For Immediate Release
Pattie Baker, publisher of FoodShed Planet (www.foodshedplanet.com) announces the FoodShed Planet Victory Garden Drive, with a goal of inspiring the creation of two million new organic gardens worldwide in 2008. Backyard gardens, windowsill gardens, community gardens, school gardens. They all count.
“The day after 9/11/01, I walked aimlessly around my local Publix wondering if our food supply would be hit by terrorists,” Baker explained. “I thought for sure it wouldn't be long before our government asked us to plant Victory Gardens in order to increase food security, just as two million Americans and people throughout Europe planted Victory Gardens (called other things in various countries) during WWI and WWII. But it never happened. And so I walked out in my yard, and I planted a seed. That seed today has grown to a respectable year-round kitchen garden that frankly has changed my life by giving me a tiny bit of control in a world filled with turmoil. My garden allows me to vote with my fork, and eat as close to home as physically possible. All while using less resources and improving the land and my health.”
Now, more than six years after 9/11/01, food security against terrorism is not our only issue. Other mounting concerns include:
• Reduced food security due to the continual incidence of tainted food from factory farms, feedlots and imported foods;
• The war on obesity;
• The proliferation of GMOs and the introduction of cloned animals into our food supply;
• The reliance on petroleum-based transportation and products such as fertilizers;
• Health-impairment from pesticides and other toxicities;
• A shocking drop-off, in just one generation, of what's called "earth skills," or the ability to sustain our own lives in nature;
• Lack of preparedness of children in science and math, skills that are central to jobs in emerging technologies and our changing global marketplace—and skills that children can learn from hands-on gardening.
Victory Garden renaissance movements have happened before, but Baker believes the timing is perfect now.
“I believe we all wanted to do something six years ago,” she says. “We all wanted to feel as if our small efforts could make a difference. We all wanted to work together. However, we seem to have descended into a downward spiral of negativity and divisiveness, and I don’t think that is how we truly want to live in our country, or in our world. It has nagged at me for so long that I no longer have a choice in this matter but to see if others want to join efforts with me to make a difference.”
Sure enough, a simple search of the Internet shows many Victory Garden renaissance sites. According to Rose Hayden-Smith, a historian who specializes in national wartime garden programs and works with the 4-H and Master Gardener programs at the University of California, “During WWI, the government viewed school, home and community gardens as vital to the nation’s security and perhaps more importantly, as an important way to create a sense of common purpose in a diverse nation with many immigrants. These programs enjoyed phenomenal success, and were revived during World War II with significant results. Couldn’t the past inform the present? Shouldn’t it? Absolutely!”
What’s more, Kitchen Gardeners International (www.kitchengardeners.org), with more than 5,000 gardeners listed from more than 90 countries, is a testament to the worldwide commonalities and connections that backyard gardening provides.
“We’re seeing the first signs of a home garden revival in the U.S.,” says Roger Doiron, Founding Director of KGI. “Our network grew by 75% last year which shows that there are more and more people looking to connect with their food and enjoy it the way it’s meant to be: fresh, delicious, and 100% worry-free.”
The FoodShed Planet Victory Garden Drive is an easy way to start gardening. Simply go to www.victorygardendrive.blogspot.com and add your name after you plant your first seed. It’s as simple as that. It costs nothing. You don’t need to provide photos or updates. Just toss your gardening hat in the ring and join hands and hoes with other concerned citizens around the world who are taking this positive step as well. If you are already a gardener, be a "Companion Planter" and encourage a new gardener through advice, seedlings and other get-started help.
For gardening advice and other support, links on the FoodShed Planet Victory Garden site take you to the USDA Master Gardener site, the National 4-H, Kitchen Gardeners International, and more resources.
FoodShed Planet(www.foodshedplanet.com) is a blog dedicated to nurturing sustainability close to home and around the world, and other food for thought. It is published daily by Pattie Baker, who is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in Edible Atlanta, Georgia Organics’ The Dirt and New Life Journal. She also writes for corporate clients dedicated to triple-bottom-line sustainability.
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Media Contact:
Pattie Baker
www.freshbakedcopy@mindspring.com
www.foodshedplanet.com
