Teach your kids about locally produced food or grow it in your own garden

  • July 9, 2013
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Summary: If we expect our children to eat a healthy diet we must provide them healthy options and teach them about food. The simple act of planting a garden can shape political, social, health and economic issues all while providing much-needed food for people who might not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. You may have heard about a food revolution that includes supporting local growers and producers, backyard gardening and urban gardening or gardening in not-so-typical plots like curb strips, rooftops and vacant lots. The news media has a way of saying things over and over again to the point we stop listening and terms like grow your own and buy local don’t mean as much as they should. Why would I grow my own food when I can more easily buy it at the supermarket? Why would I spend more money on fresh produce at a farm stand or farmers’ market when the big box store has it for half the price? Not everyone has access to fresh produce. We are only now seeing what a generation raised on gas station and fast food looks like. Many kids cannot recognize fresh fruits and vegetables and they are becoming adults who unwrap their food rather than prepare it with fresh ingredients. I have been called a tree hugger so many times for so many years I comfortably refer to myself as such. One does not need to be labeled an extremist to be a good steward of the planet. Industrial agriculture, that which is predominantly the norm in our region, looks rather harmless from the comfort of our climate-controlled vehicle as we speed by with our favorite satellite radio channel tuned in. Upon closer inspection, we realize industrial agriculture is a major source of fossil fuel pollution. Petrochemicals are used to fertilize, spray, and preserve food. Plastics made from oil are used to package that food, carry it out of the store and gasoline is used to transport food to places all over the world. Sustainable agriculture is not acre after acre of corn and soybeans raised for the purpose of feeding animals that will be slaughtered for meat and as added ingredients in nearly every processed packaged product that have invaded our food system. As local gardening and regional sustainable farming grows, it could cause an historic and beneficial economic disruption by facilitating local food production that would compete with the corporate agribusiness on price, quality and availability. Food grown at home or close to home brings awareness about the unhealthy effects of food from the industrial food chain. Food grown at home or close to home can combat a myriad of illnesses through the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables that must be included in a healthy diet. Food grown at home or close to home tastes good. My desire to raise awareness about the benefits of locally produced food and the consumption of fresh food is not to criticize the busy parent who gets dinner from a drive-thru or the budget shopper who clips coupons for packaged products designed to look and taste like food. Eating habits are learned behaviors. Children who eat poor quality food do so because that is what has been provided for them. I am teaching my daughter the best food is food that is grown at home or close to home by a friend or farmer that is doing the same for his family.


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