The old adage “You are what you eat” is more important these days than ever before in human history. Everything you put into your body plays an integral part in the general health and overall well-being of that body. And it seems clear that our health, and that of our children, is deteriorating. Obesity, allergies, heart disease, diabetes, and many other diet-related illnesses are on the incline.

In the past, most families took care of their own basic food requirements, with everyone in the family and community contributing in some way, whether gardening, preserving or cooking the food. But nowadays, most of us have relinquished that responsibility to someone else, our participation reduced to paper or plastic. Today, the most common source of food is a supermarket, supplied by big agricultural businesses, and this is not a healthy way to take care of our sustenance.

Mass produced food starts getting into a whole series of things that are bad for you and your environment. Fertilizers, pesticides, fuel to transport, chemicals to enhance and chemicals to preserve, to name but a few. Every year the food industry is responsible for making more and more desert, (ab)using soil until it dies and then moving on to new land. Fertilizers may feed the plant, but they do not feed all the microorganisms that ensure the soil stays healthy. As the soil weakens, so do the plants, and pesticides are then required to fend off bugs that a healthy ecosystem can fight against.

Furthermore, agriculture is one of our society’s greatest consumers of fossil fuels, not just in transporting the goods, but also in the chemicals they use. That, combined with plowing up land on a large scale, which releases carbon stored in the soil, contributes seriously to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Proper organic farming practices do not release carbon dioxide, in fact they actually sequester it from the air. Compost ensures a well balanced ecosystem, allowing plants to be grown in the same place over and over again. It also contains nutrients that you can't get from chemical fertilizers, like trace elements, humic acid, and soil microorganisms. Therefore, using compost adds soil fertility, which in turn, adds plants to the ecosystem. With more plants, we have less CO2 in the atmosphere. Compost is like high energy food for plants. They love it, and will show their appreciation by growing big, strong and beautiful. So, make and use compost, and help save the planet!

Compost is good for you as well as the planet. We do not trust the chemicals they put on plants to make them grow faster or last longer. Food is meant to be eaten fresh and grown locally. It tastes better, it has more nutrition, and you have a greater influence over the practices used to grow it.

Of course, not everyone has the space or energy required to produce all his or her own food, but that shouldn’t limit you. You might be able to get into the countryside and make use of some of the wild foods available. Or there are many space efficient ways to grow food, such as bio intensive gardening, aquaponics, and rabbit tractors. And of course neighborhood gardens not only share the space and the workload, they also build community spirit. Furthermore supporting local farmers will ensure that food is always grown near to you, and that may become very important in times of need.

Food - growing, cooking and eating it - should be a pleasure and a benefit to your life and to those around you. If it isn’t, you’re doing something wrong.