Planet Veggie Garden

It seems pretty easy - time wise, thought wise, effort wise - to hop in the car, motor to the grocery store, fill the cart and stock the frig and cabinets.
Little guess work involved. The grocery store generally has what you’re looking for. It’s a dependable process.

Growing your own food, not quite so easy.
You have to plan well in advance as to timing, variety and quantity.

For the most part, the grocery store (and farmer’s markets) are always a back stop. One you’re likely to rely on less and less as you get into the rhythm of gardening.

While for sure you can spend less cash on food by growing your own, there’s really far more to it.

Gardening is part:
-> Skill which you continually improve over time - such as developing your soil, choosing the optimal varieties for your area, choosing the best location for specific varieties within your garden and getting plants in the ground during the best window of time.
-> Art - developing a relationship with the circle of (plant) life, developing an intuition/”sixth sense” about your soil and plants, developing a rhythm that includes your garden as part of your life.
-> Chance - such as the weather.

Food is a very basic need. More basic than procreation.
Before the advent of grocery stores, we were much closer to our food source… dependent on our ability to grow it or trade for it, and much less so - buy it.

Some would argue perhaps we were too dependent. They might cite the “Potato Famine” in Ireland and the “Dust Bowl” years in the 1930’s as well as droughts and floods that somewhat regularly occur throughout the world.

They might argue that “industrialized” food is more economically diversified allowing us to survive individual supply disruptions.
I can’t truly counter-argue that point. But I can counter question:
At what cost?

Some of the costs of industrialized food are:
• A dramatic decrease in varieties of food… monoculture farming. Different varieties adapted to different growing conditions. Just as skin has adapted to sun exposure such that cultures that live in continents with a lot of sun have darker - more sun tolerant - complexion.
• The extensive use of pesticides and fertilizers… and the resulting impact on the environment and our health.
• The carbon and landfill costs of packaging.
• The carbon costs of transporting food from factory farm to processing plant to packaging plant to distribution center to grocery store to your kitchen.
• The food safety aspect of processing and packaging food… can’t get through a year without multiple e coli and salmonella outbreaks.

There’s a lot of costs of industrialized food that aren’t measured by your bill at the checkout counter.

And there’s a lot of savings in growing your own food that aren’t measured by a decreased grocery bill.
Eating fresh, sustainably grown food taste way better and it’s way better for you health wise.
Getting out in the garden for a little physical activity is also better for your body and your mind.

Isn’t it time to swing the pendulum in the other direction?

 

Here are a few more like this one:

• Better way to beat food inflation
• Will food policy change?
• Slow Food Nation USA – What is it and where do I fit in?