Tomato-why grow it?

As I have written earlier the tomato is one of the most popular vegetable garden plants. With all of the "things" that can go wrong in the growing season one may wonder why we plant instead of just going to the farmer's market and buying our vine ripe tomatoes there. In the long run, buying a tomato is probably  cheaper! I must admit the thought has crossed my mind these last few seasons for I have had the bad luck of blossom end rot and many of the other common maladies that can strike a tomato plant. I, however, am not one to quit just because the going gets a little tough so I plan to plant more tomato plants than I have in the past AND I am going to try starting my own from seed! I am going to take the tomato hornworm by the horns and toss it out of the garden when I see one! I am going to learn all I can to be successful growing, wonderful, delicious tomatoes in my own backyard and in soil!
Why grow your own tomatoes? Because you can! The process may not be as easy or as cheap as we would like in our modern instant gratification generation but it is a healthy process all the way from planting to eating! According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture today's tomato has 30 percent less vitamin C and thiamine and 62 percent less calcium than it did in the 1960's with a whopping fourteen times more sodium! (Hope my source is correct!) Even if the figures above are not correct, and farmers don't use all the pesticides that I read about and green house tomatoes are great and hydroponically grown tomatoes are super good I will plant my tomatoes in soil, enhanced with good compost, in my own back yard! Call me old fashion but there is something wrong with growing the food we eat in sterile, artificial conditions. A garden is in itself an artificial growing condition as we try to pull the weeds and plant what we want where we want. We do not allow nature to be will- nilly and grow what it wants where it wants. But my garden is as artificial as I want to get. I want to live with in the limits of what nature will provide for sunlight, water and nutrients (from good compost). The garden pest is a part of nature. Since the beginning of time there have been "garden pests" and nature has been able to keep things in check. If we step out of the natural setting to grow what we need to eat we will not pay attention to what is happening in our environment that may cause us great harm in the future. If we do not pay the farmer a just wage for the produce they grow they will look for cheaper yet higher producing foods at the cost of less healthy foods, more chemical fertilizers. The food chain is a very important part of life: it provides life! I advocate working the soil in a responsible, just way to ensure we have healthy food for generations to come. Plant a tomato for awareness of what it takes to grow our food and pass on the awareness to others who continue to eat mindlessly.
The journey continues!