Food Insecurity During the Pandemic Has Increased Interest in Gardening

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Throughout recent history, many have watched and joked about how human nature leads us to head to the store and grab up all of the milk and bread whenever a winter storm is approaching.

Panicked Food Buying

Usually, people feel a sense of urgency whenever they know they may not be able to get to the store for a few days. But when the pandemic of 2020 hit on a global scale, this fear grew into a widespread panic.

Paired with social media, this phenomenon had individuals and families hurrying to the store to not only wipe out the supply of toilet paper and hand sanitizer but food as well. No one knew what was going to happen to the food supply, and shelves were bare in many areas for weeks.

Don’t Buy It, Grow It

This is a big reason why interest in gardening spiked so high (and has continued to grow) during the year-long pandemic and continued lockdowns in some places. There’s peace that comes with knowing you’re not dependent on others for your food source.

With grocery shopping in particular, even when supplies were refilled, people felt scared and uncomfortable walking into a store with a frightening virus on the loose, touching produce that others may have touched, and putting them in a cart that was already the subject of many investigations for its filth.

But the biggest concern was not having enough to eat – having enough food to feed your children. What happened during the early days of the pandemic was that even seeds began flying off the shelves.

Plan Ahead for Your Garden

So you can’t wait until a disaster happens to get yourself ready to grow your own food. Not only that, but growing the food could take 60-90 days or so, and you can’t go without a food supply that long.

You should always have some foods growing that would help your family sustain life in the event of an emergency. You might have a mix of indoor and outdoor gardens, in case of a catastrophe where the outdoor garden was raided or ruined in some manner.

Always make sure you have plenty of seeds, and learn how to continue growing foods from the seeds of the plants that you harvest. No one wants to endure a food shortage, and you can’t rely on the government or anyone else to save you if a crisis happens. Gardening gives you the comfort you need to know you and yours will get through it just fine.