As you go through the hustle and bustle of your everyday lives you find comfort in your busy routines. While there is stability and understanding in repeated daily practices, it can also lead to loneliness and boredom. Community farming is one of those activities that fosters togetherness with the continual excitement of what’s next. Each day the seeds of friendship and produce grow and take on new shape, until one day a marvelous tree emerges bearing sweet fruit to be enjoyed by dear friends. Community farming disrupts the monotony of our lives and breaks way for social connections and healthy living.
Community farming is a catalyst to a happier overall life. Here are four social and health benefits to community farming.
Food Source Knowledge
The most obvious and biggest benefit to any kind farming is knowing that your food was grown in a healthy chemical free environment. Watching a tiny seed take form and eventually transform into a tomato gives you the assurance that the tomatoes you will eat were grown upholding organic farming standards (USDA regulated farming practices that prohibit the use of use of antibiotics, sewage sludge and genetically modified organisms.)
Cultivating Relationships
It is believed that the easiest way to make a friend is by bonding over shared interests. Community farming is a great activity, free from the restrictions of age and gender to meet and interact with people over a common goal. Working together once a week or more digging soil, watering vines or even sharing farming tips and tricks eventually leads to heartfelt conversations and intertwining aspects of each other’s lives outside of farming.
Intrapersonal Boost
Human beings are only as limited as they believe themselves to be. A great way to boost one’s self esteem is by setting goals and achieving them. Community farming allows you to set personal goals in a healthy environment. You are encouraged and inspired by others as you make progress with your garden. This incorporates a lot of positivity into your life, which can help change your outlook on yourself. However, the biggest self-esteem boost is when successfully nurture a seedling into a mighty tree. Seeing the your hard work transform into a thriving plant will signal to you that you are capable of doing many things
Promotes a Healthy Lifestyle
It is easier to consume healthy foods when it is free and you and your friends are growing it. One develops a sense of pride when eating the food that you grow. This pride slowly grows into a need to continuing growing your own produce not only because it is done by the work of your hands, but also because it is affordable and healthy.