THE GIFT OF ADVERSITY
Growing Our Own Food! by Natalie Norman
A
s I sit here writing this article for the VEGWORLD summer issue, COVID19 is in full swing, spreading worldwide and causing lockdowns and shortages in many industries. I’m pretty sure that by now many of us are tired of NetFlix and YouTube, and we are wondering what our new normal will look like going forward. I am especially grateful to our hardworking VEGWORLD Editor-In-Chief, Courtney Garza, for her patience as I finish this piece in the presence of my restless kids, whose school has been canceled indefinitely. Through this widespread adversity I am reminded how positive innovation often occurs as a result of pressure applied to us, and this virus certainly meets that criterion.
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The Athlete Issue
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In short, I think COVID-19 might change how we source our nutritional needs, and for the better.
able to source our food 100% from our own homes, but we can do a lot more, with ease, and that’s a great thing.
One of the industries negatively impacted by the pandemic involves food supply chains. You may have experienced trying to order foods you took for granted before, only to find quantities were vastly limited or totally unavailable. It spans across countries and affects large- and small-scale supply. Whether it’s Italy, worried about losing its suppliers of wheat from Russia, or the average American family’s not being able to buy lettuce, carrots, kale, or strawberries, it strikes me how, now more than ever, we can benefit from growing as much of our own food as possible. We might not be
Growing our own food not only helps shorten the length of the supply chain, which helps reduce pollutant emissions, but it also delivers arguably superior plant-based nutrition. Plants transported long distances are often picked when unripe and can also lose some nutritional potency the longer they remain in transport or in storage. Being able to visit our own yards or kitchens for fresh food makes the journey from “farm to table” a distance of mere feet, with your feet!
Issue 58 - May/June 2020
What now presents itself as a crisis may wind up being the catalyst for change
VEGWORLD Magazine
