The Food that Keeps on Giving
Sustainability in Action
by Ray Sher

Have you ever dreamed of a piggy bank that had a magic spell so that no matter how much money you removed it replaced it almost immediately? A steady supply of money to sustain your needs?

There is a food source that is just like that. Fruit trees for the most part are a food piggy bank. You fill the piggy bank one time by purchasing and planting the tree. Then you wait awhile for the money/ fruit to appear and ripen. From that time on, the tree will form an abundance of fruit that ripens every year just for your nourishment. Now if that is not the best example of sustainability, please let me know of something that is better.

Let�s think for a moment of other scenarios. You work and earn some money, spend it on a need. Is it replaced without some more work? Try again. You grow some vegetables in your garden and harvest the vegetables. Are they replaced without replanting? You invest some money in the stock market. What is your return? Two percent, 5 percent or even 20 percent, but not 100 percent as with a fruit tree.

Go out and buy some fruit trees, the good ones that work where you live, and wait for the piggy bank to start giving you its gifts. Oh, by the way, the gifts provide your body with nutrition, the kind that keeps you healthy. The kind that tastes good. The kind that you feel good talking about and sharing.

Okay, you say, but I don�t know anything about growing fruit trees. Congratulations, you are right there with more than 99 percent of your fellow humans. The good news is that Urban Harvest makes it real easy for you to choose the right trees and to know how to take care of them. Many fruit tree classes are available from Urban Harvest this winter. This includes classes that prepare you for choosing fruit trees at the Fruit Tree Sale on Jan. 15 at University of Houston�s Robertson Stadium. Classes remove the guess work so that you are more comfortable choosing and growing trees.

Will you make a great piggy bank investment? Will you be one of the truly smart people who sees a great deal when it is presented? Will you be reaping the harvest of food and health sustainability from a very small amount of money and effort?

Use your business and economic sense. Become rich the fruit tree way, and then teach your friends and family all about the sustainability of fruit trees.