did you know that Victory Gardens produced 40% of our vegetable produce consumed? [View All]

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

Does that not seem rather a lot of food? A little less than HALF of all veggie produce consumed during the war years were produced in backyards and on window sills. 40%. That's a lot of food.

...home front 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 poster read.

Seems to me that as the era of cheap oil ends, transporting produce up from say Chile, or Nicaragua to sell in your local Publix, is going to become stupidly expensive. Seems that there should be a public interest in encouraging people to produce their food.

We should get tax credits -- like the home office deduction, or like what farmers get *not* to produce certain crops -- for transforming the backyards of suburbia into productive farmland. HOAs could organize "Garden Markets" where people could trade their produce and canned goods. Schools could do larger community gardens, utilizing public spaces.

There's an upscale, condo version of this too. If you don't have a backyard, you should still get the tax credit for transforming a spare bedroom into a hydroponic gardens. Added bonus of alieviating season affective syndrome -- nothing fights depression like a thriving hydroponic garden.


Eh, thoughts before weekend gardening...