“…every one who creates or cultivates a garden helps and helps greatly, to solve the problem of the feeding of the nations – and that every housewife who practices strict economy puts herself in the ranks of those who serve the nation. This is the time for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance.
Let every man and every woman assume the duty of careful, provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a dictate of patriotism which no one can now expect ever to be excused or forgiven for ignoring.”
-Woodrow Wilson, in a proclamation to the American people,
nine days after U.S. declaration of war
nine days after U.S. declaration of war
My husband developed a new passion 3 years ago: gardening. We had small gardens in the past at our previous homes, but nothing we have ever done compares to what he has undertaken now. I guess he needed something to do while I was walking for candidates in parades, sitting in fair booths and organizing political events during the summer months. If I am to be totally honest with myself, his was, and is, the far more worthwhile and productive endeavor.
Victory Gardens started during World War I under the Wilson administration. The true history of Woodrow Wilson is a subject for another blog on another day. In any case, the quote I shared above shows just how far we have come from a culture of personal responsibility to a culture of dependence in just a century. We have gone from our government producing posters, flyers and brochures encouraging the production of our own backyard food sources to our government running radio and social media ads encouraging the use of public assistance programs. According to the US Census Bureau, the population in our country is about 308 million people. The US Department of Agriculture reports that currently about 48 million people, almost 16%, receive food subsidies in the form of EBT cards alone and the number is rising daily.
The Victory Gardens of World Wars I and II served two primary purposes. First, they assisted in redirecting resources from private use to the war efforts. We had troops to feed overseas. The increased demand for food would have caused prices to rise. The government would have had to pay the farmers more to buy the food needed to supply the troops and families on the home front would have had to pay more for the food they still needed for their households. There were also transportation costs to consider. If trucks, railcars and ships were filled with domestic food supplies, they did not have room to transport munitions and equipment needed to fight the war. Again, competition for the shipping resources would have increased the cost for all. Further complicating the issue was that transportation and factory work was done by men and they were another needed resource for national defense. The reduction in the traditional workforce of the day coupled with the increased demand for products and services to meet the needs of both the home front and the war effort would have caused tremendous upward pressure on pricing. Secondly, the Victory Gardens served as an incredible morale booster. They were a tangible way for the wives, children, mothers and fathers of the fighting force to make a contribution. Making the cause very personal and making people feel important are classic marketing techniques. There is no better way to assure peace and cooperation amongst a group of people than giving them a united cause. By productively occupying the population at home, government agencies were able to fully concentrate on the issues of national defense. Both purposes are ones that would have served us well in Korea, Vietnam and our current War on Terror, but, again, another topic for another day.
The results were astounding. According to historical data, the home front patriots produced 40% of all the produce grown in the nation during the war years. The participation went across all demographic measurements. Young, old, rich, poor, city and country all embraced the Victory Garden concept. There were food plots grown by school children in the school yards (imagine children working in our schools today...and with hoes and shovels!). People in the cities grew vegetables in window boxes, on rooftops and cooperatively in vacant city lots. Even public buildings and parks allowed the citizens to sign up for garden plots on the grounds. The abundance was shared in the communities and preserved for use at the end of the growing seasons. There was an additional, measurable benefit in food preservation in that the steel used to package commercially produced food was reduced and redirected to equipment for the wars.
Fast forward 100 years. The Department of Health and Human Services has been running ad campaigns touting the generous income requirements to qualify for food assistance and features actors gleefully sharing how they get their groceries provided every month. No where is it advertised that EBT cards can also be used to buy vegetable seeds and plants so that "food-insecure" households could grow their own gardens. It is advertised, however, that the EBT cards are accepted at large farmer's market venues to purchase food grown locally by their neighbors. It is unthinkable that children would actually do something productive in school or use a tool more threatening than a spork. It doesn't seem to occur to anyone that if more of our young people experience the personal satisfaction and fatigue that comes from honest work that their developing brains may not seek the stimulation of television, video games and mall-trolling. They might actually develop (gasp) character and a work ethic. What has changed in the American psyche in 100 years?
I believe that the lust for power is the cause of the change. With the introduction of the progressive income tax in 1914 under Wilson, the introduction of Social Security under FDR, the Great Society welfare programs under Johnson and the expansion of all of these under every successive administration, the electorate has learned that they can trade their votes for greater and greater government largesse. Politicians have learned that they can play on the tendency of people to want the easy path by dividing us into groups. We are sliced, diced and julienned as a nation into tiny little pieces. Then, they attack the pieces. They find the one lowest common denominator in each group and poison us with it. Remember my earlier point: to attain victory in the wars, they kept the home front satisfied by giving them a shared purpose and productive work. They accepted rationing and other government-mandated sacrifices (aka austerity measures) and solved their local issues amongst themselves. Productive, prosperous, purpose-driven people have no need for government interference in their lives and no need for a permanent political class. Take away production and prosperity and add a mega-dose of mistrust and suspicion and you have all these little groups laser-focused on their one little thing running to whatever politician promises to make it easy.
The one thing that the politicians, in all their blustering bravado, always forget is that there are many of us who see what they are doing and we don't like it. We know what they are up to and we call them out. We are a threat to their comfortable life in the DC bubble.
What we need are Victory Gardens. They were a tangible, uniting entity for us before and they can be again. Michelle Obama planted a garden at the White House for the first time since Eleanor Roosevelt, so she's on board. The environmentalists want us to eat organic, locally grown food, so we've got them, too. The food-insecure can use their EBT cards to buy plants instead of pizzas and triple the amount of food in their cupboards solving their problem. The healthcare group would be satisfied with the benefits of a better diet. The redistributers will be overjoyed with the abundance that will flow neighbor to neighbor and into the food pantries. The always-productive, like my husband, will just keep on doing their thing. The conservatives can see a reduction in the food-assistance budget and the liberals can see an increase in "fairness". Pick a group and I guarantee I can make the case why they should be on board.
In closing, the fruits of my husband's labor in our mega-garden are always put to good use. We eat fresh fruits and veggies all through the season. I have learned to can and freeze so we have a full pantry all winter (still working on eating some of last year's crop). We shared the excess with our extended family, making sure that our elderly relatives were provided for first. They in turn shared what they couldn't eat with others. We shared with our employees and they took it home to their families. Best of all, last year at harvest time, Mike was working at a senior assisted living facility and he would spread the bounty out in the yard everyday. As the residents walked by, Mike encouraged them to help themselves and he was so happy to spend a few minutes chatting with them and they were happy to have a fresh tomato, melon, squash or handful of beans. It is really a labor of love for him.
We need to stop accepting division. We are the United States of America. Sow the seeds of victory and plant a garden!
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