Here's an Idea

Hi Lauren.

My second favorite hobby is gardening which gave me an idea for a CrossFit Journal article.

CrossFit does an excellent job emphasizing the importance of nutrition, but I think we need to consider the quality of the produce found in our grocery stores. Many studies have shown that in the past 50 or so years the nutritional value of our fruits and vegetables has declined.

Several possible reasons are cited.

1. Produce eaten out of season must be picked before fully ripe and shipped thousands of miles.
2. The chemicals and preservatives used in modern agriculture make it easier to produce food, but not food of higher quality.
3. The vegetable varieties grown today are chosen primarily for ruggedness, not nutritional value or taste.
4. Higher yields per acre usually means higher yields of less nutritionally dense food.

Let's start a series of articles showing CrossFitters how easy it is to grow some of their own food. Just growing enough greens for a daily salad would greatly improve their nutritional hit for a minimum of time, money and effort. And being CrossFitters, they’d probably make a workout out of it–double dig your garden bed, for time!

A lot of people don’t have the time or space to start a garden, so on the affiliate blog we might suggest that gym owners align with a local farmer’s market or subscription farmer. Gym members could pick up weekly produce at the gym. It’s a win-win. The gym owners become more involved with their members, the farmer gets a motivated, involved client base for his/her products and the gym members get better tasting, more nutritious food for little effort.

What do you think?

P.S. I recently started a gardening blog. You can get there if you view my profile on this blog.