Why ‘growing your own’ is growing

Louise says:

07:31am | 20/10/09

Great article Neer,
In the past 3 years I have started growing some of our vegetables in containers and there is nothing more satisfying the picking your own lettuce, tomatoes and to make a salad.  We have now invested in a large container,like a water tank, so that we can grow more.
What is also interesting are now some of the cooking programs on television that are also linked to growing food that not only give hints about growing vegetables but also cooking with them.
With many in our community now understanding concepts of sustainability and an interest in the slow food movement hopefully more people will start growing their own vegetables.

Andrew says:

08:20am | 20/10/09

I grew up on a farm so have always had a connection to the land. Now as a city dweller I do my best to buy local when I can (hurrah for the rise of the farmer’s market) and to grow my own herbs and smaller vegies (lettuce, cherry tomatoes etc)... But it’s not just me, I feel like a failure when I go to a friends apartment to see her bountiful herbs and fruit trees on the balcony… I keep telling myself when I buy a place she is dust!

I think this is a great movement in society to have a better understanding of where food comes from and what processes it has been through to get to our table…

K says:

09:29am | 20/10/09

Australia has a fair distance to travel in regard to reduction of pesticide use in conventional agriculture, little wonder that people are looking more towards home grown or organic.

The pesticides & fertilisers used in current conventional farming are polluting our waterways and killing the great barrier reef.

Personally the idea of added colouring in my eggs, and the debeaking of laying chickens is enough to send me organic. I grew up in the country, I’m very comfortable with the natural process of killing animals for food. I do however disagree with inhumane treatment of living things, and I disagree with people adding stuff I don’t understand to my food.

50 years ago we were mostly eating organic, withouyt even knowing it. That has gradually and silently changed over time.  Bring on home grown & cheaper & more widespread organic production in australia.

Meg says:

10:45am | 20/10/09

Backyard chooks are rarely organic as they do not receive organic feed.  If they are only fed food scraps and what they find in the garden, they are malnourished.  This is often why they stop laying.  Chooks which only range on one or 2 days a week are not free range as they do not comply with the Code.

Similarly the eggs do not comply with the food safety requirements, so if you sell them you are breaking the law.  The legal definition of ‘sale’ includes bartering, giving away and donations as well as selling for money.

Dan says:

11:23am | 20/10/09

Thanks for that Meg, heaven forbid we should give our neighbours some free eggs! I’ll be sure never to speak to them again!

How bout you just let people get out there and have a go and learn from experience and their mistakes rather than dictating what should and shouldn’t happen.

KJ says:

12:33pm | 20/10/09

Gee Meg you must really be the life of the party.

PG says:

01:24pm | 20/10/09

Always grown veggies in the back yard as did my father and my grandfather. tomatoes and lemons (eat em like oranges)  just don’t taste the same do they.  A good Idea is a compost bin and or a worm farm. As Neer says kids love helping in the garden and my kids are going through a worms are as good as rock stars stage

Sloth says:

02:34pm | 20/10/09

Meg; care to point to us to the statutory scheme which outlaws giving away eggs you grow in your backyard? Because, let me tell you, that wasn’t one we covered in law school…

Why is it that these days whenever someone doesn’t want you to do something they tell you it’s against the law? From restaurants saying the law prevents them from allowing you to take home a doggie bag (rubbish; it’s perfectly legal) to a recent experience with a pub which claimed that serving ‘shots’ was against the law (similarly rubbish, but then again, we were all a little, shall we say, exhuberent, and they may have been trying to let us down easy…) and now the chicken-nazi here trying to convince us that giving our neighbour some home-grown eggs is a violation of some non-existant act. When did this bizarre trend start? And more to the point; how can we stop it?

Honestly, there ought to be a law…

jonathan says:

03:25pm | 20/10/09

Nice one Sloth.
As for Meg, this whole “organic” thing seems to me to a load of caodswallop, particularly when referring to the eggs you get from backyard chooks.  Sure, they may not be “certified organic” but those chooks are damn happy and eat damn well and they’re the best tasting eggs I’ve ever had.  Give me home grown vegies and eggs any day over your overpriced farmers market yuppie fests.
I’m gonna go home and have eggs for dinner, kindly given to me by my sister (illegally no doubt), laid by her non-certified backyard chooks and collected by my five year old niece (probably some child slavery going on there too).

adam macleod says:

04:34pm | 20/10/09

Earlier this year I tried to teach my kids about gardening by starting a vege patch.  It didn’t really go as planned.

While they’re inside watching the telly, I’m out in the back yard satisfying my new addiction.  I’m the new Peter Kundell (sp?).

iansand says:

05:08pm | 20/10/09

Has anyone ever eaten much inorganic food?  Except for eating dirt as a child?

Liz says:

07:47pm | 20/10/09

What are we coming to when what people have always done becomes ‘news’.In this backwater of the world people have always bartered,shared,given,exchanged and grown their own.
Farmers’ Market around this way are cheap and the growers use water economically which backyard growers often dont.Community gardens? Where have you been all this time?

Bob H says:

09:49pm | 20/10/09

What a waste of time - might satisfy a childish instinct to grow stuff -ooh mummy look its getting bigger can we eat it, can we.  Have you ever grown herbs, one decent italian meal and there’s no plant left.  God gave us supermarkets so we didn’t need to bother with this nonsense.  Go and be twee about something else, you faux hippies. If you had a genuine connection with nature you would live on rural acreage, there is plenty out there.

Meg says:

09:57am | 21/10/09

It is amazing how when you tell people the truth that they do not want to hear, you get aggressive comments.

I do not make the rules.  For those who want facts, the Food Act clearly defines ‘sale’ as including bartering etc.  It also defines the conditions under which food can be sold.  These Acts in each State mirror the C’W Model Act.

The organic industry is not happy about products which are not ‘certified organic’ being sold as ‘organic’ and have just gone throught a Standards Aust process to address the issue.  The ACCC has said it will take the Standard into account when they get a complaint about ‘organic’ food.  So it is now seller beware. 

In practice, people are unlikely to sue members of their family or complain to the health dept about becoming sick from food which was given to them by a family member.  However if you do get ill, your doctor may be required to notify the health department and they can prosecute you.  Most of the food safety problems in fresh food (fruit, veg, herbs,eggs, meat, fish) are caused by handling in the home or food service outlets. 

I did not say, you must not do these things.  However, you should be aware of the risks to you, your children and any people with comprised immune systems.

Gordon the Garden Gnome says:

10:18am | 21/10/09

Fsck off Bob H, we’re talking positive benefits that result from growing your own plants to harvest.
Go and piss on you’re own garden.

Sloth says:

11:50am | 21/10/09

Again, this is precisely the problem with non-lawyers attempting to tell people what the law is. Indeed, this is unsurprising; the vast majority of actual lawyers can’t get it right, what hope does the general population have?

Nevertheless, the Food Act (WA) does contain a definition of sale. That definition includes various things, but does NOT include giving eggs to your neighbours or family (in legal speak, for the purposes of the act ‘sale’ effectively requires valuable consideration to pass; in the vast majority of cases this will not occur in a family/community settings, and in any event, the regulations specifically envisage exempting certain community events from the operation of the act).

So, people of Australia rejoice! Your benevolent government has not prohibited you from giving your family eggs you grew in your backyard. They’re much too busy - here in WA at least - sniffing chairs, arguing about when they shops should be allowed open and maintaining soviet-style control over the production and sale of potatoes (God, I wish I were joking…)

(Usual caveats apply; I’m not a lawyer, and this post isn’t legal advice. So if you’re looking for legal advice relevant to your situation you’ll have to pay some goose in a suit $400 an hour for him to misunderstand what you’re asking, and then answer a bunch of questions that are probably irrelevant. Also, if you’re looking for legal advice from anonymous internet message-boards then you’ve other problems entirely. The liberal application of common sense should solve most of your legal problems, unless you’re dealing with the Tax Department, Fisheries, or the dreaded Potato Marketing Corporation…)

Bob H says:

03:53pm | 21/10/09

@Gordon (the Garden Gnome) - Your Garden has become a tool for media fashionistas, I bet your garden was previously an house extension fashion statement complete with scatter cushions.  The recent craze for planting veggies and housing chickens(no snake problems then) is the latest in Gardening fashion trends to be given up for something else when told to do so by the gardening media.  Enjoy your veggies, but do not work out what they have really cost you.