“Ten Good Reasons To Grow Your Own” (11): We were doing a little “relaxing” reading last week in one of our booklets from Bountiful Gardens entitled “Backyard Garden ‘Research’ For Food & Flavor” by John Jevons & Bill Bruneau.
In this booklet was a section called “Ten Good Reasons To Grow Your Own” (there are actually 11 good reasons in this small section) . If the reasons sound good to you then go to bountifulgardens.org, click on the Ecology Action Research Papers section and look for BEA – 0017. We keep two copies as they’re valuable and inexpensive.
Anyway, they seemed to fit in well with our book review subject matter and here we are with “Ten Good Reasons To Grow Your Own“ (11):
#1. Fresher Food – - … “dinner at your doorstep.”
#2. Better Flavor – - “Produce in the market is bred for toughness and storability. You can choose varieties for flavor and harvest them at their peak.”
#3. No Pesticide Residues – - “You can control how your food is grown.”
#4. Money – - “A 50 square-foot garden can produce 75-150+ pounds of vegetables in 5-15 minutes a day. Your time saves money while you grow better food.”
#5. Reduce Air Pollution – -”Save trips to the grocery and reduce the amount of food that is trucked across country and shipped across oceans.”
#6. Reduce Garbage – - “Eliminate the wasted cans, bottles, boxes, and plastic bags that package our food. Compost your vegetable waste.”
#7. SAVE WATER (caps/PH) – - “80% of our water nationwide is used to produce food, and water is fast becoming a critical resource with underground reserves being depleted in many agricultural areas. Biointensive techniques use 1/3 to 1/16 the water per pound of food grown.”
PrudentHome Comment: This is the kind of information we had in mind during our beginning review of Steve Solomon’s book, “Gardening when it counts“, when we said that Mr. Solomon’s view that biointensive gardening used more water than some of the other techniques he proposed was open to question.
#8. Renew The Soil – - “Most agricultural systems eventually deplete the soil. Tests by a University of California soil science graduate student show that the biodynamic/French Intensive method may be one of the few approaches that actually build the soil over time. It also has the great potential for eventually helping reclaim decertified areas.”
#9. Create A Multiple-Use Homestead – - “Fruit – and nut- producing trees can shade your house, block cold winds, and provide wood and food.”
#10. Exercise – - plus the satisfaction of working with fresh air, soil, water, and living plants … .”
BONUS: #11. More Nutritious Food – - “Fresh-picked produce is higher in vitamins and adds more color, flavor, and texture to meals. Also, children love vegetables when they help grow them.”
FOOD SECURITY: From PrudentHome please add this vital reason to grow your own food.
A quick look at our world food situation should give support here:
- More than 1 billion people now suffering from hunger in the face of a world population increasing at the rate of a Great Britain per year,
- Climate change producing food-killing droughts, cyclones/hurricanes, etc.,
- Peak Oil – With about 90% of the worlds food produced via fossil fuels, then when oil production declines - food production declines.,
- Decreasing farm land availability – Major countries like China and India are buying farmland outside of their own countries to insure food security for their populations.,
- Fresh water stocks diminishing, reducing agricultural production., and finally
- World Food/Grain reserves are now low and there is a tendency to deplete reserves even more for both market ($) and humanitarian needs.
For family food security, the prudent family must stock food reserves and be able to produce additional food for itself.
Until a little later; keep your eyes on the horizon as the weathers moving fast.
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