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Wednesday, May 24, 2023

05-24-2023-0215 - Wartime Farm ; Victory Garden ; Food Soverignty ; County Herb Committees ; Community Gardening

Wartime Farm is a British historical documentary TV series in eight parts in which the running of a farm during the Second World War is reenacted, first broadcast on BBC Two on 6 September 2012. The series, the fourth in the historic farm series, following the original, Tales from the Green Valley, was made for the BBC by independent production company Lion Television in association with the Open University, and was filmed at Manor Farm Country Park close to Southampton.[1] The farming team consisted of historian Ruth Goodman, and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn. The Wartime Farm commissioning executives for the BBC are Emma Willis and James Hayes, and the Executive Producer for Lion Television is David Upshal.

An associated book by Langlands, Ginn and Goodman—Wartime Farm: Rediscovering the Skills and Spirit of World War II—was published in 2012.[2] In addition, a free booklet was made available to viewers in the UK and Ireland, by the Open University.[3] 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartime_Farm

 

Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany[1][2] during World War I and World War II. In wartime, governments encouraged people to plant victory gardens not only to supplement their rations but also to boost morale.[3] They were used along with rationing stamps and cards to reduce pressure on the food supply. Besides indirectly aiding the war effort, these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden


United States

Amid regular rationing of food in Britain, the United States Department of Agriculture encouraged the planting of victory gardens during the course of World War II. Around one third of the vegetables produced by the United States came from victory gardens.[14] It was emphasized to American homefront urbanites and suburbanites that the produce from their gardens would help to lower the price of vegetables needed by the US War Department to feed the troops, thus saving money that could be spent elsewhere on the military: "Our food is fighting", one US poster read.[15] By May 1943, there were 18 million victory gardens in the United States – 12 million in cities and 6 million on farms.[16]

Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden on the White House lawn in 1943. The Roosevelts were not the first presidency to institute a garden in the White House. Woodrow Wilson grazed sheep on the south lawn during World War I to avoid mowing the lawn. Eleanor Roosevelt's garden instead served as a political message of the patriotic duty to garden, even though Eleanor did not tend to her own garden.[17] While Victory Gardens were portrayed as a patriotic duty, 54% of Americans polled said they grew gardens for economic reasons while only 20% mentioned patriotism.[18]

Although at first the Department of Agriculture objected to Eleanor Roosevelt's institution of a victory garden on the White House grounds, fearing that such a movement would hurt the food industry, basic information about gardening appeared in public services booklets distributed by the Department of Agriculture, as well as by agribusiness corporations such as International Harvester and Beech-Nut. Fruit and vegetables harvested in these home and community plots was estimated to be 9,000,000–10,000,000 short tons (8,200,000–9,100,000 t) in 1944, an amount equal to all commercial production of fresh vegetables.[19][20]

The Victory Garden movement also attempted to unite the Home-front. Local communities would have festivals and competitions to showcase the produce each person grew in their own gardens. While the garden movement united some local communities, the garden movement separated minorities like African Americans. At harvest shows, separate prizes were awarded to "colored people", in similar categories, a long-held tradition in Delaware and the deeper South, as well as in Baltimore.[21]

In New York City, the lawns around vacant "Riverside" were devoted to victory gardens, as were portions of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The slogan "grow your own, can your own", was a slogan that started at the time of the war and referred to families growing and canning their own food in victory gardens.[22]

A Victory Garden is like a share in an airplane factory. It helps win the War and it pays dividends too.

Postwar

In 1946, with the war over, many British residents did not plant victory gardens, in expectation of greater availability of food. However, shortages remained in the United Kingdom, and rationing remained in place for at least some food items until 1954.

Land at the centre of the Sutton Garden Suburb in Sutton, London was first put to use as a victory garden during World War II; before then it had been used as a recreation ground with tennis courts. The land continued to be used as allotments by local residents for more than 50 years until they were evicted by the then landowner in 1997. The land has since fallen into disuse.[23]

The Fenway Victory Gardens in the Back Bay Fens of Boston, Massachusetts, and the Dowling Community Garden in Minneapolis, Minnesota remain active as the last surviving public examples from World War II. Most plots in the Fenway Victory Gardens now feature flowers instead of vegetables while the Dowling Community Garden retains its focus on vegetables.[24]

Since the turn of the 21st century, interest in victory gardens has grown. A campaign promoting such gardens has sprung up in the form of new victory gardens in public spaces, victory garden websites and blogs, as well as petitions to renew a national campaign for the victory garden and to encourage the re-establishment of a victory garden on the White House lawn. In March 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama planted an 1,100-square-foot (100 m2) "Kitchen Garden" on the White House lawn, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt's, to raise awareness about healthy food.[25]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden

A community garden is a piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for their own plot and the yielding or the production of which belongs to the individual.[1] In collective gardens the piece of land is not divided. A group of people cultivate it together and the harvest belongs to all participants. Around the world, community gardens exist in various forms, it can be located in the proximity of neighborhoods or on balconies and rooftops. Its size can vary greatly from one to another.

Community gardens have experienced three waves of major development in North America. The earliest wave of community gardens development coincided with the industrial revolution and rapid urbanization process in Europe and North America; they were then called 'Jardin d'ouvrier' (or workers' garden). The second wave of community garden development happened during the WWI and WWII; they were part of "Liberty Gardens" and "Victory Gardens" respectively. The most recent wave of community garden development happened in the 1970s during the OPEC crisis, results of grassroots movement in quest for available land to combat against food insecurity.[2]

More recently, community gardens have seen a global resurgence. This may be related to several issues faced by the global population in the 21st century, such as ecological crisis, climate change and the new sanitary crisis.[clarification needed][3] Community gardens contribute to the urban agriculture movement and the requests from citizens for more community gardens has been surging in recent years. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_gardening

Food sovereignty is a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution. This stands in contrast to the present corporate food regime, in which corporations and market institutions control the global food system. Food sovereignty emphasizes local food economies, sustainable food availability, and center culturally appropriate foods and practices. Changing climates and disrupted foodways disproportionately impact indigenous populations and their access to traditional food sources while contributing to higher rates of certain diseases; for this reason, food sovereignty centers indigenous peoples. These needs have been addressed in recent years by several international organizations, including the United Nations, with several countries adopting food sovereignty policies into law.[citation needed] Critics of food sovereignty activism believe that the system is founded on inaccurate baseline assumptions; disregards the origins of the targeted problems; and is plagued by a lack of consensus for proposed solutions.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_sovereignty

The County Herb Committees were a nationwide medicinal plant collecting scheme, established by the British Ministry of Health during the Second World War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Herb_Committee

 

 

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