Free the Food plants street-sides and public spaces with fruit trees, berries, edible greens, flowers and medicinal plants, food that belongs to whoever’s walking by. It follows the principles of permaculture, and specifically syntropic farming: a way of reforesting land that rebuilds soil and biodiversity while it feeds people, all at once.
The project is led by Arturo “Ara” Favrot, working in alliance with Perma Vida. Together they make agreements with local landowners to plant along the public-facing edges of private land, adjacent to roads. Each planting team includes a trained guide, following protocols and documenting progress so the new syntropic lines are properly installed and cared for, with signage explaining how syntropic agriculture works and that the food is free to forage.
The goal is simple and large at once: an abundance of free, healthy food along every roadside, and the birth of community gardens that end artificial scarcity and money-dependency for food, one planted line at a time.
Free the Food is currently inactive, kept here for the record of what it built and what it points toward.
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Follow the project on Instagram, or support past and future work through Giveth.
