Gardening is a hobby. You don’t do it to get cheap fruits and veggies.
The results speak for themselves though, and you absolutely cannot beat a tomato right off the vine.
The best we can do is learn and inform, while being empathetic and understanding.
For those who can garden, great!
For those who can’t, might consider joining a community garden or help start one.
This is also not possible for everyone, but from my own experience, community garden communities do free lessons to help and teach new people.
Coming together around a common good, that is what we can do.
We had 1/2 acre and planted a bunch of things, ate for free. Water was from a well so not even a water bill. Best tasting veg ever. Potatoes though, those are hard labour.
Can you grow all year round where you are? If I had half an acre where I live I think half of my growing area would have to be a greenhouse.
Store bought tomatoes seem to taste more fucking bland every year. Like I have to spend $6 per small bag to get “gourmet” tomatoes to even taste like a tomato. It’s actually infuriating. I grow tomatoes now literally not to save money but just because grocery store tomatoes (at least in my area) are trash.
Store tomatoes are not tomatoes. Unless you’re buying somewhere legit and expensive af, the tomatoes you see in stores are picked green and gassed to turn red. They are dog shit. Probably worse, actually. Seek out local farms near you and get the good shit (and often cheaper than places like whole foods).
Tomatoes are one thing I never buy in a store, except sauce/canned tomatoes, as those products are derived from ripe tomatoes.