While there is the go vegan shout out one side, vegetarians themselves have a lot of challenges and choices to make when it comes to the emerging requirement of “safe eating”. All of us are bombarded by facts and figures telling us on how using chemicals and pesticides is wrong and harmful in the longer run, there seems to be very less options to turn to.
Organic produce – a term which is highly heard in this scenario looks to be the go-to solution theoretically. However the lack of standard certification body and process gives rise to lot of questions on the authenticity. Especially due to its premium (sometimes exorbitant) pricing.
Add these urban issues to the grave rural issue of manpower shortage, which is in a serious stage with people heading to cities looking for work. How much can the government do or is doing something which is a never ending debate and hence not in this article here, but how much are we doing or can do is what matters.
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So what is the more practical solution to this challenge of ‘eating safe’ and how do we make it sustainable and long lasting?
To start with, urban farming is the instant solution to this. Why trust someone who promotes zero pesticides, organically grown and many such fancy terms who cannot give us any transparency on it? Our rooftops and the bit of gardens available in few homes are actually sufficient if planned properly to feed our family with fresh and clean greens and veggies. It even adds on to the green patches in the city with its own big chunk of benefits attached.
There is also community farming which is a fast catching trend where you lease out a small plot in a big farm and pay their manpower to do the maintenance work to grow your produce “organically”. These are possible if you have the time and resources to travel to the outskirts of the ever growing cities and invest your weekends (a considerable part of it at least) into it.
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It’s time we all got into the more practical urban farming and terrace gardening to give our family a less intake of poison and an access to fresh grown produce. To reach a phase where you entirely stop buying from the market is the goal in this initiative but ‘the lesser we buy, the better it is’ attitude should be a good start.
Everything needs a push or boost to get started and once done something to keep us motivated so that we are at it till it gets into our life as an inseparable part. So you have to start with the easiest of them all, in very small places and with almost no financial investment. Go for greens like methi and palak to start with, these are some of the easiest to grow and quick to harvest. Then slowly get into other greens followed by basic veggies. The internet is filled with information on them so let’s not reinvent the wheel by writing about the growing methods.
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For starters, get a glass full of soil, push a few seeds in (get 2-3 grains of methi from your kitchen) water them and see how beautifully they sprout and grow. It’s a feeling which cannot be put out here in words.
Join hands to start a revolution and to stay in trend, let’s do an “I grew this” campaign with #iGrewThis to see how many join the bandwagon to make a greener city and eat healthier food.
