What is food independence anyway?
I had never even thought about food independence before 2020. I am sure most of you were just living your life, focusing on your job, kids, passions etc. just like I was. We were all just taking care of our families and doing life.
Things changed for me when I noticed signs in the stores listing the items I could only buy a limited amount of (I am clutching a roll of toilet paper right now just thinking about it!) or even worse the shelves being completely bare. One time I was checking out with two packs of chicken and I was told I couldn’t buy that many. We have a family of six people so one pack wasn’t enough. Needless to say, I was uncomfortable and fear started creeping in.
I decided then that I was going to learn how to grow food.
Food independence can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In a nutshell it means having the ability to provide food for oneself and your community. Here are the first steps of food independence to consider:
- Growing vegetables in a garden
- Saving seeds
- Raising animals for meat
- Locally sourcing food you cannot grow or raise
Why is food independence important? The obvious reason is that you are taking control of some of the production so that builds resilience and also makes you less dependent. It also keeps money in your local community which really supports hardworking local farmers. It also helps the environment because sustainable organic farming builds up the soil and thus helps the environment.
I also think that it challenges us to eat seasonally which is truly fascinating to me. I will explore that more in future posts but when you grow your own food, you really understand what grows during certain times of the year and I believe eating that way is more nourishing.
This all seemed completely unattainable to me. I was honestly feeling really confused about a lot of the things I was learning about starting a garden. I promise you that you can find at least some food independence!
We can walk this road together.
