Photo credit:
National Archives
The concept of a Victory Garden was first developed as a grass-roots effort during World War I and World War II, in both Britain and North America, to relieve the infrastructure from shipping fruits and vegetables around the country to civilians. Instead of tying up the rails with food cars, the thinking went, citizens could grow their own food, winning the war by keeping their carrots and lettuces out of the way. Soon the government caught up the idea, urging citizens to join the campaign, developing propaganda, and eventually enlisting First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to grow a garden on the White House lawn. By the end of the war, Victory Gardens were responsible for 40% of the nation's produce output.
And then, progress took over. By the mid-aughts, food writers began to record sobering statistics, such as the 1,500 to 2,500 "food miles" a bite of food travels to get to the modern consumer. Sustainability in agriculture became the rage; locavores got excited about finding produce within a few hundred miles of home; and peak oil activists and other environmentalists started to blame our current food system for climate change. Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver and Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon all wrote of Victory Gardens in their books on local, sustainable eating, and soon Victory Garden reinventions were springing up all over. One vibrant project that has a big municipal component is Victory Gardens 2008+, part art installation, part government-funded pilot project. Its mission: "to support the transition of backyard, front yard, window...[redefining] "Victory" in the pressing context of urban sustainability. "Victory" is growing food at home for increased local food security and reducing the food miles associated with the average American meal."
Smaller organizations like Victory Gardens For All in Eugene, Oregon have even bigger goals; to plant 10,000 new gardens in a local area. And with 7 million Americans reportedly planting gardens for the first time in 2009, and huge support for a vegetable garden at the White House, it seems that many are taking up the rallying cry of the last century, with new justifications for the 21st century's biggest problems.
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