Home-grown food comes with many benefits. When growing food at home, less meat is eaten and more vegetables are eaten. Having a more vegetable-heavy diet comes with many benefits, including eating healthier, spending less money on food, and helping the environment. When animals are reproducing for the sole purpose of being consumed, it lets out unnecessary greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, including methane, CO2, and nitrous oxide. As well as releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, negatively affecting the Earth, it also takes thousands of gallons of water to raise the livestock. For example, one single burger takes 4,000-18,000 gallons of water to create (average but not exact estimation). Home-grown food is also extremely nutritious and wholesome compared to restaurant food. Although it is just as nutritious as the vegetables sold in supermarkets, growing food at home can allow people the ability to control how their food is grown (pesticides, chemicals, etc.). By eating food grown at home instead of at restaurants, not only is it positively impacting you but the Earth as well. Personally, I have not started growing food at home. However, I hope that in the future, I can start growing my own food in an effort to help the Earth.

Source:
https://www.deseret.com/2012/7/12/20504 … aised%20in.

Buying locally produced food reduces the distance that food needs to travel in order to reach you. The vehicle that transports the food goes a shorter distance, and emits less greenhouse gasses. This is a good reason to start eating local food on its own, but another understated reason is the spillover effect of doing the action itself. Other people will see that it’s possible to incorporate eating local food into your life, and will follow suit. Realizing that you yourself can take this step to help against climate change can also inspire you to look for other actions you can take to contribute. This additional effect can also spillover, and cause other people to look to contribute, creating an infection of climate justice.

While researching for this post, I found a reason to eat local food that I haven’t heard of before. It protects local lands. It keeps local farmers in business by giving them money. If local farmers weren’t to be in business, they’d sell their lands and the land might be redeveloped for industrial or commercial uses. This outcome most likely creates more greenhouse gas emissions than the original local farmer’s business did. Redevelopment can also hurt the wildlife on the lands. (The reason came from the University of Waterloo source) Another reason again provided from this source is that food transported from far away places can spoil before being purchased by someone. Because of this, that food is wasted. Food from local areas travels a shorter distance, and has less time to spoil before being purchased. 30-40% of all the US’ food is food waste, and reducing this number allows us to use more of what we have.

Another topic I wanted to bring up was the most local food possible; a home food garden. I myself have a giant garden at my school, and it’s used sometimes to make food for activities for clubs, or give food products in a raffle. I have noticed it takes quite a bit of work to maintain though, which may be a border for schools who want to adopt it. The garden was built on an unused slope along the side of the hill, and was repurposed into a natural habitat for life and a place to keep the garden. I also am trying to develop vegetable plants at home, and enjoy it myself and would suggest it for others. One tip that I believe is crucial if this is a route someone is interested in, is to try to not get disheartened when your plants die. It’s a sad part of the learning process, and it may feel as if it’s because they aren’t capable of being a home gardener. But, with trial and error, it’s possible to grow plants that survive and grow produce. The joy when a garden survives, and the taste of the produce is worth the effort.

Sources
https://uwaterloo.ca/food-services/blog … nvironment
https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs