Should I Be Growing Vegetables from Seed

One question that I get a lot at this time of the year is “should I be growing vegetables from seed?”. There are many benefits of growing your vegetable garden from seeds versus purchasing transplants.

Probably the most prominant advantage to starting your garden from seed is the fact that the varieties of seeds available to the consumer is enormous whereas most local garden centers carry only a handful of vegetable varieties. Imagine growing a diverse array of flavorful, vibrantly colored tomatoes that you may have never even laid eyes on before. Most folks don’t even know that so many varieties of fruits and vegetables even exist and it’s quite an adventure to discover them. Here’s a pic of just some of the tomato varieties I personally grew last season – most of them heirlooms.

Should the FDA have more power over our food system?

In 1906, Upton Sinclair released a fictional book, titled ‘The Jungle’, that included 8 pages of actual facts exposing the meat-packing industry of many stomach-turning practices. The pages described the shoveling of dead rats into sausage-grinding machines, diseased cows slaughtered for beef as bribed inspectors looked the other way, and filth and guts were swept off the floor and sold as potted ham as described by the “Rumble over ‘The Jungle’“.

President Theodore Roosevelt sent agents to the Chicago meat-packing houses to see if the conditions were as bad as described. The agents reported back describing the conditions as “a hundred times worse”. With the American public demanding sweeping changes, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and thus the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was created.

More than a 100 years later Congress has passed a new food safety bill. However, unlike in 1906 when the majority of the American public were clamoring for sweeping changes, this time American people are deeply divided on whether the bill is beneficial for them (or not). Examine the debate for yourself…