Growing one’s own food first began about 12,000 years ago after hunting and gathering started to slowly transition to farming. When the first supermarket opened in 1916, farming based produce was at a major decline. Fast forward to 2022, more and more people are transitioning back to our ancestors’ roots and growing their own food. There are many health benefits fr om growing our own food that can last for many generations.
Growing our own food has become more prominent within the last few years. “Things are looking very green in the land of red, white and blue. A new study finds eight in 10 Americans have grown their own produce over the past year,” (Melore, 2021). Although the COVID–19 pandemic in the United States helped push people towards growing their own food due to food rationing and shortages, many have continued post pandemic. There are so many amazing health benefits associated with growing our own food, including decreasing our carcinogen pesticide and fertilizer intake. Supermarkets produce are heavily sprayed with pesticides that we ingest daily. “In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the use of many pesticides that were not yet extensively researched and were later linked to cancer and other diseases” (Qutab, 2021). When we buy our fruits and vegetables during our weekly food shopping trip, do we ever think about where our food is coming from? Do we ever think about how our food is produced? Our first thought should be to ingest produce that has not been sprayed with pesticides, however this is not usually the case.
According to the article written by Marina Qutab (2021), 80% of pesticides used in the United States comes from our agriculture. But what if we grew our own food and knew exactly how it was being grown? When we grow our own food, we can control exactly what is being used on our crops. We can pass on the pesticides that cause cancer and use fertilizer that contains nutrients rather than harmful chemicals. These two things can help decrease your chances of not only cancer, but chronic illnesses such as Parkinson’s Disease, COPD, and Diabetes as well.
As one can see, there is great benefit to growing one’s own food. Not only is gardening a fun hobby, but it can also contribute to increasing health benefits. Knowing what is used on our produce and how our produce is grown is extremely important and can help prevent chronic disease and illness. We can even prevent reproductive harm and birth defects in our future generations by knowing how our food is produced. Eat like your ancestors and grow your own food!
References
- https://studyfinds.org/growing-own–fruit–vegetables–gardens–food–bills/
- https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/how–growing–your–own–food–can–benefit–the–planet/
