“Home Garden” - An alternate food by thought

Adding on to the panic caused by the pandemic which was instigated by the overnight imposition of lockdown, people feared the possible scarcity of basic needs in their coming future, especially with concern to that of foodstuffs. A complete lockdown was new to people which created a sense of uncertainty over their access and possession towards material needs to sustain their ordinary daily lives amidst not very ordinary times.

People started to flock into grocery stores and markets for buying stuff, not out of necessity but out of fear and precaution. This phenomenon of “bulk buying” had led to a huge imbalance in the demand-supply relation leading to empty shelves and closed department stores with ‘sold out’ signboards .

Such a phenomenon of ‘bulk-buying’ is explained by human behaviour expert Dr Ali Fenwick as a survival response by human species as the whole. Fenwick elaborates on this particular phenomenon as “bulk buying is caused by various psychological and environmental cues which throw rational thinking out of the window. When in survival mode, we let mainly our emotions drive decisions and are more susceptible to social influences. So, we will rush out and buy more because we believe others are doing the same."

Everyone started to follow this insane trend of ‘bulk-buying’ that many suffered from trouble to access basic needs for a brief period at least. Such a herd-behaviour shown by humans is commonly visible during the time of crisis, while the overwhelming condition also happens to be a motivation factor for humans to come up with better alternative ideas and solutions to tackle the persisting problem.

Image 1: Portrait picture of our home garden during summer.

The creative idea of home-garden was already blooming at my home’s front yard and it became our major alternate source of food during the time of the pandemic. We planted several crops in our garden with a variety ranging from dark green spinach, slender ladies’ finger, long stout bitter gourd and spicy red chillies which provided us with more than enough supply during the period of lockdown.

The surplus of harvest also enabled us to share the crops with neighbourhoods who also started practising their own little home gardens in their private spaces and balconies. The exchange of food had not just satiated our taste buds but also helped to simultaneously weave a cohesive network of a neighbourhood relationship--who were socially distant at the same time.

Image 3 and 4: Loofas and green chillies sprouting fresh from plants.

Such an alternative idea for maintaining food supply had eliminated the need to follow with the trend of ‘bulk-buying’; by keeping people safe and secure within one’s household and reducing the need to frequently hit market roads. On the other hand, the plants in the home garden have become an intrinsic part of daily life than just a past time to be pursued during the confinement period of lockdown. A simple seed sown with love and care had produced naturally beautiful outcomes by eliminating the psychological factors as noted by Fenwick such as insecurity and fear of scarcity with self-reliance, abundance, gratitude and positivity.

Reference:

Dodgson, Lindsay. “A Human Behavior Expert Explains 4 Psychological Reasons Why People Are Panic Buying Items in Bulk during the Coronavirus Pandemic.” Insider, Insider, 25 Mar. 2020, www.insider.com/why-people-are-panic-bulk-buying-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-3.