Let’s Talk Leftovers
Words by Lauren Berry
Illustrations by Anina Takeff
Down with doom scrolling. Here are six accounts for optimists, activists and agriculturalists.
A walking TED Talk, the infectiously smiley Rob Greenfield balances growing food and living off grid with a lot of love and an anti-capitalistic message that makes you simultaneously want to get involved, and really glad to have a kettle. He once spent a month wearing every piece of rubbish he generated in massive, bubbling bin bags - an outfit that’s both horrifying and sort of funny.
Follow him if you want to know what happens to food, you struggle to find hope among the dark abyss of the internet or you keep getting served shark attack videos and you don’t know why.
Follow him if you want to know what happens to food, you struggle to find hope among the dark abyss of the internet or you keep getting served shark attack videos and you don’t know why.
@RobGreenfield
Who knew foraging could be funny? Alexis did. Her TikTok is absolutely alive with joy, catch phrases, tunes, jokes and mushrooms. She takes us to the woods and teaches us about foraging safely, how to spot the difference between edible and lethal fungi, berries and other plants and the incredible abundance of the outdoors. Then she takes her finds home and makes cool things like jam or soda or medicines. She does a mildly heartbreaking bit about honourable harvesting when she finds a decimated patch of Hen of the Woods. These lessons and recipes are interspersed with stories from her wider world like being racially profiled while speaking Latin in Italy, giving impassioned pleas to take care when foraging and an ever present sign off “Don’t Die!” Always good advice. Follow her if you need someone to watch all day (and feel like it was time well spent), and if you like looking at people you wish you could be friends with IRL.
@alexisnikole
Emma is a sustainability comm-unicator, product placer and a useful beginners’ guide to being a bit greener and a bit kinder. She talks about striking, shopping, food waste, good food and new pants through the lens of a young eco-conscious person who’s also aware of dealing with anxiety and overwhelming thoughts. She’s approachable and this account is for anyone wanting a cheerful conn- ection to sustainable habits and good products, and to gather ideas of how to take part. It’s also nice to walk around upstate New York and NYC with her. How’d you like them Big Apples?!
@emmajanegeisler
Known online as Creative_Explained, Armen Adamjan makes rapid slash-bang-grab-cut-boom videos (and books) about the many things you can do with lemon juice, orange peel, bicarb and pretty much all of the things you probably toss in the bin. His Instagram is a fast-paced masterclass in growing new spring onions, making face cream out of bananas and fruit fly genocide. It’s also wonderfully perky and persuasive.
Who should follow this – people with a love of shiny glass kitchenware, people with a lot of plant pots and a variety of natural sunlight. Anyone who hates buying stuff when you could make your own and anyone who’s got a kid (or dog) and therefore loads of sticky where it shouldn’t be.
@Creative_Explained
Madeleine’s channels are like an internet safe space. She shares well edited, nicely lit videos of good food and her lovely face. One of her followers called hummous a jump scare (and that’s fair, because she put it on spaghetti). The primary focus is plant-based recipes with a smattering of lifestyle thrown in just to confirm that joy exists and there was once summer.
Follow for Gen Z Nigella Lawson, people who agree that puff pastry is one of life’s delights, ways to dial back on your consumption of stuff and things and other cheerful vegans.
@madeleineolivia
This is an influencer highly aware of some of the problems that the influencer system represents. In one of his most recent YouTube videos ‘The Problem With Climate Influencers’, Isais addresses an article from Teen Vogue and does what so much of social media fails to do – acknowledges the limits and difficulties of social activism and how it is amplified. The account is smart, intuitive and open. He talks about the ad culture of influencing, the need to take responsibility and try to fix things and the perennial need to keep on learning and relearn. He also talks about foraging, politics, eco anxiety, inclusivity, land-based trauma and why the actual fuck people put their autumn leaves in bin bags. This is a really fresh- feeling conversation, and you will be smarter if you follow.
@queerbrownvegan
