There is a growing Earth-friendly revolution taking hold: the desire to have more choice and control in the foods we consume. Food gardening at home, or in a community plot, is part of a broad shift in consciousness that focuses on wellness, nutrition and self-sufficiency. Personal or community food security allows households to provide more of their food needs and/or to share their harvest with others in need.

Home food gardening reacquaints us with optimally fresh, tasty and nutritious fruits and vegetables costing a fraction of store-bought produce that is often shipped long distances. It teaches children that fruits and vegetables come from the earth, not grown in grocery stores. It inspires us to be healthwise: to remember that we are what we eat. Importantly, food gardening can save us hundreds of dollars a year in food expenses.

The Old Model
Food policy today is primarily based on creating a dependent consumer whose needs are determined by government, large corporations, agribusinesses, politics, and media marketing. As a result, home food production and preservation in the U.S. has declined from 35% of households in 1870 to only 1% in 2005. Additionally (and in spite of scientific advances), people suffer from diminished health and healthcare, poor air, water and soil quality, and overprocessed, nutrient-poor foods.

Perhaps most detrimental to individuals is the loss of a heartfelt and informed connection to this Earth: its soil, water, air, habitat and species. Earth s natural resources are too often associated with commodities. As a result, people forget to live simply so that others, and this Earth, may simply live. They misplace the spirit of stewardship and generosity.

The New Model
The basic foundation of a new food policy restores informed choice as a prosumer: one who is empowered in their lifestyle habits and needs to be part of a broader solution to respect Earth s resources, to live within one s means, to commit to personal wellness, and to help others in need. It also brings the focus of food sufficiency to the local level: one s household, neighborhood and community. It supports local/regional family-based agriculture. Most importantly, a new food policy model restores personal confidence in knowing that we have a voice - personally, locally, nationally - in the well-being of our lives, the lives of others, and this Earth and all its resources and species.

This Book: One Small Step
It is our commitment, indeed, our hope, that this low-cost guide supports those initial steps to the jouney of a lifetime: not only to know the joy of co-creating with Nature, but to experience a new level of responsibility for your own health, nutritional, and food security needs. By caring for the Earth, may you be inspired to follow the way of the hummingbird: To sip the nectar without bruising the flower. --Dr. C. Forrest McDowell and Tricia Clark-McDowell, authors