Why Grow Your Own Food?

It’s healthier:

So many cheap calories flooding into our markets is why we have both a food crisis and a health crisis.  There’s an abundance of “edible, food-like substances” as Pollan would say, that are wreaking havoc on our bodies, contributing to mal-nourishment as well as preventable diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and many forms of cancer.  The idea that healthy food makes healthy people seems lost on pharmaceutical companies and mainstream medicine.  There are so many basic, essential foods that are now thought by many to be unhealthy.  Eggs contain too much bad cholesterol, they say, and yet studies show that cholesterol levels of free-range chickens are lower (and have fewer saturated fats) than ones confined to cages.  Therefore, all eggs are not created equal.  A person who suddenly learns that "eggs and meat are unhealthy" may choose to change his/her diet to something that leaves them undernourished, or they'll continue shoveling in eggs and meat.  Did it ever occur to them to raise their own chickens the right way?  Of course not, they're locked into the hamster wheel, without the time nor the will to pull themselves out of a broken system.  If you decide not to raise your own chickens, find someone close by who does and find out what their methods are.
Chickens with access to vegetation and insects will have eggs high in Omega 3 fatty acids, as opposed to chickens that never see the sun, and eat mostly corn and soy.  If an animal is healthy, getting both exercise and a proper diet, then any products from that animal will be healthy to eat (it’s common sense).  Due to the industrialization of food, being able to eat something healthy is almost impossible unless you grow it yourself.  Not everyone was meant to be a farmer (we sure could use more), but the small farmers of the world need your support.

It is the Purest form of Independence and Freedom:

Another crucial reason for being in control of your own food ties into a very fundamental idea.   Considering that most humans on this earth carry out unfulfilling, monotonous, and arguably pointless jobs, and that we’re forced to submit to a kind of economic slavery in which we have no means of supporting ourselves unless we have money, it seems that in an act of defiance against an obsolete system we can and should create abundance for ourselves and others by growing our own food.  Of course, this can only be accomplished with the hard work of individuals, but ah, what energy and motivation a person is filled with when they realize that they’re working for themselves and their family, not some indifferent corporation that only demands more profit for those at the top of the pyramid.  I think that families struggle to stay together because they’re all strangers when they come home from work, spending most of their time punched-in at their jobs, living out their lives with a surrogate family of co-workers.  To revolt against this dehumanizing model of society is to create your own prosperity using knowledge and technology.  Use the internet to gather your knowledge, and use your income to build an ecosystem in your own backyard.

It Gives You Power:

“Between stints at his job he has nothing to do but mow his lawn with a sit-down lawn mower, or watch other certified experts on television.  At suppertime he may eat a tray of ready-prepared food, which he and his wife (also a certified expert) procure at the cost only of money, transportation, and the pushing of a button.  For a few minutes between supper and sleep he may catch a glimpse of his children, who since breakfast have been in the care of education experts, basketball or marching-band experts, or perhaps legal experts.  The fact is, however, that this is probably the most unhappy average citizen in the history of the world.  He has not the power to provide himself with anything but money, and his money is inflating like a balloon and drifting away, subject to historical circumstances and the power of other people.  From morning to night he does not touch anything that he has produced himself, in which he can take pride.  For all his leisure and recreation, he feels bad, he looks bad, he is overweight, his health is poor.  His air, water, and food are all known to contain poisons.”

“The specialist system fails from a personal point of view because a person who can do only one thing can do virtually nothing for himself.  In living in the world by his own will and skill, the stupidest peasant or tribesman is more competent than the most intelligent worker or technician or intellectual in a society of specialists.”

-From this book:  “The Unsettling of America” by Wendell Berry

It Stops Cruelty and Greed:

Biotechnology is perhaps the most valuable tool humans can use to become sustainable, but it’s a double-edged sword.  For example,  Monsanto bought out the largest seed company in India, forcing small farmers to buy Monsanto’s Bt cotton seeds, which were more expensive, required more inputs like water, fertilizer, and pesticides, and it was illegal for them to save the seeds.  Over time, this resulted in many farmers going into debt.  200,000 farmers in India have committed suicide since 1995, which lead Vandana Shiva, farming activist, to write a book called “Seeds of Suicide.”  The power of biotechnology is so great that if a for-profit corporation wields this technology with a little business savvy, they can potentially control the food/fiber supply of foreign nations and the world.  In the words of Vandana Shiva, “this is more powerful than guns or bombs.”  When this kind of behavior occurs, it makes the United States look bad, and it makes biotech look bad. When one learns that companies like Monsanto are economically enslaving whole countries through GMO crops, are responsible for discharging hazardous chemicals into our waterways, and are suing small farmers  for unknowingly growing their intellectual property, it becomes very difficult to shop at the supermarket without feeling guilty for supporting this industry. The fact that Monsanto is willing to spend millions of dollars to make sure that consumers don’t know what they are eating I find troubling.   Each and every dollar we spend is what will determine what kind of future this earth has.  We have the power to stop Monsanto by gradually withdrawing from the supermarket and building a new culture of local food.  I know it’s not a realistic solution, but it matters to me. Watch the film for yourself and form your own opinion.

It Prepares you for Hard Times:

"Luck favors the prepared" is a phrase I can really identify with, because it gives a taste of reality that is both encouraging and sobering.  The fragility of the world's industrial agriculture is being revealed all the time, and the abundance of food most people in wealthy countries rely on is only temporary, so we should absolutely grow as much as we can, for ourselves and our neighbors.  On the minds of many Americans is an economic collapse, which has given rise to the "doomsday prepper."  My biggest criticism of the armageddonist mentality is that it typically involves a scenario where it's "my family against the world."  This type of thinking is certainly not healthy or sustainable, and seems to welcome a disaster that forces us to abandon our modern lifestyle for some romantic adventure in self-reliance.  I believe that many Americans take for granted just how good they have it, and are in a hurry to start living like the Neanderthals because they think modern civilization is a lost cause.  What I've come to appreciate is being able to live with a combination of modern and primitive technology.  Instead of going "off the grid" I'm feeding the grid with solar panels.  I'm not doing this because I want to have electricity when the world ends, I'm doing this because I want human society to evolve into a modern, sustainable utopia that everyone can enjoy (I'm not saying we're going to achieve perfection, but we should still strive for it).  We need to create a new culture where whole communities are cooperating to become sustainable.  What are we trying to sustain?  Peace among humankind, an abundance of healthy food for all people, technology to save lives and enhance the human condition, and a passion for new ideas.

Setting aside all of the “doom and gloom” reasons for getting involved with growing food, what is my motivation?  For many of us, it’s the sheer joy of getting to see baby chicks chirping under a warm light, it’s tasting a fresh egg whose flavor cannot compare to anything bought at the supermarket, it’s the emotional experience one gets when they taste a home-grown blackberry for the first time.  The act of eating, so simple and yet so sacred, is what drives us.  Playing an active role in where your food comes from and sharing these experiences with your family and friends is my definition of happiness, what nourishes my body and soul.  I cannot stop now.


If we are to become a sustainable human society, and continue to advance in science, technology, and culture, then we need to have a lot more farmers, but not just any farmer.  We need ones that know how to be productive while at the same time can do so without destroying their environment.
Not everyone should be a farmer.  Certainly, we have too many specialists in our society, but that doesn't mean we don't need them.  If you decide that farming isn't for you, then at least support your local regenerative farmers in any way that you can.