Why We Homestead

(1st garden, last year in japan)

As newlyweds we moved to Japan for my husband’s job. Little did we know that we would meet people that forever changed the way we viewed the world and eventually lead us to our homestead dreams.
I started to volunteer at the base thrift store and meet a few people through there that are extremely health conscious. Now I’m naturally inquisitive. I question EVERYTHING. That is not an exaggeration, just ask my husband. Give me a viewpoint I hadn’t considered and off I go to learn everything I possibly can. So meeting a group of women with very different ideas about food cascaded into a complete lifestyle change. This didn’t happen overnight mind you. It was a gradual shift over about 2 years and I am still learning about how to be truly healthy Every. Single. Day.

(first garden, last year in japan)

I started at the beginning, realizing just how bad processed foods were. Most people understand that a bag of chips is not good for them, but almost anything in a box has no nutritional value. The main ingredients are completely nutrient deficient. Then they add coloring, flavorings and preservatives. These are all chemicals that have no place in the human body. And let’s not even get into the derivative of the derivative of the derivative of corn that you can find in pretty much every packaged food.
So then I started to research GMOs and boy did I not like the sound of those. This is a pretty hot topic debate but it boils down to a couple of simple questions. Why were GMOs created? And who is eating them? GMOs were designed to feed 3rd world countries or so they say. So why is America the #1 consumer of GMO foods? We grow plenty of food for our populace, if you look you will see that commercial agriculture throws away a TON of food. We don’t need more food. Now I’ve looked into the science behind and against GMOs but honestly these 2 questions are all you need to ask. There is no reason for the U.S. to grow GMO foods, we don’t need them. The only reason they are here is so that a company can have a monopoly on our food supply.

The next step is obviously organic. Organic means different things to different people but when it comes to grocery shopping what matters is what organic means to the United States Government. You can find information about that here: https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/organic. There is no guarantee that your food is 100% organic. It’s not even part of the requirement to be labeled organic. And the government still needs to make sure that farms are complying, which come on there is no way they have the funding to do that. Now that might be enough for you, and if you’re okay with 95% organic great! However, some of those companies that seem like they are small and really care about the quality of the food they produce are actually owned by large corporations that also produce GMO foods. So essentially you are helping to fund the production of GMO foods by buying organic foods.

More recently I have started looking at farming practices. Most farm land (even organic farm land) has been used over and over again. They apply chemical fertilizers to make up for the fact that there is little to no nutrients left in the soil. Chemical fertilizers contain 3 ingredients potassium, nitrogen and phosphorous. That’s it. Plants are supposed to contain vital trace minerals and micronutrients. NONE of those exist in commercial farmland soil. What you end up with is unhealthy soil, unhealthy plants and unhealthy people.

And of course there’s pesticides. Pesticides are bad and you can’t get all of it off your food. That’s all that really needs to be said there. (If you don’t believe me research the history of DDT)

You might be able to guess why we decided to homestead…. That’s right, we care about the food we are eating. We want to be sure 100% that there are no pesticides, it’s raised organically, it’s heirloom, our meat is raised humanely and that we aren’t contributing to the destruction of our plant through unsustainable farming practices. And we want to do it in a way that we can actually afford. I don’t know about you but there is no way I would be able to purchase 100% organic food from the grocery store. Yes there are other contributing factors to our decision to homestead, but by far food is #1.

*the statements made in this blog post are my personal opinions they should not be taken as medical advice. I am not a scientist or a health professional.

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