Setting up the garden

Grow healthy, wholesome food that tastes better into the bargain!

Many studies show that, unlike conventional food, organically grown food contains practically no residues of synthetic chemical pesticides, because organic growers do not use them. There is also a good reason why so many top chefs use organic ingredients: they taste better. Organic farming looks first of all after the health of the soil, which is the foundation for healthy plants and, in turn, for our own bodies.

Save money!

Growing your own food cuts the monthly bill at the supermarket. Instead of spending a lot of money and, above all, time shopping, spend your free time outdoors on your own organically tended bed. You get exercise and a sense of well-being along the way.

Protect future generations!

Children are on average four times more exposed than adults to at least eight commonly used cancer-causing pesticides in food. The food you choose for your children today also shapes their health in the future.
“We have not inherited the Earth from our fathers, we have borrowed it from our children.” (Lester Brown)

Organic farming and gardening prevent soil erosion!

In developed countries soil erosion — the wearing away of soil by torrents and rivers, wind and ice — now runs faster than the soil can renew itself. Fertile soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming. In conventional farming the soil serves mainly as something for the plant to stand in, which makes chemical treatment easier. As a result many farms around the world are suffering the worst soil erosion in history.

Protecting water quality!

Water makes up two thirds of our body weight and three quarters of our planet. Disease-causing pesticides, cancer among them, contaminate groundwater and the main sources of drinking water. Pesticides are also a problem in treating waste water and in preparing water for drinking.

And what about energy efficiency?

Organic farmers already contribute a great deal to energy efficiency and climate protection. Many provisions of organic farming rules and legislation are aimed at this, such as limits on concentrated feed and the ban on synthetic mineral fertilisers and pesticides.
Conventional agriculture consumes far more oil than any other sector, a considerable share of total energy use. Today much more energy goes into producing synthetic chemical fertilisers than into working the land and bringing in the harvest.
Because it uses no synthetic fertilisers, organic farming avoids CO2 emissions on the one hand, and on the other reduces the amount of this climate-damaging gas in the atmosphere by storing carbon in the soil.
Growing your own food in town or country, or buying from a local organic farmer, also cuts transport costs and the pollution that goes with them. Growing your own gives you full control: which seed or seedling you used, how you cared for the soil, which (green) manure you applied.

Take the “chemicals” off your plate!

Choosing organic food is a wise decision, above all for the most vulnerable groups and especially children, because:
— relative to body weight they take in more pesticide residues;
— their defence mechanisms are not yet fully developed;
— the combined (synergistic) effects of several pesticides are not taken into account when “safe thresholds” are set, even though food often contains residues of five or more active substances;
— in organic production synthetic pesticides are prohibited.

Protect workers and support small farms!

At the end of 2013 some 3,000 farms in Slovenia were farming organically, working 38,000 hectares of agricultural land in total (Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment, 2014). The pace of organic farming’s growth in Slovenia has fluctuated a good deal, and analysis shows we shall fall far short of the targets set in the 2005 Action Plan for the Development of Organic Farming, which envisaged 15% organic farms, 20% organically farmed land and even 10% Slovenian organic food on the shelves by 2015.
Farmers exposed to herbicides run a much higher risk of cancer than others. Cases of pesticide poisoning among farmers peaked during the so-called green revolution, when synthetic chemical preparations and pesticides were used in large quantities in both mass and home food production.
Our farming structure has a history and tradition worthy of respect — smaller family farms — and many people still feel closely tied to the land. Of roughly 70,000 farms in Slovenia, as many as 50,000 are small farms that are not really active. The future of Slovenian agriculture should rest on giving those small farms particular help to become organic and biodynamic, which could do much to increase food production and processing and so improve self-sufficiency and food security.

A boost for biodiversity!

Monoculture means growing the same plant on a large area of land year after year. While the monoculture approach tripled global agricultural output between 1950 and 1970, the lack of plant diversity took its toll on the quality of the land, which lost minerals and nutrients. Because this way of farming exhausts the soil, farmers use chemical fertilisers, often in large quantities, to replace what has been lost. Monocultures are more prone to pests, so conventional farmers use pesticides on top of that. In America, for instance, crop losses to insects doubled between 1947 and 1974 despite a tenfold increase in pesticide use — partly because some insects became genetically resistant to particular pesticides.

Help your garden and your community flourish!

Beyond what they produce, community organic gardens are a pleasure to look at: they brighten and, above all, gladden our families, our community, a whole town or village.

Adapted from the article “Top 10 reasons to grow your own organic food” (URL: http://www.realfarmacy.com/top-10-reasons-to-grow-your-own-organic-food/)