Americans are growing their own food at home in record numbers, according to Garden Research, the primary research organization in the U.S. that tracks such things.

More people (77%) are taking up edible-gardening than ever before, the organization found in its latest national survey.

Even more interesting is their finding that the 18-to-34 age group has reached an all-time gardening high. Young people are growing their own food in record numbers.

People in the 18-to-34 age group now occupy 29 percent — and it’s growing fast — of all gardening households, and the majority of these younger folks are choosing edible over ornamental gardening, according to Garden Research.

At first blush you might think this is bad news for farmers. But it’s not. To the contrary, it’s great news for farmers and for farming as a whole.

Why no worries? First, food grown at home accounts for only about 5% of all the food produced and consumed in the U.S., which is hardly a threat to the business of farming and the related food processing industry. Even if this percentage doubled overnight, it still wouldn’t pose a threat to farmers and agribusiness. Home-grown food isn’t going to feed the nation or the world anytime soon.

The reason why this trend is good news for farmers and farming is because it’s helping give people a better understanding of where the food they eat actually comes from. This is particularly important when it comes to younger people who were raised in urban areas and live in cities and suburbs because many of them have never visited a farm and have little knowledge about how the food they eat is produced. Many of these people have never even met a real farmer, except perhaps during a visit to the local farmers market.

One of the reasons younger people are growing their own food in greater numbers is because over the last few years numerous startup companies focusing on making edible gardening super-simple have emerged. These companies, like Back to the Roots, Gardenio, Lettuce Grow and others, are using technology to create near-foolproof systems and products that allow people with even the brownest of thumbs to grow things like lettuce, peppers, mushrooms, herbs and more indoors as well as outdoors. No green thumb is required.

Supermarket chains like Whole Foods Market, Kroger and others are getting into the “Grow It Yourself” movement too — in this case to sell the crops produced to customers — by growing fresh produce on store rooftops and even right inside the stores.

In November Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S. and the third-largest seller of groceries after Walmart and Costco, announced it would start growing leafy greens and herbs in two of its QFC supermarkets in Washington State, in partnership with Berlin, Germany-based InFarm, which has over 500 farms in stores and distribution centers around the world and has partnered with more than 25 major retailers in seven countries.

I call this new phenomenon “store-grown.” It’s catching on with grocers throughout the world in large part because consumers increasingly desire locally-grown produce. You can’t get more local than growing it at home or in the neighborhood supermarket. This consumer desire is particularly true in places like the Midwest and on the east coast where, unlike in California, crops like lettuce and other leafy greens aren’t generally grown by farmers.

Similar to the growth of edible gardening at home, in-store farming isn’t going to hurt America’s farmers or the business of traditional farming. Instead, it will be good for both because it will help educate consumers about how the food they buy and eat is grown.

The types of crops grown in these stores, along with the volume of produce grown, will for the foreseeable future be limited, just as is the case with what most home edible gardeners grow and produce.

With small-scale farming moving into grocery stores and the rapid-growth of edible gardens at home, it’s my hope that farming and farming, along with the process of growing food and farmers themselves, will get more attention.

Who knows, with all this new focus on growing food at home and in nontraditional public places like supermarkets, the American farmer might eventually become and as popular as celebrity chefs are