There are so many reasons home grown foods are better for the environment and for you. An interesting fact is that people who garden are actually more likely to eat vegetables than those who don't. Vegetables are important to our daily health because they are packed with important vitamins and nutrients. Gardening itself can even be considered exercising which is very important to maintain your fitness and mobility. Most vegetables can even strengthen your immune system and be considered disease fighting. Another amazing thing about growing your own food is that it tastes better because of the nutrients in your soil, and because they are fresh. As fruits and vegetables sit they lose the sugars and nutrients that give them flavor, this means the fresher the food the better the taste. Along with being better for your health, home grown food is even better for the environment and reducing your carbon footprint. When you grow and pick your own food or even buy it locally there is a lot less packaging used meaning a lot less fossil fuels burned. Furthermore, when you grow or locally buy food it doesn't require the transportation most food does. Planes, cars, trains and other forms of transportation and shipment use a lot of energy that contribute to the greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. When you have your own garden you can also avoid adding harmful chemicals to the environment like pesticides that are often used on large farms. One last thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint is start composting! Instead of throwing away your food scraps you can make a compost pile, later you can add the compost to your garden to enrich the soil and grow healthier, tastier, and overall a more sustainable source of food.

Source: https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/il … nvironment