Why Grow Grass and Buy Food? #168

Every week I spend hundreds of dollars at the grocery store to buy foods I could grow at home! What made it normal for us in the United States and other countries as insane as we are to use our beautiful topsoil to grow a completely useless crop? As people starve around the world every day, I have a yard full of grass at home and I spend money at the store to pay people in Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Ecuador to grow food for me! WTF? The problem is not somewhere else because it is in my own yard!

Once you see this, it's the most ridiculous thing in the world. If that is not enough, the most absurd thing is that at 33 years old I JUST REALIZED THIS in day 168 of Happier People Podcast! I hope this post acts as an inspiration for each of us including me to learn more about homesteading and gardening because Steem is full of beautiful posts on both of these topics which I have been frequently featuring in my upvotable posts!

Why do we grow grass instead of food?


Now, take a look at my yard.

Look at this.

This is valuable topsoil right here. This is soil that could grow hundreds, if not thousands of dollars of fruit and vegetables right here.

Now, look what I'm doing with it.

Why am I doing this with it?

Now, just think about this for a second outside of our specific situation here.

We've got all this grass, right?

Valuable topsoil.

At the same time, I eat several pounds of fruit and vegetables every day. That's apparently one of the very healthiest things to eat.

What do I do?

I literally am paying someone to cut all this grass and it doesn't look pretty, just because I'm used to seeing it and I'm used to calling it pretty in my mind.

It doesn't look pretty. It's useless.

Look at this tree right here.

This is a beautiful tree in my front yard, but it produces things that fall on the ground and require cleaning up.

Just look at this for a minute. I'm paying someone to cut the grass and manage something I don't eat and that doesn't have beauty to me because it's useless.

I'm wasting a really valuable resource and we're doing this on a massive scale. The number one crop we grow in the US is grass. If you add up all of everyone's yards, all the grass along the interstate, all the grass along all the buildings, all the grass along all the houses and apartments, our number one crop is grass.

It's ridiculous.

Not only it is ridiculous just because we're wasting all this topsoil, but then we're going in irrigating all these places that might not need to be farmed if we were actually using the land right next to our houses.

We are paying people to farm often distant places for us, and then we're paying people to cut our grass. Then, we're paying for fertilizers, we're paying for things to treat our grass, we're redding our grass, we're spending all of this time on something that's useless.

Now, you might hear people say, "Money doesn't grow on trees."

A. That's a lie. Money's made out of paper. It does grow on trees.

B. Look, I eat apples, I eat strawberries, I eat grapes and I eat peaches. Why the hell is this tree in my yard, when what I need is a tree for peaches?

What I need is a tree that drops apples. What I'd like to have is a tree that drops oranges.

Why the hell do I have a tree in my yard that drops leaves, that I pay someone to clean up, and then the person who cleans them up complains about them?

Do you see what I'm getting at?

This is absurd.

You want to know how absurd it is?

We're doing this all over the country. This is what people all over the whole country and in fact, you would probably be right to say that all over the world, not in every certain place, but lots of other countries are just like this.

Now yes, it's beautiful landscaping. Sure, you could say it's beautiful landscaping, but I'll tell you what really would make this beautiful.

I have a pineapple every day in my smoothie. What really would make this beautiful are pineapples.

350 pineapples, that's what would make this beautiful.

I've got a pretty big yard here and I could literally put pineapples in pots. I have room to put hundreds of pineapples. They don't need a whole lot of work.

I have room for hundreds of pineapples in my yard. You know what would be beautiful about that?

Those pineapples cost $2, $3 or $4 each. Not only that, but the pineapples I buy are coming from Costa Rica. That means someone in Costa Rica is growing a pineapple, doing all the work to get that pineapple sent, shipped all the way from Costa Rica to Florida where I live.

Why am I paying someone to do what I could do in my front yard?

You might say, "Jerry, it'd be a lot of work to just do farm all these pineapples."

I could pay someone to help me.

In fact, I could probably pay the same I'm paying for my grass. I could pay the same $100 or whatever something a month. I could pay for that same help and instead of having useless grass in my yard, I would be saving $3 a day.

Yes, the pineapples take a year to grow, but just over the long term, I'd be saving $3 a day. That's a $100 a month or so I would be saving by having a pineapple literally growing for free in my yard.

Not just that, I could switch this tree out. I realize the tree might not go overnight, but plant a few trees and give it a few years and I'd have all kinds of fruit just falling down. The fruit would literally fall into my yard. I could go pick the fruit up, and eat it.

Now, that is really cool.

You know how much my grocery bill is at Publix every day?

My grocery bill is $100 plus in fruit and vegetables every four days. That's $25 a day and about $700 a month I'm spending on fruits and vegetables.

Now, I bet I could save at least half of that and pay someone maybe twice as much as I do to cut my grass and I could literally grow that in my front yard.

Because I live in Florida, I can grow stuff year-round here. It might be a little too hot in the summer. Yes, I might have to research how to plant things, but you see, I could literally save several hundred dollars a month in the exact same place I have my grass.

Now, how many of us are going around complaining about not having enough money?

Here's an opportunity.

Plant the fruit you want to eat in your yard and grow it.

Instead, what are we doing?

I know people that spend just like me, or like my in-laws, hundreds of dollars a month. They spend a whole bunch of time and energy cutting all these things in their yard that don't produce anything.

Meanwhile, they're going to work, doing jobs that often they'd rather be doing something else.

Put all this together for a minute. Just add all this up.

Going to work, doing jobs that are boring, that we don't have passion about. Meanwhile, we're paying someone else to grow our food.

We're paying someone else to do a job that is boring for them, that they're not passionate about like picking and managing pineapples for me in Costa Rica every day.

I think it'd be a lot of fun and I think I'm going to end up getting into gardening because it's so practical.

Now, here's the problem, though, there's always some limitation. I don't own this house, so I can't just do all I want.

I don't know if it'd be a good idea to just go ahead and put 500 pots of pineapple all over the front yard or go into the backyard here and just drop hundreds of pots of pineapple in there.

I could research and find the exact perfect crop to grow. I could figure out exactly what would grow best in Florida and how to take care of it.

Then, another thing is that we rent these houses or apartments where we can't even do anything with them.

The owners of my mom's house live off in another state. The owners of my house live in a different part of the state. We have these owners who don't even live here who are telling us what we can do, and if that's not bad enough, then we have homeowner's associations that tell us that we have to have our grass cut.

Then, we have homeowner's associations that we have to pay in order to live in that neighborhood or they can file a lawsuit or put a lien on the house. I would not live somewhere with a homeowner's association like that because that's insane.

We live in these places then, where people tell us what we can do with the land, and if you live where there is a homeowner's association, you actually own a house, but some other group of people tells what you can do with it. You have to have your grass cut a certain way.

Now, how insane is that?

You own the house and you're forced to grow a crop that doesn't produce anything for you. You're forced to pay money to maintain that crop, which you get by going to a job you don't like and that you complain about every day. Then, you go to the store and complain about your grocery bill, when really you could stop going to the job you don't like at least a lot of hours.

You could spend your time at home growing your own crops and getting joy out of making food that you are actually going to eat.

My mother-in-law grows in her backyard and I've enjoyed eating the kale she's growing for me, the peppers and the paprika. I've enjoyed eating what's she's grown for me. It means something that my mother-in-law grew this for me and that's cool.

Why do we grow grass?

It's insane.

Why do we plant trees that don't drop fruit?

It's insane.

This is crazy.

This whole thing is absurd.

I'm grateful that someone mentioned this to me and I just latched onto it. I'm grateful to be able to see out of the matrix today, that every house must have grass and must have trees.

I'm grateful to see in more practical terms. We think that something like this is luxury. We look around and say, "This is luxury."

"Look, I have so much wealth, that I can literally grow a crop that's useless, pay someone to maintain it, and then have some other poor guy in some other part of the world who then does my farming for me and ships it thousands miles to get to my house."

"That's how rich I am."

"I can waste the most valuable resources all around me and waste more time getting them cut, and then make someone do work for me in another part of the world."

"That's how rich I am."

That's why we really grow grass.

If I had to put an answer on it, that's why we really grow grass.

"Look how rich I am! I don't need to farm."

That's insane.

The same people who've got grass in their yards are also complaining about their jobs, complaining about not having enough money and they are wasting it, just as I'm wasting it.

But see, the trick is to notice this first because once you see this, there's no going back. When I walk around and see all these yards in my neighborhood, I see that there are beautiful lawns that people have worked hard on, but you know what?

I also see a horrible waste.

I see unnecessary extravagance.

I see an atrocity, wasting this topsoil on grass, planting trees that don't drop fruit, paying people across the world to bring me things I could grow myself next door, paying people to cut something that doesn't produce.

I also see the atrocity behind this now.

A gigantic waste, that if even just a small percentage of us turned our grass into farmland and cut back on some of our other extravagant habits, like eating meat and animal products at every single meal or most meals, would allow everyone in the world almost effortlessly to eat.

We wouldn't have to have people starving to death. There are probably 10 or 20 people who've starved to death while I've been making this video. You might think that I'm completely isolated, but I think about these things. There are probably 10 or 20 people who've taken their own lives while I'm making this video.

Our world is so insane that one of the most reasonable things to do is rebel. You can make a gentle rebellion like stop paying your homeowner's association fee or let your grass grow.

I let my grass grow out, it gets long and I don't care. I'm the yard that people look around in my neighborhood and say, "God, that guy's yard looks like crap."

I'm the threshold that helps everyone else feel better about their yard, that they've spent so much time and energy on, or money on, to make it look better than mine, even though our yards equally produce nothing. You might argue that I'm coming out farther ahead because I put less energy and spend less money on maintaining my useless yard.

"Well, Jerry, your daughter could play on the grass."

She could play in a pineapple or an orange grove, just as well. Even at two years old, she could go pick up all those oranges or apples falling off a tree. She could do some really useful work, instead of just playing around in there with plastic toys. She wants to do something useful.

I think it's important that we look at these things and see the world that we're really making, and the world we could make because most of our problems inside, our pain that we feel is a reflection of what we're doing and ignoring.

We're doing gigantic, hugely wasteful, cruel things, but we're not doing them directly in front of us. We're often doing them by the choices we make in what we buy, the things we make and the decisions we make to buy things at the store, the decisions we make to buy a house in a neighborhood with a homeowner's association that requires you to grow your grass.

These decisions we're making are creating the pain and suffering in our lives. If we see them, then we have a chance to overcome them.

I hope this is useful for you today because there's no going back once you've unplugged and realized, "Oh my god, this is ridiculous. Forget global warming, I'm wasting the environment right now."

I love you.

You're awesome.

Thank you very much for experiencing this episode of Happier People Podcast with me, which was originally filmed as the video below!

The feedback on the video was so positive that I spent about $100 to get this post created for you here out of the video, and then edited it prior to publishing! I appreciate you being here and I hope you have a wonderful day today.

If you found this post helpful on Steemit, would you please upvote it and follow me because you will then be able to see more posts like this in your home feed?

Love,

Jerry Banfield with edits by @gmichelbkk on the transcript by GoTranscript

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The answer is pretty simple. Lawns cost people money and keep them dependent on others. Gardens do the opposite. We are programmed from an early age to be dependent. Most people never break out of that programming.

@grow-pro is here on Steemit working hard to reverse that programming. If anyone is looking for a quality person to follow that will freely teach them what they need to know, he's you guy! We should all be growing our own food.

The economy has already fallen off the cliff. We are just waiting to strike the ground. You had better be prepared for when that happens too. Don't depend on outside systems to feed yourself, keep yourself warm, or protect yourself.

Self-sufficiency is a great feeling and one that I wish to help more people to experience. Growing food on your own is a rewarding endeavor and one that teaches us constantly. It's a skill that grows with what we grow. If just 1/4 of the people out there with large lots of grass could transform that space into edible food - would we have as many starving people in this world? I don't think so and I'll explain why.

Take for example how I've grown thousands of pounds of food on less than 1/15th of an acre. This is about 5% of my "lawn". I still cut grass for 4 hours yesterday and would spend more per week than I spend on our family of 4 at the grocery store, to have the grass cut by a professional. I cut my own hair to save money, so you can safely assume I prefer to care for my property.

Just growing food in a few thousand square feet, I'm able to feed my family, my neighbors, friends, and hundreds of happy locals. We are talking about just a fraction of an acre. Imagine what a few acres here and there would do to impact the community you live in. Imagine how many people might have healthy, fresh food because a useless crop (grass) was transformed into a garden. Would that reduce hunger? Absolutely, it would. Imagine that on a grand scale...

I want to share my experience and knowledge with anyone with open ears. Thanks to @finnian for inviting me to this wonderful platform and for the kind words! He's right, I will freely share all that I know.. I love it and I thrive on sharing my knowledge. To see the progress that has been made from my attempt to change the "programming", now accompanied by many more people spreading the message - I cannot wait to see the shift that will come in the future. It will happen.

If you're unsure how you can begin gardening on your property, have no space (or so you think), or feel you lack the knowledge and resources - Let's chat. I would be happy to help anyone that desires to learn and grow. Nothing is impossible and there's always a way. I started a series just for Steemit and I am working toward showing more people that they can not only grow their own food, but they can profit greatly from doing so. Not everyone wants to make their own food, so that leaves a ​great opportunity for those who do.

We are talking about skills that can save you money and possibly save lives. Growing food requires a skill that not everyone possesses, but that's simply a choice that we all make. If you are interested and have no idea where to start - please ask!!

I really appreciate this message @jerrybanfield and I truly believe it will generate a lasting change if more people understood that they have the power! 🔥🚀

Yea man doomsday is coming.

I wouldn't call it that. I'd call it the "Greater Depression." ;-)

Followed, but please stop yelling at me! haha (All caps) What can you tell me about oatmeal?!

Oatmeal is very good. All caps does not have to mean yelling. It can mean a title. In my header here on STEEMIT, I use caps to make the text easier to read. I do not like the kind of fonts used in my header and it is hard to read in lower caps.

I'm just pointing out that most people online consider walls of capital letters yelling. You're going to turn people off with a profile blurb in all caps. Good luck!

Those people can go back to reading What Happened by Hillary Clinton.

here in Spain, Europe many of us live in apartments because real-state is so expensive compare to what we earn ... you gays are luky that can have grass in the front yard and a garden in the back. It take time and effort, just like anything valuable in life

Your article was resteemed, so I got it in my feed. I read it with much interest because I like your idea. It's difficult to do what you would want to do, so I suggest you start small, with fruit trees, (raspberries are also very easy) and some summer foods, like tomatoes, lettuce and beans and especially all kinds of herbs. There must be a place in your garden where you can plant these, even when the house is rented.

Remember most fruits and vegetables are ripe at the same time, so don't grow too much otherwise you have to give it away, which is good, or use a freezer (not for lettuce etc.) but a freezer needs electricity, which is not good for the environment.

So try vegetables like leek, red beets, garlic. You can store them in a cool and dark place or leave them in the earth until you want to eat them. They are easy and don't take too much time.

I have a little vegetable garden in my garden in France (Burgundy). During the winter I live in an apartment in Rotterdam, so no garden there. But I like to work in my garden, grow some vegetables etc. The joy is to go out in the evening, pick a crop of lettuce and prepare it. It tastes so good!! With some of my own tomatoes and garlic

The best advice I can give you is: Start small, try different vegetables and fruit trees and enjoy eating your own food.

I upvoted you and will follow you from now on, to see how things develop. Good luck!!

Jerry, I couldn't agree more. I know they make their living doing this for us but if we only grew a fraction of what we consumed, that would be a phenomenal leap forward in a self sustaining economy. Thanks for the input. upvoted and resteemed. would appreciate a follow.

Hi ,
Thanks for sharing

Everybody, plant gardens. Buy solar panels. Collect rain water. We want more land rights. Sometimes, government tells us what we can and cannot do on our own land. Tell people about that. People were arrested for collecting too much rain water. We should be allowed to grow more and to build more and to do more of whatever we want on the land we buy and own.
.
Share your values of what you love with people each day. Use it or lose it. That is how it works. That is how things get better for society, for humanity. Revolution and change starts with the Michael Jackson man in the mirror and it spreads to family, friends, community, country, and then to the whole world. We can have grass if we want. We do not have to do anything with land. But if we want to, then we should and it would be better if we at least tried to do more with what we have.

It also doesn't help that many communities ban front yard gardens very few places can you have a front yard one. But I totally agree with you. I been renting for the last few years as we had to relocate and we didn't want to buy without knowing the city we were living in, didn't want to buy in a bad area. We are now about ready to build a house on some land we bought and one of the plans is next year is to grow some of our own food. Raise chicken and rabbits. And become less dependent on the grocery store once again. And when it does come to shopping at the grocery store I am cheap, I only buy stuff one sale and that I have coupons and or rebates for. And if I can stack the savings even better. I spend less than $250 for food each month but we eat about 3 times that amount but because of being cheap I get a lot of the money I do spend.

I can see that it is obvious you a racist and a bigot. You just don't want to pay the people in Costa Rica to grow your pineapples.

What have you got against Costa Rica man?

Why the huge tirade to bankrupt that nation?

What have they ever done to you to make you so angry at them?

LOL

Tongue in cheek. Just like your post.

Grow your own food, grow more than you need, share with others, sell some, rinse and repeat. You really do have to ask yourself, "Why do I live like this?".

I feel like everyone could easily grow fruit or vegetables in their gardens, but a lot of it comes down to convenience though unfortunately!

There's also other issues as well aside the lack of time or space. For instance, many people these days just don't know how to garden. While this is easy to correct with a bit of research (or a helpful neighbor), it still raises the bar a bit and makes the overall gardening experience less enjoyable for those still figuring out the process.

Thank you Tomas for commenting and upvoting so many of my posts along with your vote for witness at https://steemit.com/~witnesses !