Posted on 12/11/2008 12:51:17 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Bush administration’s prescription for economic health has been to encourage consumers to shop our way to prosperity. But as we’ve been learning the hard way, doing so with borrowed money isn’t sustainable.
The current recession is already being compared to the Great Depression. And while the effort to win World War II is often credited with helping to end that funk, the two wars we’re currently fighting have only helped sink the economy even more. While we probably don’t need another world war, some lessons learned during the last one may still be relevant.
The nation awaits President-elect Obama’s green version of FDR’s New Deal – which was another catalyst for ending the Great Depression. Obama’s new New Deal holds promise, but I hope that he also considers dusting off another program from that era: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Gardens.
The Victory Gardens program supplied Americans with the encouragement, tools, instruction and sometimes even the land necessary to create personal vegetable gardens. Twenty million such gardens were planted during World War II, and they produced 40 percent of America’s vegetables.
“I was 9 or 10 years old,” my dad recalls. “I bought seeds, followed the instructions on the seed packet, and grew corn in the backyard. It didn’t do very well.”
Still, he says, “it was the patriotic thing to do. Food was being rationed. Whatever civilians could grow themselves meant there would be more for the armed services.”
While the Victory Gardens program has been given partial credit for the successful outcome of World War II, what could have been an ongoing and productive legacy of the war effort was derailed by the weapons industry, which suddenly found itself in need of a purpose.
Ammonium nitrate is the main ingredient in both bombs and chemical fertilizer, and after World War II the government encouraged the conversion of the munitions industry into fertilizer production (while also encouraging a shift in the focus of nerve-gas research toward pesticides).
The U.S. government also began subsidizing commodity crops, paying farmers for all the corn, soybeans, wheat and rice they could produce, while a succession of agriculture secretaries encouraged farmers to “get big or get out.” The practice of dumping weapons-grade ammonium and toxic pesticides on gargantuan farm fields – also known as “the Green Revolution” – created literal mountains of the cheapest food in history.
But, as Michael Pollan points out in his recent memo to the next “Farmer in Chief” in the New York Times Magazine, “The era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close.”
Rising oil prices are a big reason for this, but expensive food is hardly the only downside to petroleum-intensive farming. “The way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do,” writes Pollan. He also points out that before last spring’s spike in food prices, Americans had been paying less and less for food since 1960 (from 18 percent to 10 percent of household income) while paying more for healthcare (from 5 percent to 16 percent of household income).
As four of the top 10 killers in America today – heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer – are chronic diseases linked to diet, the correlation between money spent on food and medical care doesn’t look like a coincidence. Not only is cheap food health and bad for the environment, but cheap food isn’t even cheap anymore.
If Victory Gardens helped win World War II and end the Great Depression, maybe this time around we could just skip the world war, and improve our health, heal the economy and put the brakes on global warming all at the same time with small gardens. There’s much to be gained by trying – and nothing to lose.
Several organizations are already advocating a return to Eleanor Roosevelt’s program. These include Revive the Victory Garden (www.revivevictorygarden.org), and Victory Gardens 2008+, a San Francisco group that supports the conversion of back yards, front yards, window boxes, rooftops and unused land into organic food – production areas.
Victory Gardens 2008+ defines “victory” as growing food at home to increase local food security and reduce the distance food is transported. The group’s crown jewel is a 10,000-square-foot public garden planted in front of San Francisco City Hall last summer, as a joint project with Slow Food Nation. The produce went to local food banks, and the garden, in its high-profile location, became a showpiece for the importance of local food.
Perhaps the next step, as Pollan suggests in his memo, and with all due respect to lawn-lovers, could be converting a portion of the White House lawn into a vegetable garden. A campaign called “Eat the View” (www.eattheview.org) is already petitioning the president-elect to do just that. A White House “First Garden” in the same soil where Eleanor Roosevelt planted her Victory Garden would send a strong message to the nation and the world.
Railroad ties are treated with Creosote, which is highly carcinogenic. Dispose of the ties and the soil and do not re-plant in the same spot or an area below where this garden was located. Do a search for “Creosote MSDA” (Material Safety Data Sheet).
========== Hazards Identification ===========
LD50 LC50 Mixture:ORAL RAT:1.7G/KG;DERMAL >7.95G/KG
Routes of Entry: Inhalation:NO Skin:YES Ingestion:YES
Reports of Carcinogenicity:NTP:YES IARC:YES OSHA:YES
Health Hazards Acute and Chronic:ACUTE:IRRITATION OF EYES,SKIN AND
RESPIRATORY TRACT;VAPORS MAY CAUSE CNS
EFFECTS;HEADACHE,DROWSINESS,DIZZINESS,WEAKNESS,COMA,POSSIBLE
DEATH.INGESTION MAY CAUSE G.I. DISTURBANCES,NAUSEA,VOMITING,PAIN.
CHRONIC:DERMATITIS,SKIN DISEASE,AND ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS ON BLOOD
FORMING ORGANS.
Explanation of Carcinogenicity:CONTAINS BENZENE <1.0%;A SUSPECTED HUMAN
CARCINOGEN &(CANCER IN LAB ANIMALS)
Effects of Overexposure:IRRITATING TO SKIN & EYES. VAPOR & FUMES ARE
IRRITATING TO EYES, NOSE, THROAT, & SKIN
Medical Cond Aggravated by Exposure:PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS MAY BE
WORSEN.
Well, I spent my formative years on a large farm and think of myself as a country girl. Last year I decided to tear up half the back yard and plant vegetables. It was an expensive disaster. Part of the reason is that my yard, like many in the East, was carved from what had been woodland, and that meant the soil had to be conditioned. It was filled with roots and rocks that don’t affect lawn growing but does make the soil hard to cultivate. The pH had to be adjusted. It required lashings of fertilizer. I had to pour tons of city water on it, and of course city water is chlorinated and not the best for watering a garden. Overall the yield was extremely disappointing.
I’m going to give it another try this year, but those turned out to be very expensive vegetables.
Thanks for the warming. We planted the garden, years ago, when my son was younger (he’s 20 now) and we were homeschooling, and we only did it for one season. The ties and soil have been gone for over 10 years.
Here is where I get my seeds from: http://www.victoryseeds.com/ Good heirloom quality seeds, from which I can save seeds on my own. Most of the new hybrid stocks don't produce a viable seed stock.
What is frightening to think about in regards to the article is to start to wonder if the new administration isn't forewarning about a food ration? Is this actually a propaganda piece?
Think about it for a moment. He has already told us energy prices are going to escalate and people are going to have to decide between wants/needs over human basics. Food, heat, cooling, water, shelter... If you're growing a portion of your own food you can pay for energy, you can pay the new taxes, you can pay for health insurance...
The new administration has already told us things are going to get worse, not better anytime soon.
Indeed, our poor are the richest in the world.
But planting a garden is a very good idea. We are expecting our first, and I have been planning to plant a different variety of things than I usually do now.
Also, it is a good idea to find a farmer (or raise your own) who will sell you a half or whole butchered cow. Get a freezer, and stash it away. We haven’t bought hamburger for almost five years now, my father in law keeps us well stocked.
You’re very welcome. I didn’t mean to sound like a dad barking out orders to his kids, sorry. Creosote is nasty stuff and I didn’t want you and your family getting poisoned. Good FReepers are a valuable commodity around here and we don’t want to lose anyone! Good luck
panax
You can farm, or you can work at your job. You certainly can't do both. (Pssssst! If you choose farming you'd better move out of that city & get some land)
This crap is a Socialist pipe dream aimed at the mental defectives.
This is stupid hippie stuff from Northern California that has been around for decades. There’s certainly nothing wrong with gardening, but the idea that America is “suffering” and that somehow people will start little backyard gardens that will replace “agribusiness” (or maybe the author really means after agribusiness farms have been collectivized and thus cease to produce anything) is ridiculous.
The fantasy of the US as tiny colonies of peasants tending their Chinese-style plots while the government supplies their other wants is a long-entrenched leftist California dream, and it’s not only idiotic and unworkable, but is a dangerous blueprint for oppression and starvation.
Patio tomatoes in containers are fun and easy.
Corruption from Democrats surrounding Fannie Mae etc. are what have killed our economy. It appears to have been a looting of the treasury by Socialists. Same as always happens when they want to come to power in a nation.
Because trying to live alongside Islamonazism and a "nusiance" level of terrorism has worked so well for 40 years, right? Not everyone should be permitted to live under Democracy, right?
Useful idiot. Go sit among your your carrots.
I don’t see how victory gardens are supposed to work when Obambi has said that America shouldn’t be this world leader anymore. We shouldn’t be victorious over anything.
Besides, I don’t want to have to go to Home Depot to find some illegal aliens to pick the produce in my garden, after all we are told that Americans won’t do this work.
Fruit trees are ornamental, and with a minimum of care, produce a LOT of food. Berries and grapes are very satisfying as well, you can get a lot of juice to freeze and use throughout the winter. I used to make jellies, but now stick to juices, because they’re better for you.
You’re right! We clearly have to change the name. “Victory” - shudder - gardens just won’t do in today’s new improved USA.
Garden Ping.........
Tucked in amongst the obvious moonbattery there are actually some decent ideas.....
My wife and I have had a “victory garden” ever since we got married 35 years ago. Great stuff and untaxed by the greedy politicians,
We're expecting freezing rain today.
ping
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