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Earth Day: Looking Towards a Sustainable Future in Food
1.3 billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted every year; that’s roughly one-third of all food produced on the planet. Agricultural demands are set to increase, putting our natural resources under unsustainable pressure. Without a doubt, food production and consumption have become some of the biggest sustainability challenges our world has ever faced. Earth Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of such issues affecting our world. It’s also a chance for us to reflect on our role in a more sustainable future for food.
The current state of the food chain
Around the world, food chains are becoming unnecessarily long. Farmers are the ones producing our edible greens. It’s estimated, however, that for every $1 consumers spend on edible greens, farmers only receive $0.16. Wholesale suppliers, distributors and retailers have become part of a convoluted food chain, each taking their own cuts.
When produce finally reaches the retailer, we buy it trusting that it's safe to consume. Unfortunately, though, we haven’t seen how it was handled or treated. We haven't seen the conditions in which it was grown. We weren't there when it was bagged and shipped off to the supermarkets. To make matters worse, commercially processed foods often have less vitamins and an altered balance of minerals. In particular, canning and freezing fruits and vegetables reduces their nutrient content.
Furthermore, the goods we find in stores have often travelled hundreds of miles before they reach the shelves. Fruits and vegetables are harvested early and the journey to the store can expose them to pollution. Once we purchase them from the store, they rarely taste fresh. Somehow we’ve reached a point where we accept this as the norm... But don’t our bodies (and our taste buds) deserve better?
Click & Grow’s role in the future of food
We want to revolutionize the way people think about food. We believe farming needs to become more local and move closer to the consumers. This way, vitamin-rich food can become more accessible. More than 10 years of innovation and research have proved something very important to us: in order to make progress, we need to follow some valuable examples from the way things were done in the past. For example, most households actually grew their own food. We believe hyper-local food growing is the most sustainable way to tackle the problem of food production and consumption.
A huge difference between 150 years ago and today is that many people no longer need a plot of land to begin growing their own food. Today, more than 4 billion people live in urban areas. According to the United Nations, 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050. The beauty of smart gardens is that they make it possible for you to grow your own fresh food even in the smallest of apartments in urban areas. There are no GMOs, pesticides or other harmful additives in any of our products. The benefit is that the food you grow doesn’t lose any vitamins or minerals to commercial processing.
When growing in a smart garden, you have control over the amount of food you grow, which helps you minimise waste. You only need to harvest food when it’s ready to be harvested, leading to fresher tasting produce. You’re also helping to reduce harmful emissions by eliminating the need for vehicles to transport your food. It’s quite literally a garden-to-plate experience. Once your food is harvested from your indoor garden, it can go straight to your dinner plate. Indoor gardens are compact, making efficient use of space. They can be used in homes, schools, offices, restaurants, or even hospitals.
We take great care to ensure our products are family friendly and easy to use. Using specially developed Smart Soil and automated water and lighting, smart gardens help you grow plants quickly and easily. We’re inspired to know that thousands of people around the world have found success in growing their own food with Click & Grow. We’re constantly looking to innovate with new products and to expand our plant collection, making even more food readily available to grow.
Furthermore, Click & Grow has joined the global reforesting movement. As a tradition, every year we plant as many trees as indoor gardens we sell. We’re grateful to you, our dedicated community, for helping to promote hyper-local food growing simply by using our smart gardens.
To learn more about what we believe in, visit us at www.clickandgrow.com. Discover how our self-growing gardens make it possible to eat sustainably by growing tasty, vitamin-rich food at home. No additives, no food miles, no pollution, just wholesome food straight from your garden to your plate.
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