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.
I love thinking of spring -— and it’s been over 60 here the past couple of days, but it is also raining. Of course we will be back to highs in the 40s and freezing overnight by Saturday.
I planted about 16 tomato plants for sauce and got about 28 quarts of tomato sauce. I also went apple picking and canned up about as many quarts of applesauce.
You don’t need a huge garden, though. Mine is about 7 x 30 and I grew peas, beans, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, potatoes and turnips.
I wouldn’t bother with the onions or potatoes again, though. They’re too cheap in the stores.
Strawberries are very easy. They grow like weeds.
I wish I had your optimism. I had absolutely NO luck with strawberries. Nor with raspberries.
Actually, I’ve seen tomatoes grown successfully in pots on patios. You could give it a try.
We have a Christmas party to attend this evening:
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
840 AM EST THU DEC 11 2008
...MAJOR WINTER STORM TODAY AND TONIGHT...
.COLD HIGH PRESSURE WITH ITS RESERVOIR OF SUBFREEZING TEMPERATURES
IS BECOMING ENTRENCHED FROM NEW YORK STATE TO NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND
AND SOUTHEAST CANADA TODAY. LOW PRESSURE MOVING TOWARD NEW ENGLAND
FROM ALABAMA WILL CONSTANTLY DRAW UPON THAT POOL OF COLD AIR TO OUR
NORTH WHILE HEAVY PRECIPITATION FLOWS NORTHWARD WITH THE MOISTURE
LADEN LOW PRESSURE CENTER. THIS WILL RESULT IN A MAJOR ICE STORM FOR
PORTIONS OF INTERIOR SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. THE LOW PRESSURE GALE
CENTER WILL MOVE ACROSS EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS FRIDAY MORNING AND
DEPART FOR THE MARITIMES IN THE AFTERNOON.
It’s 34 degrees at the moment. Estimates of ice coverage are up to an inch. I’m not sure the party will proceed as planned.
Interesting about the strawberries. The major problem I had with them was the tree rats. I went outside once just in time to see the furry rodent run off with one of the biggest ones in his mouth.
Anyway, I use some of that black landscaping fabric and covered it with straw. I watered when necessary and when the plants went nuts with blossoms and tiny fruit, I picked off some of the smaller ones so the remaining ones would grow bigger.
My patio gets about 1/2 hour of direct sunlight every day. Not enough for tomatoes. Plan on trying indoor grow lights.
I use Pomona’s pectin for jams. It allows for big batches and low sugar jams.
I use 12 cups of fruit, 3 cups of sugar and the pectin. It makes 7 pints of jam; just one cannerload.
Although it seems expensive, I figured out the cost per pint and it’s way cheaper than Sure-Jell and Certo.
You be careful if you dare venture out.
I see. Yes, it seems that veggies need lots of full sun. The parts of my garden that got less sun didn’t do as well.
Do I have to grow food to give to those who live in public housing high rises?
Thanks. I will, although if it’s really bad, we won’t even be able to get up the driveway.
Yikes! It’s a big system, isn’t it?
Interestingly enough, I do not have a tree rat problem. In fact only once in nearly 6 years have I even seen one anywhere near our property.
If I ever decide to try the strawberries again I will go the black plastic route. Although I have found going to the U-pick place to be easier, and maybe even cheaper in the long run.
Victory Garden? The libs don’t want victory. How about an unconditional withdrawal garden? A surrender garden? A defeat garden? A detente garden?
The wind started picking up late Saturday night. Sunday was a horrible, horrible day. It looked so pretty out with the sun shining, but it was on 40 degrees with 25-30mph sustained winds. Monday and Tuesday weren’t so bad because even though the winds were even stronger, the temps were in the mid 60s and the wind was from the southwest.
Our 10yo is driving us nuts wanting snow -— then complains she’s cold..........
Getting back to the Victory Garden, I have been spending a lot of time looking at hundreds of ariel photos from the 40s 50s and 60s posted on the Humboldt State Universitie's library collections web site and almost every back yard had a garden here in Eureka. Ping me if anyone wants a link to the site...
They will be called Peoples’ Gardens and they will be community property. All may eat even if they don’t contribute. Don’t h8 when they take the product of your effort.
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