During World War I and II the public was asked to grow gardens and produce their own fruits and veggies in order to lower the price of food needed to feed the troops. Eleanor Roosevelt had a Victory Garden built on the White House lawn, even though the Dept.of Agriculture initially opposed the idea. At the height of the Victory Garden movement, 40 percent of the veggies grown in the US were produced by these gardens. 40 percent! That is a lot of vegetables!
Learn about Victory Gardens
Today our food travels thousands of miles to our tables and the transportation alone costs us so much in resources. Ships, trains, planes, and trucks all traveling across the globe consuming fossil fuels that we have less and less of. Our food is picked unripe in order to allow it to travel unbruised and then gassed to ripen it upon arrival. Much of it is irradiated and waxed and preserved to stabilize it for sale and further travel. Do we really need vegetables from 5-10,000 miles away that we can grow in our own backyards? Food, that if it was grown in our own gardens, would be ripe and free of preservatives and taste so much better?
We need to support the transition to locally sustainable food systems thereby reducing the stress on the world ecosystem. Reviving a Victory Garden at the White House would be a great way to lead by example. (Plus, gardens are just COOL)
Vote to Build a New Victory Garden at the White House!
Hurry! Voting ends at 5pm ET on Thursday, January 15.
2 comments:
Sounds like a good hobby for the mother in law who is moving in with them>
Yes, it absolutely does! Who doesn't love a garden anyway? It would be so much more interesting than that big-ol boring lawn they have now!
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