3 Reasons to Grow Your Own Veg

My Grampy had a mixed farm. He had cows, a few sheep, some chickens and grew crops in the fields too.

I remember collecting eggs with him and feeling bad for the chickens, who were in tiny battery cages – this was the beginning of industrialised farming back in 1979. He then switched to synthetic fertilisers instead of good old muck spreading.

It doesn’t take a naturopath to tell you that the way we farm today is affecting mankind's health and that modern food production methods encourage new diseases to spread rapidly amongst nutritionally-deficient humans and animals.

The World Health Organization reports that the use of chemicals and other products on food, coupled with the manufacturing processes involved, are a threat to our health.

So I say, grow your own veg! Even if it’s only green beans or 'cut and come again' lettuce, it’s a perfect time to plant them out, and they can be grown in a pot - you don’t need an allotment!

Here’s why:

1. You will have no pesticides on the stuff you grow. Research by organic food associations has shown that additives in our food can cause heart diseases, osteoporosis, migraines and hyperactivity. Pesticides are not just poisonous to insects – they poison humans too.

2. Your own organic veg will be much more tasty, and they will bring you SO much more joy than anything you buy in the supermarket.

3. You won’t be irradiating your home-grown veg before you eat it, which means all those helpful, beneficial soil organisms that get nuked before they’re sold by supermarkets will make it into your gut. Your immune system will thank you for them.

The easiest things to grow are beetroot, rocket and green beans. Buy some starter plants from the garden centre and get growing!