Several years ago I started down this path of growing my own food because of some of the things I had been learning about where my food comes from. I had heard things about this country's food supply that greatly disturbed me and I started to pay attention. Mostly the changes I made started out as baby steps.
In the beginning I would try to buy more organic foods at the store when I could find them and if I could afford them. I was more than a little disappointed in the selection and the quality of organic foods at the time. Much of the produce was damaged or small, would not keep for very long, and it cost almost twice as much as the non-organic produce located on the other side of the aisle. Most of this was probably due to the long shipping distance the food had to travel before it reached my cart at the store.
More and more I became aware of the local food movement. I looked for local farmers markets and was disappointed yet again. The town I lived in at the time didn't have a farmers market and the closest one was a forty-five minute drive away. I didn't visit it often because I couldn't justify traveling that far for a few fruits and veggies.
Here and there I would try growing veggies for myself, though mostly it consisted of a few containers on the shady front stoop and never produced enough for more than a handful of salads. When I finally moved to a place that I could really garden at, I was overwhelmed with ideas of what I wanted to grow and how I wanted to grow it.
The first years garden looked huge when we marked off the area it was to cover. That first year was a first in many different ways. I was so excited to have a real garden that I wanted to try to grow as many different things as I could. I don't know if it was just beginners luck, but by my standards that garden was a smashing success. Sure there were some things that didn't grow well, but other things produced so well that we were overwhelmed. The potatoes that years were softball sized and weighed in at several pounds each. The zucchini was so prolific that I couldn't keep up with it no matter how much I ate, froze, dehydrated and gave away. We also raised our first chickens that year and today you couldn't pay me to eat the factory raised eggs you get from the store. Happy, healthy animals make healthy, tasty food.
The point is this: everyone is at a different level on this continuum of food production. Many of us still get everything we eat from the grocery store, and that is ok. Some of us grow everything we eat and that is fine too. There are many people who are somewhere in between. The fact is that the more aware you are of your food choices, the more of an impact you can have on how your food is produced. In our consumerist society every dollar that is spent is a vote to continue down one path or another. When you buy processed foods in a box or from a fast food chain you are encouraging that business to continue to do things the way they have been doing it- regardless of environmental or health consequences. When you choose to spend your money on seeds to grow in your own backyard you are encouraging the other end of the spectrum. Whatever is encouraged the most will be what what becomes the stronger company in the end. If you encourage companies that pollute the environment and provide unhealthy food you will end up with a sick or dying environment and legions of diseased people that will spend more money on health care than is reasonable. If you encourage companies that are environmentally responsible and provide nourishing foods, then you will wind up with a healthy environment and healthy people that can spend their money on things other than health care which in turn would help the local economy. It seems as though no one ever really thinks about the consequences when they buy food. By becoming more informed about our food system, we can indeed effect the change that this country so badly needs. It won't happen overnight, but if we all take baby steps to make the necessary changes, then thing will indeed change. We just need to be willing to begin today.
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