On the VGA Blog, you will find...
...links to MSM & alternative media news stories (especially the regional stories that might not otherwise be showcased nationally); tips for best practices promoting the revival; relevant YouTube.com videos; calls for guest bloggers and story sources; and resources for sustainable gardening web badges and other graphics.
Essentially, this blog is a portal through which you can discover online Victory Garden advocates and their work. For further exploration, a contributing writers' blogroll and site list appear at right. Finally, as this is a
collaborative blog, expect differences of opinion--they are essential to a productive discourse.
8 comments:
Greetings all! We are The Shibaguyz from Seattle, Washington... well... technically we live in West Seattle but it is still considered to be within the city limits of Seattle. Not that we mind it's just that we are very proud of our little 'burb over here and love living in West Seattle. *ahem* back to the point...
We are involved in the VG revival first by accident then by the conviction of our ideals and principles that matched those of the VG movement.
About a year and a half ago, we heard an interview on NPR with Barbara Kingsolver talking about her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. We were inspired to take action and planted a row of peas right away. Then, once we read the book and found out our food was traveling, on average, 1500 miles to get to us, we just about fell over! There were several perfectly good farmers markets right here in the city. We didn't need to use all that fuel to get our food to us.
Next, we read that if every person ate just ONE LOCAL MEAL PER WEEK we would save 1.5 BILLION BARRELS of oil. That did it.
We started with peas and one local meal a week. That one meal had left overs that turned into two more meals from local food that week and the peas soon had some tomatoes and beans as companions.
Our driving force to see the Victory Garden Revival succeed? To make sure we get off our addiction to petroleum based foods (thank you Michael Pollan) and stop using fossil fuels to produce and transport our food supply. Enough is enough!
Even in the smallest of balcony gardens, we can grow at least the herbs and maybe a tomato or two to supplement what we buy at the farmers market. In a space like our patio, we are working toward producing enough food to sustain us through the winter with only 50% participation from the farmers markets. If you have a whole yard to work with... LOOK OUT!! You have enough space there to feed your family all year if you know how to do it.
Our hope is that, through the VG Revival, people will see just how easy it is to take one little step toward being more self-sustaining. Just one little step from every person and a few BIG steps from others could be enough to break the chain of dependence on fossil fuels for producing and transporting our foods. If we are growing our own food in our communities, we don't have to be at the mercy of foreign oil and we don't have to bow down at the throne of big business agriculture as they try to poison us with MGO crops and petroleum/corn based "food."
It is time we got some of that spirit back our grandparents and great-grandparents had: take back our independence by taking back our yards, our balconies, our parking strips and our roof tops. This revival must happen if we are to become truly sustainable and gain our independence.
It is our hope that this collaborative blog will bring together people who can share and contribute ideas and practical knowledge, news and activism efforts as well as just provide encouragement to one another and to the general public who are on the path to freedom.
Anytime a group of people focus their energies in one direction, that energy is capable of creating great change. It is our hope that this blog will become a conduit for that change and inform, inspire and move people to action (including ourselves!).
*steps down from soap box*
If it seems like we are passionate about this, then the perception is true. Few things have driven us so strongly to action as making sure our food supply is health and strong. Besides... gardening is a heck of a lot of FUN!! We cherish our time in the garden. We feed our plants with energy and they return the favor with energy, joy and peace.
Well... I suppose that's more than our moderator was probably looking for but I think she already knows what we're like when we get on a passionate rant about how important VG's are to us all.
Thank you for inviting us to contribute to this blog. It is, once again, an honor to be in the company of those on the front line of the Victory Garden movement.
talk to you soon...
The Shibaguyz
Hello All! I'm very exited to be a part of this blog, thank you Pamela for putting it together!!
My name is Eve, I live on a rural island in South Carolina in a treehouse near the historic town of Frogmore.
I arrived here after spending my 20s (I'm now 32)in NYC, so this is a big turn for me but I'm loving getting to know the animals, insects and overall environment.:)
In Brooklyn I always grew a little bit of food in my back yard, really just because it was a peaceful thing for me to do amidst the hectic pace of city life- it just felt good. When I left my distracted life in NYC I lived on a farm for awhile and got the chance to read alot and listen to a lot of NPR -this is when I realized that growing small food gardens wasnt just a relaxing thing to do- the act could actually be the answer to so many of the worlds problems! That revelation sent me on a mission to start promoting small food gardens. I spent some time studying square foot gardening and thought about moving to Niger to start my journey teaching this type of gardening but then I realized that the internet might be a much more effective way to promote small food gardens worldwide. Of course not everyone has internet access yet but I was in Timbuctu last year exchanging email addresses with nomadic tribesman so I know things are rapidly changing! I'm working on a website that helps people get gardens started from any latitude/longitude- its still very much in mid progress but if you are interested it is here- www.worldfoodgarden.com.
I've also set up a petition to urge our next leadership to bring back the Victory Garden Campaign. It seems that since the 40% precedent has already been set in the past we should be able to rematch it no problem, assuming we muster up the political will. The petition is here:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/letsbringbackthevictorygarden/index.html
I am looking to join forces with anyone that might want to help promote the petition
or give feedback on strategy, or comments, criticisms... really I am just wanting the same ends as you guys and I hope we can all use this blog to work together to make it happen.
I've already learned from Shibaguyz -thanks for posting those facts and figures- I had never heard the one about effects of eating one local meal per week- amazing!
Lets work together to bring the Victory!
Eve
Gosh, we're a long-winded, excitable bunch, eh?
Hehehehheehehehe...
Since y'all pretty much have similar reasons as me, I'll cut to the chase:
I blog at http://www.redwhiteandgrewblog.com. Am also former magazine editor and trained historian, and I come at this from a "preserve the revival's story" aspect. Whether it flourishes or fails, I think there's a great story here...one worth telling to someone, even if it's just ourselves. LOL.
With the blog, we get to collaborate on "archiving" the unfolding of the revival online, for lack of a better phrase.
Am thrilled to have y'all hop aboard!
Yeah, I just deleted and reposted my own comment...just tinkering a bit...
Oh, yeah...and Eve...when you're ready...I'll add your site to the column at right. Can't wait to see it.
Hi to all of you! I may have posted my first entry in the wrong place.
Pam, thanks for pulling all of us together. I am sooo excited!!!! I can't wait to work with all of you...!
I'm Rose Hayden-Smith with the University of California, aka "VictoryGrower." I'm an Extension agent working with 4-H Youth (garden-based learning, school gardens, etc.) and Master Gardeners. I have the coolest job, ever. For the next two years, I'm also a Food and Society Policy (FASP) Fellow, which is another coolest thing ever.
My goal as a FASP Fellow is to increase community-based food security by encouraging school, home and community gardens. I hope to accomplish this by sharing information with policy makers, legislators, and EVERYONE else about successful historical models...namely Victory Gardens.
I'm a U.S. historian specializing in gardening and the American homefront. My dissertation is about gardening programs in WWI, which is when the Victory Garden program got its start. I'm trying to use social networking tools to get the message out to a wider audience...this is actually very attuned to the grassroots philosophy of the original VG program!
Here are my websites and blog:
http://groups.ucanr.org/victorygrower/
www.foodandsocietyfellows.org
http://ucanr.org/blogs/VictoryGrower_Blog/index.cfm
I am happy to post any/all of your contact information on my UC website...just let me know. I'll also blog about each of you and your work.
Best to you all...I'll try to dig up a picture somewhere.....
With Rose's permission...am moving her other post here, too...she's new to Blogger.com, so she wanted to put this here initially, but had trouble.
Since there's slightly different info, I want to keep both bits on here for posterity.
********
I'm Rose Hayden-Smith, an academic with the University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. I've been with UC for nearly 20 years, 16 of those in my current position, which I love. I'm an Extension agent who works with 4-H Youth and Master Gardener Programs. In 1994 or so, a wise 4-H Advisor named Dan Desmond started talking to me about using gardening as a youth and community development strategy. He provided research that supported some pretty awesome claims: that gardening could improve academic performance, positively affect nutrition, improve communities, increase civic engagement, etc., etc. I listened carefully and made some notes, because if you've met Dan, you know he's a brilliant, emminently sensible and persuasive guy.
Crank forward about fourteen years. Those conversations with Dan Desmond profoundly impacted my professional work and personal philosophies. Can conversations change your life? Yes, they can, and they do. In addition to staking my professional reputation on work increasingly centered around garden-based learning, I returned to school and began studying the history of gardening in America. Specifically, wartime gardening programs, such as the Liberty and Victory Gardening programs of WWI and WWII. What I've learned about them convinced me absolutely that every child, family and community in America ought to be in a garden TODAY. My belief in this idea is unshakeable.
For the next two years, I have the privilege of serving as a Food and Society Policy Fellow (FASP Fellow). To learn more about the program, visit http://www.foodandsocietyfellows.org/ Each FASP Fellow determines a primary goal that he/she wants to accomplish. My goal is to increase community-based food security by promoting policies that encourage school, home and community garden programs. I hope to accomplish this by sharing information about successful historical models such as Victory Gardens.
As you read my blog entries, you'll discover why I think this goal is so important right now, and why I think we can succeed in our efforts. Being an historian, I won't be able to resist throwing in some history about why leading Americans (including some presidents) thought this was important even a hundred years ago. I promise, it won't be anything boring, and there won't be a test on the material, either.
As a companion to my blog - which is available at http://ucanr.org/blogs/VictoryGrower_Blog/index.cfm - I've also developed a VictoryGrower website, which is located at http://www.foodandsocietyfellows.org/ I hope you'll visit.
I'm thrilled to have an opportunity to share the same virtual space with great people who share the same ideas/beliefs about Victory Gardens and their ability to positively impact our lives. What we're doing here is really similar to how the Liberty Garden program began in WWI...a grassroots effort, voluntary, that seized the imagination and hearts of millions of Americans.
More soon.
And remember..."A Garden for Everyone. Everyone in a Garden."
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