subject: Benefits Of Urban Gardening For Kids [print this page] Before I can tell you about the benefits of urban gardening, as it applies to your kids, let me explain the reason(s) why it is important you get them (and yourself) involved in this project. Overpopulation-Greed-Safety.
Overpopulation: There are too many of us on earth already, with more on the way. We're out growing our ability to feed ourselves, and due to that fact, we're being exposed to synthetic foods. Ever eaten a fictional egg? You get them regularly on airplanes. They look like one, and they certainly taste like one. But it is not a real egg. The yoke is nothing but coloring. How healthy is that?
Greed: Today's farmer comes to you in two forms. The smaller one feeds himself and his immediate community. The other feeds entire cities. If you happen to live in the country, you can assume the produce, honey, jellies, and other assortment of goods you are buying at the local grocery store are home grown, therefore void of growth hormones. While this may be true, you can bet your last coin its loaded with pesticides. Big Farmers are motivated by their bottom-line. These big farms have their eyes on the Global Economy, and produce food to be genetically pest free, based upon fast growth, and full of preservatives. Neither one grows anything you want to feed your kids.
Safety: By teaching them how to grow their own fruits and vegetables, you will prepare them for the future. It is necessary to teach them at an early age how to use home friendly machinery such as a hydroponic. These things can be used to grow anything in a controlled environment. By showing your kids how to work the soil in machines, or in their backyards, you will begin a process that will grow with them. It is nice to know the food you're eating is safe.
Now, lets talk about the benefits of urban gardening. First you need tools. If you live in the city, it is a good bet your kids do not know anything about garden tools, let alone what a hoe is. That tool is in danger of going by way of the Dodo bird. The hoe is quickly being replaced by the garden tiller, a loud gasoline/oil Eco-unfriendly machine.
The use of hand tools has a rewarding effect. They can be used to produce or repair things that are needed without polluting our environment. Working the land with your gardening tools is a good way to bond with your children, the effect of the camaraderie cannot be underestimated. Then, when they can see with their own eyes what their labor has produced...you have injected them with the ability/knowledge to feed themselves. In this day and age we must teach our children independence from oil based products, and we must install in them an awareness of the dangers of pollutants in their food. There is a large array of Eco-friendly products and methods available to us, but they will never get past the fantasy world created by electronics if you don't get involved with them. Instead, they will grow up eating synthetic foods and thinking nothing of it. Then again, maybe that is not a bad thing. If we keep breeding at the present rate, and if you do not learn teach them how to grow their own food, the only nourishment available to them will be synthetic.
by: Curt Gutierrez
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