NaturalNews.com
August 23 2008
Victory Gardens Symbolize a New Age
by Barbara L. Minton
(NaturalNews) Victory gardens are popping up all over. Last seen
during World War II, these gardens now represent our fight to regain
control of our lives and our health. They are the first battlefields
against the increasing cor****ate tyranny, a battle that may end with
us throwing off the philosophy of every man for himself and a
realization that we are all together in this thing called life.
World War II united people and allowed them to reach into the depths
of themselves and pull up a resourcefulness they didn't know they had.
During this time of horror and hope people realized that they were
living out a great saga in their lives, and in this saga they all had
a part to play. The world was a violent and dramatic place, yet also
an awakening happened, a vision of unity and understanding. The
victory garden has come to symbolize this unity and vision.
What's a victory garden?
It was emphasized to urban and suburban dwellers that the produce from
their gardens would help provide the nutritious food needed by the
soldiers to keep them fighting strong. It would also help keep the
price of that food low, so the War Department would have more money to
spend on other military needs. The victory garden would also help
solve the shortages of labor and trans****tation that made it difficult
to harvest and trans****t produce to market. One poster from the mid
1940's reading, "Our food is fighting" ****trayed the high sense of
patriotism so characteristic of the time.
The Department of Agriculture along with agribusiness cor****ations
distributed booklets providing information about basic gardening
techniques. In 1943, 20 million gardens were producing 8 million tons
of food. Victory gardens were planted in backyards, apartment building
roofs, vacant lots, backyards, and pretty much every available patch
of dirt and container throughout the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
Neighbors pooled their resources, planted different kinds of foods and
formed cooperatives, doing whatever had to be done.
Magazines printed stories about victory gardens, and women's magazines
provided instructions on how to grow and preserve garden produce.
Sales of pressure cookers to use in canning skyrocketed as families
were encouraged to can their own vegetables. Home canners used non-
toxic glass mason jars. The government as well as businesses urged
families to make gardening a group effort. At the peak of the effort,
9-10 million tons of produce was produced, an amount equal to all
commercial production. Even children and teenagers willingly took part
in the work of the garden.
The victory garden was clearly a victory on many levels.
Why victory gardens are back in style
Today we are again involved in fighting a battle, but this time the
battle involves how to stay healthy and live genuine lives in a world
where everything is increasing stacked against us.
Today's commercially grown produce comes from soils depleted of the
minerals and nutrients so necessary to keep us healthy in our polluted
and stressful environment. Plants grown in depleted soils are less
healthy and able to resist attack by pests, so the use of pesticides
is more prevalent than ever. Much of our big agribusiness produce is
now being grown in foreign countries not subject to highly controlled
use of pesticide. Today's big food cor****ations choose the cheapest,
most effective pesticides, not the ones that are least toxic to humans
and other life forms. Along with pesticide residues, our produce
contains residual amounts of soil depleting synthetic chemical
fertilizers which are toxic to our livers.
Parabolic gas prices are estimated to increase wholesale food prices
by 30 percent in the coming months. We wonder how we will be able to
continue buying quality foods to keep us healthy. Fruits and
vegetables are on the road for 1500 miles on average, before they
reach the supermarkets. Produce is picked without having a chance to
ripen so it can withstand the long trip to market. During this
process, even more of the nutrients are lost. When it finally reaches
the supermarket, produce can sit in cold storage for a week before
being put out for sale.
We want to have access to health promoting fruits and vegetables
during the winter months without them having to be flown in from other
parts of the world. Asparagus from Argentina in January is a luxury
few can afford. Yet we are told that our commercially canned produce
contains carcinogenic and toxic bisphenol-A.
We're short on money to put gas into the SUV to drive our children
around to their programmed activities. At the same time, we are
realizing that our children are not really learning what is im****tant
in life. We yearn for projects and activities that will bring our
families together.
We are stressed out and overworked trying to get the money to buy all
the stuff that cor****ations have decided we must have. Our closets and
homes are filled, but our bank accounts are empty. We are so busy that
we seldom see our family as a whole or do activities in which the
whole family participates. It's time to say 'no' to the big cor****ate
food sellers and big oil. It's time to reach inside ourselves again
and rediscover that kernel of resourcefulness. It is still there.
Victory gardens and the new age
A victory garden is a manifestation of new thinking, new vision and an
explosion of new understanding. We not only live in this world but we
help create it. We can choose to participate in unity and renewal, and
to become part of the higher forms of consciousness. We are at the
point now where evolution can become conscious of itself.
We can choose to participate in a new age of creative intelligence and
love. This new age is like a rising tide which may wash away those who
seek to go on working in accordance with that old law of every man for
himself. It is a movement just beginning like the emergence of a tiny
shoot in spring. You can tear out that shoot or stomp on it, but there
is no way that you can hold back the coming of spring.
We have had enough of the old ways of thinking, and we are here to
take back control of our lives, our health, our resources, and our
futures. We are resisting the control of destructive governmental and
cor****ate forces. We are developing an energy and enthusiasm that
characterizes new values, new ways of living, new survival techniques,
and new experiences.
A garden that symbolizes our part in this evolution is a challenge and
a source of immense hope. If a family or group is able to achieve
this, others will follow and the movement will grow. In a time of
famine for many and threatened famine for many others, the victory
garden is an indication of a new way the earth can be made more
fruitful. We must have a vision.
We realize with horror what the human race in its greed and arrogance
is doing to the earth, and the life forms on it. Our ignorance of the
realities of nature has led us to follow all sorts of practices which
hurt and alienate. We are at the juncture where we may either come to
be parasites upon the planet, or we may come to a new enlightenment.
The choice is ours.
A victory garden can be our symbol of the victory of the decision to
be part of the new enlightenment. It can provide us with a way to re-
establish a positive relation****p with nature as we are called on to
love life-giving plants, to cherish and nurture them, to talk to them,
and thank them for all their work for us. When we have reached out to
do this, we are breaking down barriers within our minds, and our
resistance to this new age will dissolve. We are readying ourselves to
go forth openly toward nature with a loving attitude.
Remember, this is not somebody's thought out plan. It is a phenomenon
and an expression of the living energies for renewal that are sweeping
through our society. This is a creative energy to renew in many
facets, the garden being just one of them. The garden is an expression
of a community filled with energy, enthusiasm and love for all life.
A garden teaches us the secrets of creation in various ways. Once we
make the decision to pull back from the getting and spending
lifestyle, we learn the power within us to create our world by the
choices we make. We realize that we no longer have to be controlled by
the power of events, but that by our power of thought, we control
events. We can bring about what is in our thoughts.
When this is our direction we will have the confidence to succeed in
the garden. Gardening is about the relation****p we have with the
plants. When we love and cherish them, they will return the favor.
Plants are like our children. A child who is loved thrives no matter
what the conditions are, but a child who has no love dies. Gardening
is never about technique or the color of your thumb. It is about what
is in your heart and spirit.
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About the author
Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of
personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative"
treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all
things natural.
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