4 responses to “Why You Should Grow Your Own Food, Reason 6: Nutrition”

1. 

   eli

   August 2, 2013

   Kind of a personal question – and one you may not wish to answer on a blog . . . but given you're such an inspiration, I was wondering approximately what percentage of the food you and your family consume do you grow? If you tell me none of my business, I'm going to guess about 40 – 45%. :-)

   1. 

      Survival Gardener, AKA David the Good

      August 2, 2013

      That's a good question. Right now, it's not that high. In the spring it was probably about 50%. In the fall it gets up there again. Right now, if we wanted to, we could live on cassava roots, moringa leaves, chaya and baby sweet potatoes… but really, I think I'll wait until fall and winter when the big root harvest comes in and we've got lots of broccoli and carrots, etc.

      The long-term goal is to get close to 100%, but that's going to take having the fruit trees in production. I also do a lot of writing work which keeps me from dedicating myself completely to gardening. :)

2. 

   ChrisC

   August 3, 2013

   Interesting….

3. 

   rycamor

   August 3, 2013

   Yeah… seeing stuff like this only confirms my mounting suspicions over the years. We are being massively sold out by our food system. It has gotten worse every decade due to

   a) increasing centralization, so produce has to be picked earlier and transported farther
   b) increasing use of pesticides and fertilizers tailored to make produce big and pretty, but not nutritious
   c) genetic modification, all aimed at making food easier to transport, more impervious to pesticides and pests, and of course prettier, but who cares about nutrition?
   d) A huge industry dedicated to convincing people that their nutritional requirements can be met in pill form. We know that most vitamins cannot really be used by the body sans their natural environment. A vitamin is not just a substance, but a biological mechanism. Just extracting a substance from that mechanism does not provide the same benefit.
   e) An even huger industry selling "replacement foods". If it is processed and in a box, what's the likelihood that it has anywhere near the vitamin capability of the produce it was derived from?

   The way I see it, the only supermarket food that has any redeeming quality might be the frozen vegetable section. At least some companies work hard to freeze the produce within hours of picking, to lock in the nutrition. I'm sure the act of freezing probably reduces the vitamin efficacy somewhat, though.