Now You See It, Now You Don't!
TellzAll's subject for March is Victory Gardens
During the twentieth century, the United States participated in two major wars that required the nation to utilize its resources in the most efficient way possible, World War I and World War II. During each of these wars, the government worked with businesses to switch over to wartime production, and government agencies asked American citizens to do their part to help the nation to succeed as well. One major concern was food. There were several different groups of people, all competing for the available food: Americans at home, men serving in the military overseas, and American allies in Europe.
During World War I, the Food Administration, a government agency headed by Herbert Hoover, asked Americans to reduce their purchases of food, so that what they normally would buy would go to the war effort instead. Instead of purchasing their vegetables and fruit at a grocery store, Hoover suggested that American citizens grow their own food instead. In order to emphasize the patriotic nature of these efforts, the government began to call these gardens "victory gardens." The Food Administration printed posters that educated Americans about the need to do their part by planting their own gardens, and there was widespread compliance with this suggestion.
During World War II, the United States government once again focused on the need to reserve food resources for the military and American allies overseas. This time, the need was so great that rationing was required rather than suggested. Americans had to use ration stamps to purchase many food items in the stores, and each person only received a certain number of stamps. Once again, the government, this time in the form of the Office of Price Administration, suggested that Americans could supplement their food purchases, or in some cases even replace them, with food that they grew in their own victory gardens. As with the experience in World War I, millions of Americans chose to do their part to support the nation's war goals by planting their own gardens.
During both wars, the government used propaganda, especially print media in the form of posters, to convince Americans to plant victory gardens. In some cases, entire communities came together to plant large gardens that were divided into smaller plots for each family. Local towns started gardening clubs, and women worked together to can and preserve what they grew. Often, classes of school children grew gardens on the schoolhouse grounds, with the produce divided up among the children's families. In addition to encouraging patriotic activities on the part of the children, teachers were also able to use the gardens to teach about scientific concepts. At the end of each war, once the rationing had ended, the government no longer stressed the need for victory gardens. Of course, some Americans still chose to plant their own gardens, but many did not. Since the end of World War II, the United States has not been involved in a war that has required so many of the nation's resources that victory gardens were necessary.
