little higher and a little bit deeper than I thought they were gonna be.

Friend, this is a lot of trash in here.

Which is kind of what, I guess, I'd expect in a dumpster.

You never knew what you were going to find next.

Our first dumpster dive was a bust.

Some things will go down kind of a leisurely dumpster diving lane.

There's a spot behind a big grocery store where it's just a row of compost bins.

I'm bringing him to this particular place just because it is impressive.

I was expecting some food, but to see that there is a long row of these bins and then every single one of them is full, that's kind of shocking.

I'd open one up, some would be covered with nastiness.

That's all moldy, let's skip that.

Some kind of stunk, nothing that I wanted to have on my dinner table.

As we were going down the line, I'd look and it'd get better, the next one would get better, and then we were getting into some pretty decent produce.

Grapefruit, peach, oh wow, look at that!

What do you think about these?

Those are great.

You don't want that... Kind of the stuff at the top is probably the cream of the crop.

Yeah, I think so.

This is probably not what he was expecting.

He was probably imagining like going through mounds of goo.

Instead, it's just like the grocery aisle has been moved into the bin.

Eggplant, peppers... get in there.

Bunches of grapes that are like intact.

I mean, like every grape holding on to the bunch.

RODMAN: There's cucumbers, strawberries, cherries... and it was good.

I, I don't even know why it was in there.

By the time we got to the end of that row, we had some heavy bags.

It's a lot of food, it's been tough.

Especially produce.

At least probably a week's worth of produce for one person.

Knowing that it's there, it's hard to then go inside the store and buy food that way.

Producing all of this waste.

My program, is to devote one evening every two weeks.

That'll usually, you know, feed myself and sometimes also, housemates, you know, ...for two weeks.ld.

There is a lot that's thrown away that is actually a long time from really deserving to be in the compost or the landfill.

You have to come up with these strategies for dealing with these, you know, these surpluses, cook some things, make guac immediately, you know, the avocados.

Like it ends up being like a production, you know, we're maybe a little heavy handed when it comes to throwing stuff out.

I am surprised at how much is thrown out.

I'm a little surprised at least, you know.

ETHAN: Until we can reorganize society a little bit to keep our dumpsters empty there'll be a lot of full dumpsters and empty bellies.

You know, it seems like a lot of this food that's right on the cusp could go to a food bank or could go to people who can really use it instead of going into the compost bins or just straight into the dumpster and into the landfill.

For every sparkling grocery aisle there is an equally sparkling dumpster row in the back.

I think I've got plenty of food to have a good dinner party.

Last night we did save a lot food.

Going through those dumpsters was eye opening.

GINA: I saw this big duffel bag full of vegetables and then I came home the next day and he's cooking vegetable soup.

And I told him I did not want to eat any of that food.

RODMAN: I got my kids, I got my niece, I've got my neighbor here.

We're all going to enjoy a little bit of soup, we're going to have a little bit of foraged pie which will be fantastic afterwards.

I'm just glad to have everybody here.

GINA: Definitely seems like he's up to something.

I'm making dinner.

Why you got to make a big deal about it?

Everything is ready.

Rodman brings out the soup.

All of that food looked like the dumpster food.

I walk out the door and everybody's sitting at the table, it's beautifully set, Gina's pies are sitting on the table, it's just a great scene.

I start serving everybody.

And the soup looks good.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt because I explained to him it's dangerous to try to eat that food.

Here's to good food.

Cheers.

And great company.

Cheers.

It's always a nice, relaxing evening to come and spend some time with the Schleys.

I'm a little nervous.

My Aunt Gina's always been the good cook so for my Uncle Rod to cook, it's different.

Rodman yesterday, had a very exciting day foraging and so we actually made these pies with all of that fruit.

Gina gets done talking about her pies and now it's time to tell them a little bit about the soup.

We went, what they call "dumpster diving."

It's a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but it's everything that I pulled out of the dumpster last night.

(record needle scratches...) I cannot believe he would do that.

Nah, just kidding you.

Oh my God.

I couldn't do it.

You just never know where that food really was or why it's out in the dumpster in the first place so I had to let them in on the joke.

He played a prank on us, but he didn't put us in harm.

Ethan would understand why I would not give this food to my family.

It's the same reason he doesn't give it to the food banks.

He only gives the food that he's rescuing and that he feels he can give to those guys safely.

GINA: There has to be a solution to reduce the amount of things that are being wasted and to feed people that need it.

I did learn that there's a ton of food that goes to waste, but there are organizations, they're doing amazing things with grocery stores to take unwanted food to different food banks.

Foraging itself, it was fun.

You go and explore and you come across this hidden treasure.

RODMAN: Those foraged pies were good.

They were fresh, and guess what?

They were darn near free.

We're lucky to have guys like Ethan.

It was eye opening to see how much food is actually going out the back door instead of into people's mouths.

We waste a lot of food.

We waste way too much food.

And you know, my family is just as guilty as anybody else on that.

I mean, we need to work harder at our house to make sure that we are using our food properly, that if we buy it, it's not going into the trash can.

It's got to be used.

Learning how to make my own urban conversion has me all over the map.

Cars that run on hydrogen gas or veggie oil?

Making things at home that you can just buy at the store?

Chickens, goats, and bees in your backyard?

It all sounded pretty crazy at first, but the more I explore the sustainability movement, the more fun I have.

Come along with me as my family and I figure out what will work in our household.

It's all a part of making our own Urban Conversion.

♪ ♪ Sustainability is a huge topic.

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Follow Rodman and Gina as they explore the sustainability movement through unscripted fun with education as the goal.

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