{"id":24,"date":"2025-04-30T15:07:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T19:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=24"},"modified":"2025-04-30T15:07:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T19:07:24","slug":"the-market-roots-of-a-homegrown-meal-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/04\/30\/the-market-roots-of-a-homegrown-meal-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"The Market Roots of a Homegrown Meal \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is something very satisfying about food from one\u2019s own home garden. The gardener enjoys the produce of his own hands. He escapes the dreary dependence on others and achieves a sense of independence and self-reliance. Bohanon reveled in that feeling last weekend when he harvested eight pounds of mustard greens from his small garden plot sowed forty days earlier. He proceeded to pack-up the crop in eighteen Ball half-pint jars. Oh Pioneer! Oh, rugged self-sufficient soul!\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well not really. Adam Smith noted in <\/span>Wealth of Nations<\/span><\/i> that in a \u201ccivilized society\u201d humans \u201cstand at all times in need of the cooperation and assistance of great multitudes.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The home gardener\/canner is pretty much just as reliant on his fellow humans and market exchanges as those who get their produce at Wal-Mart.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Start with the mustard seeds acquired for pennies from the local hardware store which in turn, acquired them in bulk from a commercial seed company. Think of all the people involved in the cultivation, harvesting, packing, shipping and storing this year\u2019s seeds. Moreover, think of the generations of farmers and agronomists who selected and bred the ancestors of this year\u2019s crop.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once nature has done her magic and the backyard crop is ready for harvest, the home gardener gathers up the leafy greens.\u00a0 Given their sheer bulk they must be washed and cleaned in rather sizeable containers. Bohanon used large plastic tubs made in China, acquired for a just a few dollars. The petroleum by-products used to make those tubs could have come from anywhere in the world. Undoubtedly, thousands of workers from around the globe, speaking mutually unintelligible languages cooperated to make and distribute the tubs that allowed Bohanon to clean his greens quickly and efficiently.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The greens were then cooked in a large pot made in France, packed into glass jars made in Tennessee, sealed with lids made, interestingly, in Bohanon\u2019s hometown of Muncie, Indiana, and processed under ten pounds of steam pressure in a canner made in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.\u00a0 Smith was right: multitudes contributed their efforts to get this to happen. The home gardener-canner does not need to know these individuals to secure their cooperation. No central planner could possibly coordinate all this effort, only a price system gives the multitudes both the incentive and ability to serve others.\u00a0 So it ends up home production of food allows the hobbyist have his cake and eat it too! Self-reliance facilitated by market cooperation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is something very satisfying about food from one\u2019s own home garden. The gardener enjoys the produce of his own hands. He escapes the dreary dependence on others and achieves a sense of independence and self-reliance. Bohanon reveled in that feeling last weekend when he harvested eight pounds of mustard greens from his small garden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[158,188,189,74,185,187,186,182,181,190,183,52,184],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-macroeconomics","tag-adam-smith","tag-by-products","tag-canning","tag-china","tag-civilization","tag-crop","tag-farmer","tag-food","tag-garden","tag-market-cooperation","tag-self-reliance","tag-society","tag-wealth-of-nations"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Market Roots of a Homegrown Meal \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/04\/30\/the-market-roots-of-a-homegrown-meal-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Market Roots of a Homegrown Meal \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is something very satisfying about food from one\u2019s own home garden. 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