Growing Voices and our partners in Nkhata Bay, purchase only natural fertilizers in the way of cow manure and rice grains. These fertilizers are safe and sustainable and contribute to healthy and productive gardens. Synthetic fertilizers, in contrast, require the use of fossil fuels for their transport and are manufactured with fossil fuels, making communities that rely on them dependent on global gas prices and susceptible to the potential health risks associated with consuming food grown in fuel-laced soil. Additionally, synthetic fertilizers have negative long-term effects on soil quality, often leaving farmers with infertile land.

GV is also working towards planting exclusively Non-GMO seed in all school gardens (occasionally, due to distribution problems, lack of availability, and high costs, it is not possible to acquire Non-GMO seed). Genetically modified seeds have become prevalent throughout the agricultural industry and have been linked to various environmental and health issues. The global GMO agricultural complex has created an unbalanced system wherein farmers must buy "patented" GM seed every season, rather than harvest their own seed from the previous year, as has been done traditionally. This reliance on multi-national corporations that develop and sell GM seeds puts farmers at an economic disadvantage and makes GM seed more costly and less sustainable in the long run.