August 10, 2016 – Bozeman, Montana

Our food system in this county is appalling.

Working in the food service industry for over ten years has shown me plenty about America’s wasteful habits, but this is new to me. Dumpster diving. Not necessarily your typical “dumpster,” this one is in the alley behind a local grocery store and contains mostly plastic, cardboard, and produce that doesn’t sell fast enough, I guess?

“Oh my God, look at those tomatoes…” one of us says. “These apples are totally fine,” another comments.

This is an activity that I wouldn’t normally engage in, but our farm leader encourages it, and the others seem alright with it. Part of this is about sustainability, right? We then head to the local food bank and retrieve a bounty of food that would otherwise go to waste. I’ve taken clients of mine to one of these before, but never been on the receiving end…

We bring the goods home to the rest of our team, which has increased in numbers by four: Paul and Christine from Belgium/France, and Haley and Ally from Rhode Island. The former two are my age, in a relationship, and an absolute pleasure to be around. The latter two are nineteen, single, and gorgeous.

Don’t even think about it, Nick. You’ve been down that road.

Work at the farm is going well: the team poured some concrete the other day for a tiny-house-in-the-making, as well as some entryway steps. I have been shaping a “tree sanctuary” of sorts with Mitsui and the girls. As if I need this kind of distraction. I enjoy the landscaping and artistic freedom that Brock has given us with the projects.

I can also feel my parental/provisional reflexes kicking in, as we are now up to nine volunteers at the farm. Sharing a tiny living space. Cooking for each other.

Caring for each other.

“In a world of seven billion people, set to grow to nine billion by 2050, wasting food makes no sense – economically, environmentally and ethically, aside from the cost implications, all the land, water, fertilizers and labour needed to grow that food is wasted – not to mention the generation of greenhouse gas emissions produced by food decomposing on landfill and the transport that is ultimately thrown away.” – Achim Steiner