Community Gardens

I was listening to This American Life the other day and they were playing recorded interviews conducted by that ethnographer of the common man: Studs Turkle. These recordings were of people recalling Depression Era America and how they coped and what they experienced. I was struck by one lady who said something along the lines of "Well, we lived in the country, so food wasn't a problem for us..." Most of our impressions of the 1930s are of soup lines, children selling apples for a nickle and long lines of men queuing to interview for a few available jobs--all in an urban setting. Except for the Okies heading out of the dust bowl for California, we really have little idea of how rural folks experienced the depression. Provided that you could pay the mortgage, farmers probably avoided many of the deprivations that were rampant in the cities. Unfortunately for us today, the US population (largely rural in the 1930s) has ballooned in urban areas, making basic food security an issue should the economic crisis wreak havoc on our food systems (a situation that is altogether likely in the case of either inflation or deflation--and it is clear that we're going to get one or the other).

To hedge against the worst possible outcomes of this crisis (i.e. food scarcity), we should look to the "victory garden" movement in the 1940s. People from all over America rallied during World War Two and planted millions of vegetable gardens to ensure food security for the US and its troops overseas. As budgets get tight, job losses mount and unemployment grows, we will need surplus food in every locale. The government may or may put out the call for all red-blooded citizens to take up the hoe and begin sowing the seeds of our future recovery. Regardless, we should be look ahead toward a dark couple of years and act in our own collective interests.

We would be wise to begin a similar movement today to have arrangements ready for planting in spring 2009. Backyard gardens are a good idea for those who have a backyard. For the millions of apartment dwellers in the US, and those of us who have really tiny backyards, community gardens could serve to bolster household food production and slash grocery bills while creating an opportunity to connect with other people in the area. So, start a community garden today and look forward to a bountiful 2009. The American Community Garden Association is a very good organization that promotes the creation of community gardens at http://www.communitygarden.org/. Their website has tutorials on all the steps involved in organizing a community garden. Also check out http://www.revivevictorygarden.org/ for good tips on how to optimize your yard or patio space for household gardens.