This marks the birth of my Victory Garden. I realize that’s kind of a ridiculous name for this project. Humour me for a moment:
During the second world war, citizens of the United States were instructed to learn how to feed and sustain themselves by planting “Victory Gardens” on available plots of land. In April of 1944, the Pennsylvania state council of defense released a handbook detailing the necessity of these gardens, and instructions on how to build and maintain them. The following is a paragraph from the handbook, titled “No grounds for complacency”
Even if our citizens do not relax in their home and commercial food production, however, we are not justified in becoming complacent about our accomplishments. It is not enough to boast that we are the best fed nation on earth. Such a comparison serves no good purpose; with Belgium, Greece, China, India, and Poland standing to lose from one-fifth to one-half of their entire populations during the course of the war from starvation or disease consequent on malnutrition, the base of reference is so low as to make it meaningless. We must judge our need for greater production from the extent to which we can improve our own nutrition through greater and more varied supplies of foods which we can produce.
It’s been over 64 years since those words were printed but the message hits just as strong today as it did during the war. As the economy has begun to shift, and our capacity to produce petroleum is reaching its peak, earthlings are going to be forced to make drastic changes in our perceptions and our fundamental beliefs about sustainable living practices. That includes our ideas about food, including the ways in which we produce and consume it. The focus of my blog is to study my perceptions and reactions to food, on private levels and within the public realm.
I’m pretty optimistic about what the future has in store for myself and the rest of my worldly compatriots. However, I’ve learned that it’s stupid to wear rose-coloured glasses and assume that someone else is going to fix our problems. It’s time to make real change, on a massive stage, but the first step to making change is to start small, on a personal stage. That’s what I hope to accomplish by planting the seeds in my Victory Garden. I think this is going to be fun.
