Many people come to veganism to live a more holistic, ethical life. Growing a garden is one of the most potent ways people can reconnect to what it is to truly exist on this planet. It allows you to rediscover the magic of the interplay between the elements that allow us to live.
Whether you grow some of your own food, or just have an ornamental garden, the benefit you have for the health of the planet can be significant. If your reason for adopting a vegan lifestyle is ethical, environmental, or health, by growing organic food at home you can drastically reduce the suffering caused to animals and ecosystems by modern industrial agriculture whilst simultaneously boosting your health.
You’ll also provide habitat for a host of wildlife, such as pollinators and other insect life, helping to sustain the local ecosystem.
Let’s look at some reasons why planting a garden can be a profound act of vegan activism.
Key Takeaways
Green Rebels
Industrial agriculture is responsible for untold damage to both the environment, and people’s health. Opting out of this system as much as possible ends the tacit agreement people have that links them to these destructive practices. Modern life has disconnected people from the land and consequently from their roots. The basis of survival is taken away from us adulterated, and sold back at an extortionate price. Planting a garden and growing food is taking back control and putting you back in the driving seat of your own life.
Planting a garden allows the gardener to place themselves back into equilibrium with their surroundings, and no longer take part in the dominator culture that places humankind above, and not within the ecosystems that sustain them.
“The larger picture that emerges indicates that all the modern, post-Enlightenment movements for social justice, be they religious or secular, as well as the more recent feminist, peace, and ecology movements, are part of an underlying thrust for the transformation of a dominator to a partnership system”
The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future - Riane Eisler
Earth Care
Food is what nourishes and sustains us. If we nourish the soil, the earth, she will nourish us in return. Growing a garden allows us to reawaken this sense of reciprocity that our ancestors knew and lived by. It allows us the possibility to reverse the damage done by generations of domination and destruction caused by the erroneous belief that human life is the pinnacle of creation and has the right to do as it pleases without consequence. People are slowly waking up to the reality that our indigenous ancestors knew and lived by once again.
An organic farmer is the best peacemaker today because there is more violence, more death, more destruction, more wars, through a violent industrial agricultural system. And to shift away from that into an agriculture of peace is what organic farming is doing.”
Vandana Shiva
And whilst planting a garden may not be possible for everyone, even the act of simply keeping a few plants can rekindle this knowledge that lies deep and hidden inside us all.
It does this by allowing us to see the web of interconnection of all beings and elements very clearly, in ways that aren’t so readily available to those who don’t interact with the earth. If you’ve committed to the vegan lifestyle to limit the suffering of animals, for the environment or your health, then growing a garden can be seen as the next step in your ecological evolution.
Being a vegan means being sustained by plants, and by familiarising yourself with how (at least some) plants grow will allow you to form relationships and forge a greater appreciation for them, ultimately turning you into an advocate of ecological protection.
Gardening as Rebellion
If you’re aiming to live a life that’s more in tune with the natural world and make more ecologically informed choices, if you’re fed up with the destruction that’s been done in your name, that you’re forced to take part in to obtain your food, then growing a garden and some of your food is a potent way to rebel and take back control.
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
The One-Straw Revolution - Masanobu Fukuoka.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Gardening is the act of seizing back control of relationships that are our birthright but have been torn away from us, destroyed, pillaged and given back to us in a bastardised ersatz form. Whether you own hundreds of acres or rent a single room, growing at least one plant can help the process of returning to your rightful place within the world. It can help heal the cognitive dissonance that has gripped society and has allowed humankind to destroy the very thing that makes life possible for us.
Growing a garden can help humans relearn what has been forgotten, to feel again what has been destroyed and taken away from us. Those aiming to follow a vegan lifestyle will find that this will allow their ecological awareness to grow leaps and bounds in ways that wouldn’t easily be possible any other way.
