Throughout both World Wars, patriotic citizens in the United States were encouraged to cultivate War Gardens as a means to support their households by saving money, improving their health, and boosting morale during challenging times. These gardens were rebranded as “Victory Gardens” during World War II. Today, they are often misremembered as primarily serving to preserve commercially grown crops for military use, although this justification is absent from the U.S. government’s brief purpose statement for the Victory Garden initiative, which consists of just five paragraphs.
Let’s take a closer look at the complete list outlined in the official government guide titled Garden for Victory:
The Victory Garden Program aims to:
- Enhance the production and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables through improved home, school, and community gardens, ultimately creating a stronger and healthier nation.
- Promote the effective storage and preservation of surplus produce from these gardens for distribution among families, local school meal programs, welfare organizations, and for community emergency food needs.
- Allow families and institutions to save on the cost of fresh vegetables, enabling them to allocate these savings toward other essential food purchases.
- Facilitate gardening opportunities in community settings for urban residents and others lacking adequate home gardening facilities.
- Support and enhance the morale and spiritual well-being of individuals, families, and the nation by beautifying homes and communities through gardening. This activity provides beneficial physical exercise, recreation, and a necessary respite from the stress and strain of war.
Interestingly, much of this aligns seamlessly with the talking points of the MAHA agenda, though you shouldn’t expect genuine support from any of the most well-prepared Kennedy figures. The emphasis on sharing surplus produce and gardening spaces might even seem somewhat socialist upon reflection. Besides, apart from the mention of “war stress,” the remaining points don’t necessarily relate solely to armed conflict. Many people today feel a significant level of historical stress, particularly given the current climate of due-process-free detention facilities and the firing of numerous sane federal employees. For a non-war-related analogy or a touch of historical discomfort, consider how Gerald Ford also encouraged Americans to cultivate vegetables at home as part of his Whip Inflation Now or “WIN” (what a name) program.
With inflation back on the rise, arbitrary tariffs being implemented almost daily based on individual whims, and the ICE agency deporting many agricultural laborers, there are just as many compelling reasons today to establish a tariff garden as there were for cultivating gardens during the World Wars.
Earlier this summer, I took the initiative to plant my own little tariff garden. Currently, I find myself overwhelmed with an abundance of zucchinis, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and more. I even added a basil plant for some extra flavor.
It has been since July 19 that I last visited a grocery store. I’ve managed to have all the food I need and then some without resorting to rampant consumerism (I still have deer meat from last season in my freezer, plus I stumbled upon a substantial collection of golden chanterelles in the woods). Just yesterday, I shared a bankers’ box filled with tomatoes, zucchinis, and onions with friends who were visiting. This season of plenty has cost me only a handful of seeds and some dedicated effort.
Before I face backlash online, much like that unfortunate woman who simply enjoyed her morning coffee with her husband, allow me to address the Privilege Police. Yes, you do need a few essentials — primarily dirt and water — to grow a garden. My entire vegetable plot is a mere eight feet by four feet, and you don’t even require that much space to achieve meaningful results. I passed one of my zucchini plants to my on-again, off-again girlfriend (you should thin them out a bit [the zucchini plants, not the girlfriends] if too many sprout), and she has been enjoying nearly as many zucchinis from her potted plant as I have from mine. Numerous community gardens also exist, providing space for anyone in the neighborhood who wants to participate. If you find yourself unable to secure a few handfuls of soil and a couple of ounces of water each day, I genuinely sympathize with your situation, but perhaps this column isn’t for you, as you might be too busy trading your fingernails for a drop of sustenance to read it.
Depending on your location in the country, you may have missed the ideal planting window for various staple crops. However, there is still ample time before winter to cultivate some fast-growing vegetables. Remember, many plants thrive indoors in pots as well.
While you may lack control over inflation and tariffs as an individual, you certainly possess the ability to decide whether to grow at least some of your fresh produce independently. Ultimately, taking this action might just help you “enhance the morale and spiritual well-being of the individual, family, and Nation.”
Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of Your Debt-Free JD (affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, contributed to various publications, and has made it both his business and his passion to be financially knowledgeable and scientifically literate. Any opinions he shares are likely pure gold, yet they remain solely his own and should not be linked to any organization with which he is associated. He prefers to keep the credit for his insights to himself. He can be contacted at jon_wolf@hotmail.com.
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