Growing Your Own Food-A Healthy Option

Interviewer: Do you grow your own food or some of your food? A lot of people are starting to do that now and what would your recommendation be for someone who wants to start doing that?

Paul Nison: The best way to eat our food is to know what we're getting and grow it yourself if you can. If you don't have a big yard or land, grow sprouts in your house. I don't grow all my food. I grow a good amount of it. I have fruit trees where I live in tropical south Florida. I eat sprouts. I used to grow them. I don't grow them as much because of my travel schedule. I grow herbs in my garden.

Every person I've ever met that grows most of their own food is healthier overall. Even if you're getting food from a health food store that's flown halfway around the world, that's not as good as growing your own local food. Grow your food would be best. Eating local would be best. Getting it from a farmer's market or neighbor that's grown the food, always better then getting it after it's been shipped halfway around the world.

Interviewer: We hear a lot about soil depletion too. Do you find that that's the case if you're growing your own food that you're not getting the nutrients that we did twenty, thirty years ago?

Paul Nison: It depends where it's growing. If where I live, where I'm growing my food has already been depleted, then the food is not going to be as well.

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Paul Nison: You want to get the soil to be rich. Compost definitely helps with that. To rejuvenate the soil. If you're blessed enough to live where the soil is already highly nutritious, wonderful, that's the best way to grow the food. 

They have something called rock dust which can help put minerals back in the soil. But composting is really a wonderful way to get minerals right from the food, turn them into soil, mix that up, and grow it in that soil. That's wonderful. You get the best of both worlds.

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.