There are at least 12 good reasons I can think of to grow your own food; but simply we are so disconnected from the food we eat today. Many children think the only place to buy food is from a big box store, hamburger is born in plastic wrapping and fruit and vegetables are perfect clones of one another. Mild exaggeration but not far from the truth. Over the decades we have become detached from our food sources and have little to do with the earth.
Healthy, chemical free food is so important in our lives today; consider growing some of your own vegetables. Here are some thoughts to help you on your way.
Grow your own Food – here’s 12 good reasons
- Vegetable gardening can be fun and enjoyable
- Gardening is therapeutic; good for your body and brain, heart and soul. Take up gardening to help prevent colon cancer or stroke.
- Grow Organic – no pesticides or herbicides. Look at the Dirty Dozen Clean 15 list of pesticide residuals in fruits and vegetables and consider growing worst first, i.e. apples, strawberry, spinach, etc.
- Gardening reduces food waste – in fact nothing goes to waste – all your own food is eaten fresh, preserved (canning), frozen or recycled as compost. When you work to grow your food, from seed to table, you just don’t throw it away.
- Food Safety & Availability – become more food self-reliant and not tied to a system. Climate change is affecting our food supply i.e. drought in California or a freeze in Florida affects what we eat and what we pay for our food in Canada
- Stock up, can or freeze your own food for winter when fresh produce is unavailable or priced at a premium.
- Community – share produce, knowledge, and resources with others.
- Financial – who doesn’t want to save money and the cost of food today is high and forecast to increase in 2016. Organic food is often priced higher.
- Learn something new yourself and pass on your gardening knowledge to the next generation or your grand kids.
- Taste and nutrition are at the top of anyone’s list for growing their own chemical free food. Nothing can compare to the taste of a just-picked sweet strawberry or juicy tomato on a summer’s day.
- Those birds and bees again. In other articles I have listed the many insects, birds and animals we have visit and live in our small garden.
- The Environment: Compost takes less energy to make at home. Greenhouses and cold frames are passive solar growing areas and lengthen the growing season. Not buying long distance produce saves fuel (trucking) and mulching your garden saves water, time and energy. The Environment is damaged by toxic chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides …
“There is now overwhelming evidence that some of these chemicals do pose a potential risk to humans and other life forms and unwanted side effects to the environment […]. No segment of the population is completely protected against exposure to pesticides and the potentially serious health effects, though a disproportionate burden, is shouldered by the people of developing countries and by high risk groups in each country. The world-wide deaths and chronic diseases due to pesticide poisoning number about 1 million per year.“
~ “Impact of pesticides use in agriculture: their benefits and hazards”
– US National Library of Medicine
Floored by Rising Food Prices
Links & References
- Climate Change & Food Production in Canada Campbell, I.D., Durant D.G., Hunter, K.L. and Hyatt, K.D. (2014): Food Production; in Canada in a Changing Climate: Sector Perspectives on Impacts and Adaptation, (ed.) F.J. Warren and D.S. Lemmen; Government of Canada, Ottawa, ON, p. 99-134.
- Climate Change & Food Security Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 2008
- Food Safety, University of Maryland, Medical Center, 5/5/2014
- A Garden in My Apartment Ted Talks
- “Climate Change”, Holper and Torok, CSIRO Publishing, 2008
