Sustainability & Growing Your Own Food
Sustainability is an often misused and misunderstood term today. It would seem at first that if some activity is “sustainable” that would mean it can continue indefinitely without any outside inputs. Kind of like a perpetual motion machine, which we all know cannot exist due to the laws of thermodynamics, physics, etc., etc. From an environmental or ecological perspective, we think of sustainability as having three prongs, or legs of a stool if you prefer. I like to think of it as people, planet, profit.
Whatever we are doing, that we want to be sustainable, must first take care of people. Whether taking care of your own family’s needs for food, shelter, water, etc., or taking on the responsibility of a broader group such as a neighborhood, community, or town, the focus should be on judicious use of resources in a way that benefits the people in the group, however large or small. And, we should be doing our best to take care of this house we live in, the earth. After all, we do occupy this space, with a lot of other organisms of course.
How would you like it if your neighbors started coming over to visit you at your house and began using the living room or kitchen for their own personal hygiene? Bathing in the kitchen sink perhaps and using your tablecloths for towels. I’m sure you can imagine much worse things. The point is, we live in this gigantic house together and we should not only be respectful and careful with what we have now, but we should also be saving some for future generations. We are already mopping up messes from the past. So, sustainability must include consideration for the planet.
The third prong is profit. What does that really mean, and why is it included as part of sustainability? First of all, profit doesn’t always mean money. It can include health, abundance, trade, etc. If a business is not profitable, it won’t be a business very long. Likewise, if we have nothing to show for our efforts, however well we are caring for people and the planet, what are we really doing? In permaculture we like to say, “Share the bounty.” Give a little. Grow a little more than you need so you have some to share. Not everyone can grow food, just like not everyone can fix their garbage disposal.
Which finally brings us to the topic of growing your own food. Have you priced produce lately? What does “organic” really mean? Likewise, “natural” is a completely useless term as it applies to food. What is safe anymore? Can pesticides really harm me? Why does it matter? These are very common questions, and I hear them a lot.
Remember the paragraph above about profit? The dark side of profit is called greed. When companies start to cut corners or not be as careful with toxins in our food to increase their profit margins, that’s the dark side. Do apple growers care about what happens to the end user? Not likely. After all, everyone knows you’re supposed to wash all fruits and vegetables before consuming them, right? Let me tell you, there is nothing like walking out into your own back yard and picking a fresh ripe apple off your tree and before that sumptuous fruit has realized it’s no longer attached, you sink your teeth into a crisp, juicy bite and begin savoring every sweet molecule of that flesh. Mmmmm . . .
Why can we do this in the back yard garden? Because we have put in the effort to grow it ourselves. We have used clean water. We have used good, preferably organic, fertilizers. We have watched for and picked off the bad critters and not used pesticides. We have pulled the weeds that ultimately invade areas we are nurturing and not used herbicides. We have put in the effort to raise the perfect fruit or vegetable and now we can enjoy it without fear. We can pick a fresh tomato, squash, cucumber, apple, peach, or pear and know exactly what’s been put into its upbringing.
Okay, so not everyone has the space to grow their own food. But everyone can grow something. One tomato plant in a pot. One zucchini plant in a corner bed. How about a watermelon plant in one of your tree wells? You’re already watering it, right? The possibilities are endless. So many things can be used for container gardening that do not cost much if anything. Straw bales can make a nice garden. Garbage cans, nursery pots, lined milk crates. Virtually anything that will hold garden soil and not dissolve when watered.
Lastly, grow what you and your family will eat. This sounds obvious, but you might be surprised to find out the members of your family aren’t that excited about some vegetables. Don’t grow several vines of butternut squash only to find out nobody likes it. Sure it will keep a long time, but what’s the point? If you just love to grow plants and you don’t really care about who eats them, that’s fine too; there are a lot of people who need food. Grow something, cut your grocery bill, have some fun, teach the kids, and remember, gardening is therapeutic. That’s probably why it is still America’s favorite pastime!
See You In The Garden!
The Horticoach