Great Green Idea: Green Gardening: Grow Your Own Food

Grow Your Own Food

Grocery prices are increasing extortionately. The cost of groceries now often take up more than 20% of a family's income. In a time when even many middle-class families have to accept food stamps from the state, we must find and use more sustainable methods of nourishing ourselves.

Most people are aware of the environmental problems caused by the unscrupulous global giants of agribusiness, who are treating our fruits, grains and vegetables with chemicals whose long-term effects are not known, as well as many chemical substances which are known beyond doubt to be harmful. These chemicals stream into the soil, year after year, spilling into natural bodies of water like rivers and streams and seeping down into the water table. Knowledge of these chemicals is often treated as a trade secret, and consumers have no way of knowing what is truly on their plate. These chemical additives cause bodily harm to people who imbibe them, and many are even carcinogens.

The other cost of produce grown commercially is its packaging and transportation. Trees are cut down to make paper and cardboard, and worse, petroleum is made into plastic in a process which is environmentally harmful. Plastics and also styrofoam are widely used to package and transport grown goods into commercial markets, where consumers furthermore go and fill even more plastic containers in order to bring their purchases home to eat. It is a commercial system that depletes the soil of its nutrients, poisons and sickens human beings, and charges almost criminal amounts of money in order to do so.

But all over the world, people are turning to sustainable agriculture and organic gardening. Like the success of the victory gardens during the tumultuous years of World War II, millions of people are converting what land they personally own into green gardens that produce enough food to at least partially, if not completely, sustain them throughout the year.

In defiance of the so-called factory farms which infuse meat stock with antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids, and other harmful substances, many people are even raising their own animals; cows or goats for milk, chickens to give eggs year round, even cattle and swine stock for producing home-raised meat.

This trend reaches globally and gains momentum. It saves consumers great deals of money-not only in food savings, but in medical expenses that they save by living a more healthy, active, organic lifestyle. It has pleased individuals from time immemorial to tend the earth and grow things by the work of their own hands. There is a peace that comes of harvesting the bounty of the earth. And that sense of peace may bring us to a healthier and more prosperous future.