on Jun 3rd, 2008Why Garden - A Follow Up
I wanted to write a follow up about why you should garden. A scathing rant telling you that the Farmer’s Market “where they have all these great heirloom tomatoes laid out in authentic wooden bushel baskets arranged in a perfect rainbow and kissed just right by the sunlight” or god forbid, “I buy organic from Wild Oats” or God, Jesus, the Devil, and all the saints forbid, “You can buy all that organic crap at Walmart now so what’s the big deal?” is just not good enough.
Growing a garden is simultaneously a specific and symbolic act. Specifically you are growing your own food which is a healthy and environmental act. Specifically you are taking back the most fundamental part of your life, feeding yourself, and reclaiming it as your own. These actions work on the symbolic plane as well. Symbolically is a pronouncement of independence and a willfully politically act to plant and raise a garden.
And most fundamental of all, home gardening works. During World War 2 Victory Gardens, which were home gardens, provided 40% of domestic produce consumption.
That’s how effective home gardening can be. It can, with enough participation, take back 40% of our produce consumption from big agriculture, which at its best is a way to feed the world with the same 5 inferior tasting cereal grains genetically engineered by Monsanto and others so that you are financially beholden to them for your crops. At its worst industrial scale agriculture is a mechanized environmental disaster.
Plus, your own vegetables taste better.
So, I was going to write a long winded screed along those lines… and then I read Michael Pollan’s thoughtful essay in the New York Times, Why Bother [gardening], and you should really just go read him instead. More thought less screech.