5 ms·

In terms of just money, it's far cheaper to grow your own food. It does, however, take a significant time and effort commitment. Very few plants are simply plan

by lmkg 16y ago

In terms of just money, it's far cheaper to grow your own food. It does, however, take a significant time and effort commitment. Very few plants are simply plant-and-forget[1]. As usual, when you go to the store, you pay for the convenience more than for the product itself. Nonetheless, even when you consider time & labor, home-grown food probably comes out cheaper because a significant amount of the convenience markup comes from transportation, which gets eliminated entirely. Even with the work it takes, I would strongly recommend it. Remember, the true cost of the time and effort you put in is the opportunity cost of what you could be doing instead with your time. For a large chunk of the population, that's TV or facebook (farmville, ha ha). Plus, there are intangible benefits beyond the retail value of the food itself. Personally, I find it immensely rewarding to eat food that I made myself from seed to plate. It tends to taste better too--foods in the grocery store are bred for fast harvest, lower soil requirements, long shelf life and durability during transportation. It should come as no surprise that they converge in most discernible attributes towards wax and cardboard. Meanwhile, the tomato seed varieties you can pick up at your local nursery are bred to optimize salad, pasta sauce, gazpacho and lasagna. [1] Unless you live in Hawai`i. Seriously, you can throw a stick at any bare patch of ground on that island and come back to a tree in a few years. Lava is nutritious.

nostromo 16y ago
I've started doing this on a limited basis. An added benefit: you know what goes into your food. I've got a higher than average risk for Parkinson's Disease, so it's important that I avoid pesticides religiously. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421091705.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421091705.ht...) Buying organic veggies helps, but growing is the best way to be sure.
iuhjytgfbnjhmk 16y ago
>In terms of just money, it's far cheaper to grow your own food Not necessarily - thats the point of the article Even in just cost of seeds and fertilizer you can't grow wheat more cheaply than iowa or saskatchewan.
- camiller 16y ago
  There is a story about a well know homebrewer who wanted to try to grow and malt his own barley for brewing. The story goes that after the wildlife were done with his barley patch and losses during winnowing he had managed to turn 50 pounds of seed into 20 pounds of barley.
  - weaksauce 16y ago
    I would think that the hops are the determining factor in cost and taste of beer. there are just so many varieties of hops and there is a shortage right now because of the subsidies in other industries pulling farmers away from it to focus on corn. (I think it's corn but it has been a while since I read it) The owner of sam adams brewery had a hop subsidy to small brewers at the prices he could get to help foster the microbreweries around.
    - camiller 16y ago
      I don't think he was doing it to necessarily save money but to have more control over the process, or possibly to create a under-modified malt suitable for decoction mashing. None the less, he turned 50 pounds of seed into 20 pounds of seed. There are 50+ types of specialty grains, each with distinct flavor and color contributions to the beer. In a more malt forward style like a scotch ale the grains certainly do provide a lot of the flavor profile, and there are at least 100+ strains of yeast for that matter. Actually hop prices have dropped to half or less of their highs during last years shortage. Disclaimer, I work part time at my local home brew shop to support my brewing hobby with the employee discount.
      - weaksauce 16y ago
        Interesting. I didn't know that the hop prices fell. The craft beer prices have increased a bit since then. Need to support the local brewers though.
- util 16y ago
  Might want to substitute "corn" or "soy beans" for "wheat" when talking about Iowa :-) (Not that this undermines your point really.)
barrkel 16y ago
I think by saying "just money", you've pulled quite a trick. Not only do you implicitly dismiss the opportunity cost of one's own time better spent elsewhere, but you also assume away the problem of having enough land to develop, the capital cost of this land, the opportunity cost of not using it for other things, not to mention the risk costs of weather and disease - there was a pretty bad potato famine back where I come from 150 years ago, you might have heard of it. Sure, just money.
- SageRaven 16y ago
  If you're going to bring opportunity cost into the equation, don't forget the physical and mental well-being that comes with gardening. That hour of daily digging, squatting, etc. might very well offset a daily hour at the gym or reduce physical issues associated with a sedentary lifestyle. Also, the satisfying act of gardening might very well reduce one's need for drugs and therapy for mental problems, which, sadly, are all too common today.
joeyh 16y ago
Well, the 100 square feet of tomatoes (about 75% cherry tomatos, which are very easy to grow, blight-resistant, and can be used in sauces, the rest slicing tomatos) that have taken over my backyard from 6 plants I set out this spring, right next to the blackberry bush that I stopped pruning 5 years ago and produced 10 gallons of berries this year -- those have worked out well for me with little time or money. I spent $50 on a truckload of compost to top-kill my lawn 3 years ago, and have spent a maximum of 1 hour a week in the garden in the summer since. I'm in it for the big payouts, not for consistent results; last summer was a bust and this one is a boom. For a kitchen garden, that works for me. I've also had very good experiences with asparagus that just kept coming up every spring with no care beyond being mowed as part of the lawn in summer to keep the weeds down -- but I didn't start those plants. Also. the article is wrong about homegrown carrots tasting like store-bought. The taste is much more concentrated and intense, and many more varieties are available to grow. But they can be a pain to grow.
- joeyh 16y ago
  That one hour does not count time spent processing (picking, cleaning, cooking, storing) the yield from the garden, which has been at times this summer, 1 hour per day.

by lmkg 16y ago

nostromo 16y ago

I've started doing this on a limited basis. An added benefit: you know what goes into your food. I've got a higher than average risk for Parkinson's Disease, so it's important that I avoid pesticides religiously. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421091705.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090421091705.ht...) Buying organic veggies helps, but growing is the best way to be sure.

iuhjytgfbnjhmk 16y ago

>In terms of just money, it's far cheaper to grow your own food Not necessarily - thats the point of the article Even in just cost of seeds and fertilizer you can't grow wheat more cheaply than iowa or saskatchewan.

camiller 16y ago
There is a story about a well know homebrewer who wanted to try to grow and malt his own barley for brewing. The story goes that after the wildlife were done with his barley patch and losses during winnowing he had managed to turn 50 pounds of seed into 20 pounds of barley.
- weaksauce 16y ago
  I would think that the hops are the determining factor in cost and taste of beer. there are just so many varieties of hops and there is a shortage right now because of the subsidies in other industries pulling farmers away from it to focus on corn. (I think it's corn but it has been a while since I read it) The owner of sam adams brewery had a hop subsidy to small brewers at the prices he could get to help foster the microbreweries around.
  - camiller 16y ago
    I don't think he was doing it to necessarily save money but to have more control over the process, or possibly to create a under-modified malt suitable for decoction mashing. None the less, he turned 50 pounds of seed into 20 pounds of seed. There are 50+ types of specialty grains, each with distinct flavor and color contributions to the beer. In a more malt forward style like a scotch ale the grains certainly do provide a lot of the flavor profile, and there are at least 100+ strains of yeast for that matter. Actually hop prices have dropped to half or less of their highs during last years shortage. Disclaimer, I work part time at my local home brew shop to support my brewing hobby with the employee discount.
    - weaksauce 16y ago
      Interesting. I didn't know that the hop prices fell. The craft beer prices have increased a bit since then. Need to support the local brewers though.
util 16y ago
Might want to substitute "corn" or "soy beans" for "wheat" when talking about Iowa :-) (Not that this undermines your point really.)

barrkel 16y ago

I think by saying "just money", you've pulled quite a trick. Not only do you implicitly dismiss the opportunity cost of one's own time better spent elsewhere, but you also assume away the problem of having enough land to develop, the capital cost of this land, the opportunity cost of not using it for other things, not to mention the risk costs of weather and disease - there was a pretty bad potato famine back where I come from 150 years ago, you might have heard of it. Sure, just money.

SageRaven 16y ago
If you're going to bring opportunity cost into the equation, don't forget the physical and mental well-being that comes with gardening. That hour of daily digging, squatting, etc. might very well offset a daily hour at the gym or reduce physical issues associated with a sedentary lifestyle. Also, the satisfying act of gardening might very well reduce one's need for drugs and therapy for mental problems, which, sadly, are all too common today.

joeyh 16y ago

Well, the 100 square feet of tomatoes (about 75% cherry tomatos, which are very easy to grow, blight-resistant, and can be used in sauces, the rest slicing tomatos) that have taken over my backyard from 6 plants I set out this spring, right next to the blackberry bush that I stopped pruning 5 years ago and produced 10 gallons of berries this year -- those have worked out well for me with little time or money. I spent $50 on a truckload of compost to top-kill my lawn 3 years ago, and have spent a maximum of 1 hour a week in the garden in the summer since. I'm in it for the big payouts, not for consistent results; last summer was a bust and this one is a boom. For a kitchen garden, that works for me. I've also had very good experiences with asparagus that just kept coming up every spring with no care beyond being mowed as part of the lawn in summer to keep the weeds down -- but I didn't start those plants. Also. the article is wrong about homegrown carrots tasting like store-bought. The taste is much more concentrated and intense, and many more varieties are available to grow. But they can be a pain to grow.

joeyh 16y ago
That one hour does not count time spent processing (picking, cleaning, cooking, storing) the yield from the garden, which has been at times this summer, 1 hour per day.