Super Eco

Photo credit: sarah gilbert

In a piece on Victory Gardens on my local NPR station's daily call-in show, Think Out Loud, the question put to two of the show's guests was this: "Victory over what?" And, while we all know the answer at some level, it's worth considering as you kneel in the dirt and get your fingernails filled with weed roots and the composted remains of your kitchen scraps and worm poop. What are you defeating with a garden filled with lettuces and beets?

According to one of the guests, it was victory over complacency. I love that (abstract though it is). Another was sure: it's victory over climate change. Charlotte Anthony had visited New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and had been greatly moved by the devestation, which she attributed to climate change; so moved, in fact, that she started the organization Victory Gardens For All.  Eat. Drink. Better. has a list of five "missions" for your garden, including lessening dependence on foreign oil (sounds like victory to me!), strengthening communities, connecting kids to food, and increasing self-reliance. I'd add a few more: protecting genetic diversity with heirloom vegetables, saving the bees by providing them with readily-available and nutritious food, and rediscovering how good real food is.

And here's another reason from two very persuasive kids in the South Bronx; preventing asthma in young kids. They say that 10% of U.S. air pollution is caused by big semi trucks, most of them shuttling food around the country. But who needs a reason? Maybe participating in the magic of growing things is victory enough.