Growing food at home has numerous benefits. Some of these benefits are access to healthy eating, growing a wide variety of foods, getting fresh and nutritious produce, access to uncontaminated products, increase physical activity and flexibility saves money for investing or meeting other needs, among many other benefits.
To grow your food all year round, you need a greenhouse. To ensure that your plants flourish and grow well in the greenhouse, you will need to ensure that you have suitable temperatures, humidity, proper ventilation, and light throughout the growing season. You will, therefore, need to invest in LED grow lights, for perfect illumination. Grow lights supplement natural lighting and enhance the process of photosynthesis. A wide variety of such lights are available at californialightworks.
Many studies reveal that plants respond to particular light wavelengths and maximally utilize chlorophyll under exposure to blue and red illumination. A greenhouse helps you grow food under a controlled environment. This makes grow lights essential accessories for your greenhouse venture.
During this Covid 19 Pandemic, many economies have been affected adversely, leading to reduced household incomes and job losses. This financial strain means that many families lack enough money to buy food or meet other basic needs. Below are some of the reasons why you should consider growing your food.
1. Saves Money
Growing your food is way cheaper than buying supplies from the supermarket. This is because commercially grown produce goes through many channels and costs more. These costs include transport costs, storage costs, and the margins for the producers and the retail sellers. The cost of production is loaded on the consumer. This makes commercially grown farm produce three times expensive in comparison to homegrown produce. Therefore, to reduce your cost, grow food in your backyard, and watch your savings grow.
2. Health and Nutrition
What a better way than to eat and enjoy a healthy and balanced food except by growing it yourself! As you grow your crops, you decide on the specific plants you want on your plate and finally in your body. While at it, remember to include vegetables and fruits, which are a good source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. They help boost your immunity and prevent diseases like cancer, diabetes, hypertension, among other conditions.
Recently, WHO revealed that one of the ways to overcome the Covid 19 pandemic is eating nutritious foods. Food that is grown at home is fresh, very nutritious, and tasty. The crops are free from pesticide residue, preservatives, or radiation used during growth and storage.
As you do gardening, you’re exposed to direct sunshine, which is a good source of vitamin D. This is an essential mineral for proper development of teeth and bones. It also helps in calcium utilization in the body.
3. Physical fitness and flexibility
While gardening, you do various activities such as: digging, lifting, bending, pulling, walking, and stretching. These activities involve muscular and physical movement and, therefore, improve cardiac health and boosts immunity.
It is also important to note that since gardening is done outdoor, it provides an opportunity to breathe clean, fresh air that is good for your health. Physical exercise boosts energy and provides mental clarity, which is essential for a quality life.
4. Stress management
Stress is a key factor in disease occurrence among many people. There’s a lot of anxiety, fear, and uncertainty during this pandemic. Gardening can help in stress management as it keeps you preoccupied and, therefore, not concentrate on their current predicament.
The hope that food will be available from the garden helps reduce some of the anxiety on the family’s food needs. Activities you engage in during gardening also helps relieve stress and anxiety, which eventually could lead to depression.
5. Added income
Everyone needs some extra cash to meet their daily needs. This is because many people do not have sufficient income to cover all their needs. Many have had to keep two jobs to make ends meet. Growing food at home will reduce your recurrent costs and provide extra income through the sale of food products.
Farming is easy, enjoyable, and lots of fun. You can turn it into a cash cow by selling fresh farm produce to your neighbors. You will be amazed at their response. The demand for your products might turn out to be insatiable. This is so, especially, now when many cities are under lockdown and traveling across borders is limited.
6. Taking care of the environment
In recent years, the environment has been experiencing a lot of pollution. The extraction and usage of fossil fuels, air pollution from industries, carbon fuels, pesticides, and herbicides as well as chemicals used in food processing compromises the environment.
During the recent lockdown on cities, many aircraft and automobiles have been parked. This has given the environment time to rejuvenate. The air is getting cleaned, and there are minimal emissions of pollutants from factories, ships, and motor vehicles.
Before food gets to you, it is processed, packed, and transported by planes, trucks, ships, and other modes of transport. On the other hand, when grown in a greenhouse, it only needs preparation, and then used immediately to leave the farm.
Therefore, growing food reduces the rate at which fossil fuels are used in transportation. Environmental pollution caused by pesticides and herbicides in commercial farms is decreasing.
7. Offers a Learning Opportunity
Home food production in gardens or greenhouses allows children and grownups to gain knowledge of food production. Many people buy readily packed food from supermarkets. This deprives them of learning how it is grown, nurtured, and harvested before reaching the shelves. What a better way to learn than to do it yourself!
The importance of growing your food cannot be overemphasized. Food is our lifeline, and we, therefore, cannot do without eating. It provides us with nourishment, nutrition, energy, and promotes growth. During this time of the Covid-19 pandemic, try to grow your food in your backyard. You will not regret the decision.
