Some regions of the country are experiencing grocery shortages of items like toilet paper, fresh garlic, spaghetti sauce, pinto beans, alcohol swabs and who knows what else. As people get sick with COVID-19, there may also be a shortage of manpower to stock shelves and truck the produce of the nation to where it’s needed. Resilience is a helpful thing in the face of shortages. Also, with so much government money being spent beyond our GDP production, inflation appears to be inevitable at this point. You can do something to help yourself by growing up some of your own food.
Bloomberg was ridiculed for saying that a farmer’s job is so easy, just put the seed into the ground and the sun and soil will do the rest. Of course that isn’t true at all. Farming uses all kinds of know-how! But it is true that plants that produce chlorophyll to allow them to package sunshine into plant products like sugar and other carbohydrate is a boon to your table. You should take advantage of green grow power.

     Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew is a useful resource if you don’t know how to garden. According to this book, a small square footage can be planted to feed a family. The size of your garden depends on how many people live with you. A four by four foot plot can feed one person, and two or three of those can feed two people. For a family of four, four four-by-four garden plots can keep your family stocked up in vegetables for the summer. And with smaller plots, there’s less work.  Perhaps you can also learn to freeze or can some of your produce. You can learn to compost and recycle vegetable trash to get better soil.  If you have a balcony or back deck instead of a back yard, you can try container gardening of your favorite herbs, or vegetables.  Maybe all you want are salad ingredients or blueberries or raspberries.
What else are you going to do that rewards you more during social distancing? Plant a garden in the ground or in a raised bed or in containers and you can enjoy vegetables all summer and freeze or can the rest to tide you over the winter. Go out a buy your seeds today.
If you want to learn more about the connections between politics and economics, buy a copy of Political Catsup with Economy Fries available at Amazon.com.