The Family Garden: The Key to Survival by Laurens Wright

The family garden is no laughing matter when comes to hard times or economic woes. The family garden has brought family after family through hardships down through the times. Whether it is a small plot or acres being planted, the food that is produced provides wholesome, good-tasting and nutritious products.

This year, when the middle of the country has been hit so very hard with drought, people with family gardens eased the pain of paying the exorbitant prices for produce and vegetables. The gardens also provided food for the coming months with canning and drying of the food.

So, it is imperative to establish a family garden as soon as possible to help in the crises, economic problems and the high prices of food. By starting now, the times ahead can be less severe and easier and if there is no economic collapse, the food can be sold, given to the neighbors or to the local food banks.

What happens when the lights go out? Hurricanes, power outages, blackouts, storms, blizzards, volcanoes, road blockages, trucker's strikes, floods, blights, droughts, disasters and other crises can cause havoc on the food supply and food delivery. The food that was normally lined up on shelves in the supermarket quickly vanishes and can not quickly be replenished.

The population of the Earth now exceeds 7 billion people and is growing at a fast rate. The experts predicted that 6 billion people was the maxim that the Earth could support without any damage or depletion of the earths natural resources. In other words, the Earth could support 6 billion people with food, but not more than 6 billion. Now, the Earth and scientists are struggling to produce enough food to feed the world's hungry and shortages are rampant and widespread.

The petroleum industry is part of the solution for making mass growing of food crops, harvesting and getting the food to the supermarkets. When there are shortages or price increases of fuel, the food prices skyrocket, sending ripple effects through each family's budget. On the other hand, petroleum industry can be the culprit of not having enough food. The petroleum industry provides fuel, petroleum based products, fertilizers and makes it possible to produce industrialized equipment to use on the large farms. Without the industry or the high prices of petroleum products, the large scale farming would be reduced to a large mass of rusting metal, with little or no food being produced and taken to market.

People and families should always have emergency food stored up and have a family garden. This adds a cushion in the security and gives a benefit of being able to survive the disasters and turmoils.

The best plan of the family garden is to plant what the family likes to eat. On the other hand, if there is a market for certain crops, these could be traded, bartered or sold to produce an income. In the North, the growing season is very short and certain crops may be out of the question, unless certain accommodations can be made. These may include grow lights, heated beds and greenhouses. The Southern parts of the country can plant sometimes up to 3 different harvests during a given year of certain crops because of the mild winters and temperatures.

Some of the favored crops include tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and squash. These plants produce a substantial amount of food in a given amount of space. Other crops may include lettuce, cabbage, cantaloupe, watermelon, corn, beans, okra, sunflowers, peanuts, figs, fruit trees, turnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes and more types but would require more space and attention.

There is no way of getting around the facts. The food prices are going to keep going up and there will be food shortages in the future. How many times have you heard of sicknesses related to the food that you bought in a store? How many times have you heard that in other countries, where we get our produce, that the farmers use waste water to water the crops? There are outbreaks of different diseases that are tracked back to the cantaloupes, lettuce, cabbages and strawberries that farmers use questionable practices to irrigate, fertilize or to spray for insects.

The drought hit the middle of the United States hard this year. The other countries were and are being hit hard by floods, earthquakes, famines, pestilence, war, violence, typhoons, volcanoes, drought and infected seed-crops. This is the basic supply and demand in modern economics. The less food you have and the more the demand, the higher the prices. This is a double dipper type of price increase. With more than 7 billion people in the world, the demand is very high because people have to eat or die and there are shortages of food. The prices of food will skyrocket in the coming months.

So, the family garden is a learning experience, a savings of the budget, a satisfaction, a security, an education, an exercise, a fulfillment, and an exciting way to express yourself, not to mention the delicious fruits and vegetables that are produced. With the coming price increases of food, there is more reason to start a family garden and to raise enough to put away for a later date. The prices are going to go up on food, for sure !!!!

COULD YOU SURVIVE ?

When people do not have much, a small garden seems like a lot. When a family can go out into the garden and pick a vine ripe tomato or a cucumber that they raised, this is part of being able to survive in an otherwise hostile world of pay or don't eat attitude.

In the corporate world raising produce is for one purpose and this is to make a profit. It is not to feed a needy family, a starving baby or a hungry world. Being part of the family garden gives the chance to be human and to give your neighbor a tomato or a couple of peppers just because they are your neighbors, not what they can do for you or for a return of money.

Survival of the family and family garden means that we are all in the world together, trying to feed our families, help our neighbors and to survive what life throws at us. Having a family garden can save on expenses and put added cash into our pockets, but can add so much more in humanity and the future.

Whether it would be an attack, a hurricane, tornado, flood, no electricity, food shortage, trucker's strike, would you have enough food to carry you over, keep you from starving and keep your family healthy or enough to help your neighbors ?

If the electrical power would be no more, could you feed your family with the food that you could find? Could you grow a garden? Do you know how to plant a seed, grow and harvest a tomato, cucumber, potato, bean or pepper? At a moment's notice, things could change and there could be a dramatic disruption to the way that we see life. Be ready, prepare today and survive !