Another reminder of why you should grow and eat your own food in the U.S.

A new study just released found that Hispanics living in Florida have a 40 percent higher chance of getting cancer than their counterparts that lived in their native countries. The conclusion of this study suggests that the lifestyle and environmental changes (foods they eat being one of them) are probably the culprit. 

Of course the recommendation is to live a healthy lifestyle and avoid smoking, drinking, and bad diets. With the abundant use of processed foods in the U.S. that contain many additives cancer, once rare,  now affects up to a third of the country’s population. 

City Farming – Small Garden Spaces

Drive a few miles out of the city and you’ll see gardens all around, in almost every yard. Although the “grow your own food” movement is exploding, I can drive down just about any urban street in my city and see so much unused, wasted space in our urban areas that could be repurposed for growing food. Just because you do not live in the country doesn’t mean you can’t have a kitchen garden. You would be surprised to see how much can be grown in a very small area. Back, front and side yards could be better used. Patios, porches and balconies can be used for container gardening. Even fence and deck rail planters along with window boxes could be utilized instead of sitting empty.

Natural Slug Control

This year, I decided to go a step further in pursuit of  aligning with the “Food, Not Lawns” paradigm.  So I decided to rip out my azaleas, periwinkle and lily bulbs from my raised garden bed in the front yard and replaced everything with salad edibles like lettuces, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and kale. It was a bit painful since it was a beautiful display most of the year and one that I’d been cultivating for four years now. But I have so little space to grow food since I don’t get a whole lot of sun in my tiny backyard, so I took the plunge.