One significant benefit to our environment when people grow their own food is the reduction in packaging. With a reduction in packaging, we reduce fossil fuel inputs. Other chemical inputs and pesticides are also much less in a small, well-tended garden that you grow yourself. If you are unable to maintain a personal garden at your home, buying your food from a farmer’s market or a local grower will also help minimize your environmental impact.
How Commercial Foods Impact Our Environment
When you look at all the produce in your local grocery store, you have to take into account all the energy that has gone into getting it to that store. One study found that on average, food travels approximately 1,500 miles before it gets consumed. Long-distance, large-scale transportation of these foods relies heavily on burning fossil fuels.
Burning fossil fuels is associated with environmental risks and public health. Climate change is one of those risks and one that could eventually create a life-or-death situation. These fossil fuels contain a huge amount of energy but are not in an untouched, pure state. Fossil fuels need to be refined and purified before becoming usable, which leaves excess waste materials that have to be disposed of. Handling these toxic waste materials is taking a large toll on wildlife health, the environment’s health, and the health of humans.
Growing your own foods provides you the sustainability to avoid negative repercussions surrounding commercial foods. It is your opportunity to protect your health and your environment’s health.
Benefits of Growing Your Own Food
Avoiding some of the negative factors involved with shopping for foods, including a heavy dependence on carcinogenic pesticides, fertilizers, and heavy dependence on fossil fuels, growing your own food gives you some fantastic benefits including exercise. You can also encourage your children to join in so they learn healthy eating habits as well.
Growing your own foods gives you better tasting foods that have a higher nutritional value, and diversifies your palate as you are exposed to healthier foods. Perhaps one of the most significant benefits of growing your own food is how it will shrink your grocery bill. Organic foods at the supermarket always have a higher price tag. Growing your own fruits and vegetables removes the need for you to purchase these products from the store or market.
Another unique benefit is the ability to enjoy a snack of freshly picked vegetables or fruits every day. You are also able to add some fantastic fresh greens to a salad or use fresh homegrown aromatic herbs to the family meal. Your home-grown plants will provide your family with a higher nutritional content eliminating your need for supplements.
If you live in a part of the world where it becomes snowy and cold during the winter, or blazing hot in the summer, you can still grow your own foods with a HydroArtPod, an indoor growing garden that provides you the ability to grow vegetables inside your home.
These are some of the environmental and health benefits of growing your own food.
1. Reduce Carbon Emissions
It takes an amazing amount of our natural resources to perform commercial farming. It requires the use of heavy equipment that uses a significant amount of fuel for both cultivation and transportation. Partly due to so many food miles, foods grown commercially through the agriculture industry are responsible for 11% of all greenhouse gas emissions
2. Reduces the Use of Fertilizers and Pesticides
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) reports the use of pesticides in the United States for use in commercial foods runs at 1 billion pounds (450 million kg) per year, which is enough for 5.8m baths.
The sale of fertilizer in the U.S. runs over $19 billion every year. When you grow your own foods, you decide what to put into the system whether it be organic or synthetic.
3. Creates a Connection With Nature
Growing your own foods provides you the opportunity to connect with nature by interacting with your plants and enjoying the fruits of your labor. You and your family can directly experience all the elements involved in the growing process. There’s a special lesson to be learned from growing your own food. Kids learn to value what they eat and build healthy eating habits that stay with them for life.
Cultivating this connection with nature is especially wonderful for anyone living in urban areas who have little exposure to growing.
Where to Learn More About the Sustainability of Growing Your Own Food
There are many ways to be able to grow at home, from just a little to covering most of your own needs. For many people though, a lack of time, space, knowledge and suitable climate make this difficult.
The new smart way to garden is made available to you by HydroArtPod. We have created a smart home indoor gardening system that is easy to manage and provides you with incredible, healthy foods. If you want to learn more about the sustainability of growing your own foods, contact one of our specialists and find out how you can get started today.