Power of Collective Action: Victory Gardens

Power of Collective Action: Victory Gardens

Here We Grow has taken a brief respite from blogging since the Hamill Homestead. Since then, Here We Grow has set roots in St. Louis by starting a modern farm and a permaculture design firm. To continue blogging, I (Drew Hundelt) have chosen a theme to write a collection of stories about. The theme is the power of collective action. Collective action is a powerful thing, it can end wars, start wars, start trends, end trends, start dance moves, make a video viral, expose mistreatment of others that otherwise would go unnoticed, and you get the gist. The collective action emphasizes how powerful a collective engagement can be. 

 The first story of the Power of Collective Action is the affect of the wartime victory gardens. Victory gardens always fascinated me and as I research more about it, the more optimistic I become about what we as people can do. During the first and second world wars, resources were scarce and governments of Australia, United States, and Europe encouraged citizens to pitch in and help mobilize more money & food towards the war effort by becoming more self-reliant. 

Per the History Channel, victory gardens generated 20 million victory gardens at their peak. By 1944, all those gardens produced 8 million tones of food and accounted for more than 40% of all the fruits and vegetables consumed in the United States (history.com). Even Eleanor Rosevelt planted a garden in the White House lawn. The history channel then goes on to proclaim that "a renaissance movement has sprouted up in recent years in support of self-sufficiency and eating seasonally to improve health through local, organic farming and sustainable agriculture."

While that quote seems to be a bit dramatic, linking it to say an entire cultural and artistic movement that shaped the rest of history, it is not entirely false. Victory gardens has a powerful effect on people, leaving people like me optimistic in such dreary times. The collective action of the victory gardens was infectious and struck a chord of patriotism, responsibility, and optimism. Optimism, like the writer of the internet article for the history channel possesses.

I am by no means a supporter of war, but I do believe that when a country or just a group of people sharing a common passion have their backs against the wall, goals can be met and surpassed. And ours as well as our planets back is currently against the wall. We're up against ourselves and the existing systems that we have created for ourselves. So what if those posters called us to duty again? Can there be a "renaissance" to regenerate our habitats, our forests, our food shed, our air, our bodies? I'd like to think we can, but there are so many factors in play. 

Maybe we can do this? Maybe as a people, we can listen to some sort of 'propaganda' to start a pollinator garden on our balconies, our lawns, our land, our section 8 housing court yards without having a political agenda or sounding straight up cheesy?

What do you think?