WHY GROW YOUR OWN FOOD?
There are a lot of reasons to grow your food. Here are five motivating reasons to grow your food.
1. FRESH AND HEALTHY FOOD
2. GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
3. GREATER CHOICE OF VEGETABLES & FRUITS
4. GOOD EXERCISE FOR HEALTH
5. FUTURE IS ORGANIC GARDENING
FRESH AND HEALTHY
We are all well aware that the route to good health is through eating more fruits and vegetables, but you may not have considered the direct benefits of growing them yourself. Vitamin and antioxidant levels are at their highest when crops are first picked, with the levels falling by half after a week or so. In shops, you can rarely tell how long ago “fresh” produce was picked or how well it has been stored, especially if it is imported or kept in refrigeration. When you have your own wigwam of runner beans, or a big pot of tomatoes on your patio, you can harvest and eat them within hours, or even minutes.
GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
Our planet is overheating and, we should concern about the impact of food production on the environment, especially in terms of the “food miles” that build up when we import crops over huge distances. When you grow your own, food miles are reduced to zero, and the carbon footprint is negligible. Fundamentally, the world's population has to feed, and by cultivating whatever space you have, you are making a small step to reduce the stress on global supply. If you wish, you will also be able to choose to grow your food organically. Life revolved around are changing, and there is no better way to discover the seasonal nature of food crops than to grow your own all year round.
GREATER CHOICE
In shops, you have a limited choice of types of strawberries, broccoli, or carrots, for example, because commercial growers are motivated by yield, shelf-life, and uniformity and grow vast monocultures of just a few varieties. When you grow your own, there are thousands of different crops and combinations to try with qualities suited to your tastes. You may never see 'Yin Yang' French beans or 'Double Red' sweetcorn in the supermarket, but you can grow them yourself.
GOOD EXERCISE FOR HEALTH
If you feel a bit confined in a gym, gardening provides a great alternative to exercise. One hour's digging can burn off more than 300 calories, and light pottering, weeding, mulching, watering, and planting involves lifting, stretching, and bending. It's the perfect workout. (Chamberlain 2020)
THE FUTURE IS ORGANIC GARDENING
Organic food is widely available in supermarkets and specialty stores; many governments support organic farming and research. More and more people are turning to organic methods of gardening. Every time there is another food scare or another pesticide’s dangers come to light, more people turn to eat and grow organically. As climate change’s effects become more prominent, and we are encouraged to reduce our “carbon footprint,” organic gardening offers practical ways to do this in the garden. (Garden Organic, DK Publishing, Inc 2008)
References
Chamberlain, L. (2020). RHS step-by-step veg patch: A foolproof guide to every stage of growing fruit and veg / Lucy Chamberlain. Dorling Kindersley.
Garden Organic (Organization); DK Publishing, Inc. (2008). Grow organic (1st American ed.). Dorling Kindersley.
