On May 23, 2007 for the first time in human history, the world population became more urban the rural (according to a North Carolina State University study). That is, more people live in cities and towns than in less inhabited areas. Between now and 2030 nearly all population growth will be in urban areas of developing nations, where some cities are growing two or three times faster than the country’s overall population. This trend is equivalent to adding a city of one million residents every week (UN-HABITAT 2004).
What does this all have to do with urban agriculture?
Because developed countries like the United States, Germany and Australia have better economies, education, quality of life and access to resources, urban agriculture plays a different role in developed countries than it does in those of less economic stability. Below I’ll outline the role of urban agriculture in developing countries.
In the world’s developing nations, urban gardening is done out of necessity for food- there are other benefits such as greener cities, smaller carbon footprints, closer communities, and hopefully less polluted urban centers, but the main focus is food production to combat malnutrition and hunger.
In 2003, Venezuela, supported by FAO, launched a major experiment in urban agriculture. The government installed 4000 microgardens in poor neighbourhoods of Caracas and started 20 horticultural cooperatives in and around the city.
So all of this growth is happening developing nations. What are developing nations? Why is there more growth there?
Well, most of the world is comprised of developing countries, as you can see below.
The IDRC defines development as “change that improves the conditions of human well-being so that people can exercise meaningful choices for their own benefit and that of society.” This definition is good because it allows that both the North and the South can still be developing.
Least Developed Countries are the poorest and weakest of the bunch. “Extreme poverty, the structural weaknesses of their economies and the lack of capacities related to growth, often compounded by structural handicaps, hamper efforts of these countries to improve the quality of life of their people, (UN-OHRLLS)”
There are 50 countries currently on the UN list of least developed countries (LDC’s).
33 in Africa
15 in Asia
1 in Latin America and the Caribbean
State of Countries’ Economies: Blue is most advanced economies, Yellow is emerging and developing economies that are not least developed, and Red is least developed economies
Looking at the map above it is easy to see that most of the countries with developing economies are in the south, therefore, the International Development Resource Center (IDRC) calls the these countries collectively the South, while the the North is more developed countries. While these definitions seem a bit weird to me, I’ve included them because several of the sources I referenced use them.
Rural life is hard and poverty is eminent. Of the 1.2 billion people living on less than a dollar a day, 3/4 of these people live in rural areas. The city hold opportunity, employment, and education for many. Many times, life in the country consists only of subsistence farming and not much else. The city holds opportunity for a richer life, for yourself and your children. So no wonder so many want to move to the city.
With this rush to the city the world’s rural poor become the world’s urban poor. Rural families moving to the city come with almost nothing and find it hard to find jobs, housing, and food. Many countries have massive slums, box towns, and overcrowded apartment buildings in and around the city. The global level of urban poverty, currently estimated at 30%, is predicted to grow to 50% by 2020, with nearly all of this growth taking place in the world’s less developed countries (UN-HABITAT 2004).
As urban poverty grows, so does urban hunger. Although it is estimated that there is currently more than enough food for everyone in the world (see my latest global hunger post) the main problem is insufficient money to buy food or land to grow food (World Hunger Notes 2008). Obviously, in a city of 15 million there is simply not enought land for everyone to have their own garden plot. Those that do not have acess to growing food must buy it. 30% of the urban population does not have the money to buy food.
With lack of access, food has become a commodity, what Mougeot calls a “basic luxury” (2006).
So things will only get worse as populations grow in cities all over the world and food becomes more and more a luxury that only the wealthy can afford…
Thats where urban agriculture can come in. Many of the world’s urban poor create gardens, of some kind to help supplement the food that they have to buy. According the the Population Crisis Committee (PCC)(1990), All over the developing world households spend as much as 80% of their income on food. In many African cities, it is common for families to eat just one meal a day. Once again, urban agriculture is simply growing food in cities- that means any type of food grown any where in a city.
Urban agriculture is typically opportunistic. Its practitioners have evolved and adapted diverse knowledge and know-how to select and locate, farm, process, and market all manner of plants, trees, and livestock. What they have achieved in the very heart of major cities, and dare to pursue despite minimal support, and often in the face of official opposition, is a tribute to human ingenuity. One survey by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP 1996) identified over 40 farming systems, ranging from horticulture to aquaculture, kitchen gardens to market gardens, and including livestock as varied as cattle, chickens, snails, and silkworms!…The UNDP estimates perhaps as many as 800 million urban farmers produce about 15% of the world’s food. (Mougeot 2006)
People garden anywhere they can in cities, on the sides of roads, under high tension wires, in apartment buildings, parks, empty lots. The officials of the city are not always happy with they haphazard manner of gardening. Just imagine if people in this country tried to start a garden in the vacant lot of a chemical company or graze cattle on the lawn of a city park. There would be many regulations, zoning laws and by-laws in place to prohibit the activity. City farmers around the world often run into problems with city officials and police (Mougeot 2006).
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Last year on World Hunger Day (October 16) the FAO released a press release to remind us of this human right.
Eleven years after the 1996 World Food Summit the number of undernourished people in the world remains unacceptably high, with 820 million in developing countries, 25 million in countries in transition and 9 million in industrialized countries. As a result, promoting the right to food is not just a moral imperative or even an investment with huge economic returns, it is a basic human right, according to FAO. –FAO NewsRoom
Sixty years after this Declaration was signed by General Assembly of the United Nations, study after study show that we do produce enough food to feed the world over- its poverty thats the real problem.
The world produces enough food to feed everyone. World agriculture produces 17 percent more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago, despite a 70 percent population increase. This is enough to provide everyone in the world with at least 2,720 kilocalories (kcal) per person per day (FAO 2002, p.9). The principal problem is that many people in the world do not have sufficient land to grow, or income to purchase, enough food.-worldhunger.org, 2008
Not only that, but a University of Michigan study from 2007 shows that “low-intensive food production systems (including organic and other natural approaches)” could sustain the current world population and maybe even more. Here’s the abstract.
Earlier this year the UN released a statement admitting that it no longer has the money to keep malnutrition at bay this year.
“We will have a problem in coming months,” said Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). “We will have a significant gap if commodity prices remain this high, and we will need an extra half billion dollars just to meet existing assessed needs… This is the new face of hunger. There is food on shelves but people are priced out of the market. There is vulnerability in urban areas we have not seen before.”
Its budget for 2008 was $2.9 billion dollars, which includes voluntary contributions from wealthier nations. “But with annual food price increases around the world of up to 40% and dramatic hikes in fuel costs, that budget is no longer enough even to maintain current food deliveries (Borger).”
What are the main causes of these incredible hikes in food costs?
Recently, land and resources taken up by biofuels has been blamed for raises in cost. Joachim von Braun, the head of the International Food Policy Research Institute, says that this counts for about 30% of the raises in cost. Another 50% comes from the sharp growth in demand from a new middle class in China and India for meat and other foods, which were previously viewed as luxuries. Filling in the gaps are losses in world levels of grain storage due to erratic weather-induced changes…. And climate change will only become a greater issue over time. (Borger)
So what does all of this have to do with urban agriculture? TONS!
Urban agriculture enables individuals and families feed themselves on a very small-scale production. This agriculture can take place in open lots, on balconies, old tires, bags, baskets, rooftops, and around the perimeters of cities. the FAO realizes the value of urban and peri-urban (a silly name for agriculture on the edges of cities and other similar areas) agriculture. You can check out their websites here:
And one of the most instrumental advocates for urban agriculture, Jac Smit, had written tons and tons on sustainability through urban agriculture. Check some of his papers out here:
Another great resource for information on how great urban agriculture is in the International Development Resource Centre. They have an exhaustive list of books you can download for free from their rather confusing website.
A French documentary called “The World According to Monsanto” caused quite a stir in the US alternative agriculture community this week. Dubbed “A documentary that Americans won’t ever see,” this hour-and-fifty-minute documentary is available free through google video.
Pretty cool if you ask me, but I haven’t watched the whole thing.
Monsanto was founded in 1901 by equally scary looking John F. Queeny.
The film first aired on ARTE, a French-German cultural channel on March 11 and made its way to the states by early April where many Americans saw it. This doumentary about scary mega agribusiness corporation, Monsanto, was made by French journalist and film-maker Marie-Monique Robin. The fact that there is not that much else out there about the film probably suggests that not many other people have watched the whole documentary either. I’ll have to watch it and get back to you…
Protesters fighting to remove Monsanto’s milk hormone rBGH from the market
Monsanto has been around for ages and is a leading force behind so-called “conventional agriculture.” There’s lots of people fighting against this blackhole of a company around the world.
The company’s profits for fiscal year 2007 are a disgusting $1.06 billion.
At the beginning of World War II, victory gardens began to emerge again. Some of these gardens had started as depression relief gardens, others were gardens from the first world war. There were also many were new gardens, carved out of vacant lots, back yards, and city parks. The War Food Administration created a National Victory Garden Program, which set five maine goals.
1.lessen demand on commercial vegetable supplies and thus make more available to the Armed Forces and lend-lease programs.
2.reduce demand on strategic materials used in food processing and canning
3.ease the burden on railroads transporting war munitions by releasing produce carriers
4.maintain the vitality and morale of Americans on the home front through the production of nutritious vegetables outdoors
5.preserve fruit and vegetables for future use when shortages might become worse (Bassett 1981)
Some victory gardeners proudly distplaying their vegetables. 1942 or 1943.
Library of Congress Digital Photography Collection.
Gardens began, once again, to change in the eyes of Americans, just as they had in the first world war. They were no longer just for the poor, or for those who could not feed themselves, but for everyone. Gardening became popular not only for food security, but for it mental and physical health benefits and its benefits to the community. Gardens gave a feel of productivity that citizens on the home-front needed. A garden plot feels much more useful, productive, and important than a vacant lot or lawn. With loved one off at war, it greatly improved morale to have an outlet for the patriotism, fear, and anxiety that many Americans felt about the war. In 1942, about 5.5 million gardeners participated in the war garden effort, making seed package sales rise 300%. The USDA estimated over 20 million garden plots were planted with an estimated 9-10 million pounds of fruit and vegetables grown a year, 44 percent of the fresh vegetables in the United States. (Bassett 1981) In 1943, American families bought 315,000 pressure cookers for canning vegetables up from 66,000 in 1942 (Wessels).
Jeffersontown, Kentucky. The Jefferson County ommunity cannery, started by the WPA (Work Projects Administration). Canning beans and greens raised in a victory garden. It costs three cents each for cans and two cents per can for use of the pressure cooker. June 1943.
During the war years, Americans discovered and benefited from gardening’s many advantages. It was stylish to garden. This didn’t last long, however. Once the war ended, there was an overall decline in interest in gardening as life returned to normal in the US and the baby boomer era began. Many victory gardens were grown on loaned property, which needed to be returned in peacetime.
But urban gardens were not gone…..
Poster circulated by the New York City Work Projects Administration, between 1941 and 1943. Artist: Herbert Bayer
J. H. Burdet, National Garden Bureau. 1939-1945.
This is a garden built out of a bomb crater in London, 1943
Victory gardening on the Charles Schwab estate. New York, New York. June 1944.
May 1943, New York, New York. Children of the New York City Children’s Aid Society work on their victory gardens at the West Side Center.
Victory gardening at Forest Hills, Queens. New York, New York. June 1944.
Washington, D.C. A resident of the Southwest section and her Victory garden. June 1943.
Washington, D.C. Vice President Henry A. Wallace in his victory garden. Aug. 1942.
So, wait… food… I can grow it in my yard? That’s like a lot of work right? But you know what? It helps the war effort.
“To save gasoline, they use a horse and plow and humble farm implements. It is anything but organic. We see every kind of pest, worm and disease that can affect the garden. Rick sprays various noxious looking chemicals on the vegetables without wearing a face mask or gloves.
“A victory garden is like a share in an airplane factory, the film opening tells us. It is also a vitamin factory that will keep Americans strong. The film ends on a patriotic note, ‘No Work, No Victory!’ Bear that in mind all you Victory Gardeners and Work! For Victory! A no-nonsense, non-idealized look at what it is like to have to really grow your own food.”
Stock Footage: MOT 1943\: COMMUNITY VICTORY GARDEN\: WS People preparing soil for planting in empty lot of rural neighborhood turning soil w/ hoes. Young adult women tilling soil. WWII 49309081_043
Stock Footage: MOT 1943\: DRAMATIZATION\: PERSONAL VICTORY GARDEN\: * EXT Seed store. Man walking into store CU War Gardens poster man buying seeds hoe saying only way to get what you want to eat grow it yourself. CU Seed packets on counter. Food shortage WWII 49309081_042
1942 Barney Bear’s Victory Garden
Similar Garden Projects
PASADENA, CA – As localization becomes increasingly popular due to the continued rise in gas prices and with the cost of living skyrocketing in the southland, Reginald Miller shows us one mans way of saving money by bringing back an alternate method of putting food on the table the old fashioned way.
Blair Randall, program director for San Francisco’s Garden for the Environment, proposes re-implementing the WWI and WWII Victory Gardens as a way to gain independence from our current food system with Victory Gardens 07+. You can check out the Victory Gardens 07+ project in San Fran here.
Handbook of the Victory Garden Committee War Services, Pennsylvania State Council of Defense. April, 1944
Exirpts from Bolton Hall’s popular book, Three Acres and Liberty, published in 1918. a lot of photos and posters from both the first and second world wars.
Fritz Haeg. artist, architect, gardener, superhero.
Today for $29.95 you can can join the 3.5 million families and businesses getting everlasting happiness from their Trugreen lawns. Every month a man will come to your house and spray a delightful mixture of toxins and fertilizers to kill anything that might live in your lawn and green the stuff thats too dumb to die. (Incidently at the bottom of the Trugreen website a little blurb reads, “TruGreen ChemLawn is now TruGreen, because one word is all you need for a great lawn. We have shortened our name to make it easier for you to remember that we are the experts of lawn care. While we are known as “TruGreen”, the name ChemLawn will always be a part of our Company.” trugreen.com)
Sheep on the White House lawn during Woodrow Wilson’s Administration
The American lawn has been an institution in suburbia since suburbia began. Historians believe that this preocupation with low growning, uniform turf grass stems from 17th century Europe, when the ruling royals flaunted their wealth by surrounding themselves with lawns “Lawns did a great job of showing off castles and manor homes. They also let the neighbors know that the lawn owner was so wealthy that he could afford to use the land as a playground, rather than a source of food. Thus, the lawn became a status symbol.” (Donaldson). They are the sign of wealth, materialism, order, and perfection that America thrives on. When the push mower came on the scene in 1870, suddenly almost any property owner who wanted to could have a lawn. So the lawn became a symbol of the American dream, the land of wealth and prosperity, where anyone can have a lawn not used for practical purposes. The USDA and Garden Clubs of America pushed the lawn by holding best-kept lawn contests and writing about the desire to conform and achieve status through a beautiful lawn. The land of wealth and prosperity became the land of excess, wastefulness and materialism. When chemical pesticides and fertilizers came onto the market after World War II, lawns got artificially greener and began to pollute landscapes everywhere. Fertilizer run-off created problems in all waterways and disrupted the balance of ecosystems. For a long time is was thought that agriculture was the main source of pollution to waterways. Only recently did scientists realize the extent to which individually fertilized lawns affected the ecosystem.
Haeg has been traveling around the country on a crusade against the American lawn in his project, Edible Estates. Instead of these scary unproductive barren patches that we all insist on keeping in front of our homes, Haeg creates beautiful organic edible landscapes that will liven up the whole neighborhood and hopefully make your neighbors jealous. When I think of the words “edible landscape”, an a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory image appears in my head of carefully sculpted unicorn topiaries made out of strawberry plants or at least a giant bush shaped like a yorky terrier similar to the one outside the Guggenheim in Bilbao.
As far as I know, Haeg has never made an edible landscape of that sort. His are beautiful, productive, well organized, and lasting. Unlike Trulawn, they invite creatures of all sorts into the front yard, don’t dump toxic chemicals into local waterways, and produce lots of good things to eat. “Haeg is taking over one domestic front lawn at a time… in an attempt to completely overthrow the American institution of front lawns by creating a living exhibit that reflects his personal concerns about our environment and the effort that needs to go into protecting it (Thornton).”
Edible Estate #3 in Maplewood, New Jersey (Photo by Fritz Haeg)
“I’m interested in what happens when a garden is placed in a location where it becomes a threat to the industrial/commercial system that we are embedded in.” Said Fritzy in an interview with Creative Time, “For some neighborhoods, it is a very provocative gesture that is upsetting. I think that a society that cannot grow it’s own food or that is threatened by a garden is in deep trouble. Most American homes will hide their kitchen garden in the backyard, if they have one at all. This project gets them out in front, a display created in an attempt to demonstrate the aesthetically pleasing aspects of pratical gardening. And it works. Haeg’s gardens do just what they set out to do, and sometimes I wonder why he doesn’t have a million screaming fans following him everywhere.
Stan and Priti Cox stand in front of their suburban home with Edible Estate #1 in Salina, Kansas.
To represent America as a whole, Haeg decided he wanted to build gardens evenly all over the country. He started in pretty much the geographic center on the country: The first edible estate was built in Salina, Kansas in 2005. Since then five other gardens have been built in Lakewood, California (Southwest); Maplewood, New Jersey (Northeast); London, England; Austin, Texas (South); and Baltimore, Maryland (East) respectively. There is also a demonstration garden in Descanso, California. Not only does Fritz Haeg build and advertise the edible estates that he designs and creates, but he also encourages others to do the same. His website has an entire section titled “how to make you own” with plans, costs, advise, and references.In a way, the edible estates Fritz has created are advertisements for vegetable gardening in suburbia. “Haeg calls his Estates “franchise projects” because they can be applied anywhere. They’re the product of a sort of global localism that draws its meaning from the indigenous.” (Metropolis)
Haeg’s garden design for Edible Estate #6 commissioned by The Contemporary Museum in Baltimore
Haeg came to Baltimore to plant an edible landscape for The Contemporary Museum’s exhibit Cottage Industry. Many home owners applied for the privilege of having an awesome garden planted in their front yard by a group of eager volunteers from all around the area. To know about the selection process listen to the radio article by Maryland Morning below. So an apparently awesome couple, Clarence and Rudine, were chosen to have Edible Estate #6 planted the front yard of their suburban house and The Contemporary Museum paid for everything. On Thursday, Fritz gave a talk at the museum about the Edible Estates project.
Clarence and Rudine, happy caretakers of Edible Estate #6 in Baltimore
Then on saturday, a whole hoard of volunteers showed up to help and they got the entire garden finished in one day. I found out that the project was happening on saturday afternoon as the last veggies were planted. My bad luck. But I did get a nice email saying I could come check out the garden anytime… Well, at least it saved me the embarrassment of screaming and running around after Fritz Haeg, or fainting on the spot, or being otherwise unable to control myself in his presence…
The happy Baltimore volunteers minus a certain student of urban agriculture who should have been there. (April 11, 2008)
An addition to the wonderfully successful Edible Estates projects, Fritz Haeg has other programs. In 2001, Haeg created the GardenLab on-campus community garden program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena to get art and architecture students and faculty more in touch with their environmental surroundings. “Faculty, students and staff were encouraged to claim one of 30 designated plots within the school’s 175 wooded acres and use it as “a laboratory for messy experimentation and observation of natural cycles.” (Morgan) Haeg’s new Animal Estates project connects city-dwellers with wildlife. There is currently an Animal Estate exhibit at the Whitney Museum, in New York City. He just published about book about Edible Estates from Metropolis Books. A native Minnesotan, graduated from Carnegie Melon in 1992 with a Bachelors of Arts in Architecture and now lives in Los Angeles.
Haeg says, “I like the idea that my projects are better known than I am. More people probably know what the Edible Es-tates project is than who I am, which inverts what’s more common today, where you can know someone really well but have no idea what they’ve ever done.” In an era that loves to make stars, “artists are going to want to circumvent that and posit alternative ways of making art or being creative—for example, does art always have to be solitary?” (Metropolis)
The Great Depression struck the the United States at the end of 1929 and lasted until 1939. This economic disaster affected the economy of the entire world and put hundreds of thousands out of work and in serious financial trouble. City government, realizing the seriousness of the situation, put relief gardening programs in place to combat hunger, poverty, and emotional stress (Williamson). These relief gardens, also called welfare garden plots, vacant lot gardens, and subsistence gardens, served the same purpose as the potato patches of the 1890’s: they improved the health and spirit of participants by creating feelings of usefulness, productivity, and importance while also providing opportunities for food and work. (Tucker 1993)
There were three phases of gardening programs during the Great Depression. In the beginning the relief garden movement faced many problems. Organizers argued about the size and and make-up of gardens: Should the gardens have individual plots or larger undivided plots? Who should be involved? Where will the plots be? Many wondered if the depression would even last long enough for the relief gardens to be necessary. Those asking for assistance were no long the disable, sick, and elderly, but the unemployed and desperate, many with families. No longer was it the ‘weakness’ of the individual that caused the need for assistance, this time it was the failure of the ‘system’ (Warman 1999). During these early years ordinary citizens were incredibly helpful in supporting gardening programs. For example, in Detroit “city employees donated monthly contributions from their salaries to raise the ten thousand dollars necessary for financing a free garden program” (Tucker 1993: 132).
Hard at work in Youngstown Depression Gardens, 1932
These disagreements and organizational challenges hindered the program in its beginning years, but were resolved by 1933. By this time, non-governmental organizations such as the Family Welfare Society and the Employment Relief Commission formed garden committees to help combat hunger. Those with land of their own were encouraged to cultivate it instead of taking up valuable gardening space in the overflowing relief gardens. Seeds and supplies were provided for those working the gardens. Many farmers disliked the welfare garden program, thinking that it maintained the economic depression by adding to the overproduction already taking place (Warman 1999).
Relief Gardens helped the Beuscher family survive in Iowa during the Depression
In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the president of the United States bringing with him his “New Deal.” Over the next three years, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) gave over three billion dollars of aid in their work garden program. Gardeners received a wage for cultivating and distributing produce to those in need. These gardeners, however, had to meet strict eligibility requirements to participate. The work garden program shifted relief gardens from being for anyone in need to being jobs for some. This program lasted until 1935. An addition to the federal gardening program individual gardening programs continued cities around the country. In New York City, a gardening campaign led by the welfare department and helped by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), resulted in the formulation of over 5,000 gardens in vacant lots (Warner 1987). These 5,000 gardens produced $5 worth of vegetables for every dollar invested resulting in a total of $2.8 million worth of food by 1934 (Tucker 1993).
Clarke Bennert tilling an urban greenhouse
Image from Columbia Historical Society, Inc
In 1935 the government cut funding for relief gardening programs because they were no longer viewed as as opportunities for success and improvement of life. After this remarkably successful period of relief gardening, these urban kitchen gardens returned to their initial view as a method of coping with poverty for those who were lazy, disabled or elderly. Their named shifted from relief gardens to welfare gardens, giving them a much more pitiful connotation. However, the country’s experience with the success of relief gardens in the early 1930’s made them much more open to the idea of victory gardens in World War II (Bassett 1981).
Really great paper found of the City Farmer website, it has great background and history and incite into the need for and role of community gardens in North America.
Lawson, Laura. 2005. City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America. University of California Press.
Tucker, David M. Kitchen Gardening in America: A History. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1993.
Warner, Sam Bass, Jr. To Dwell is to Garden: A History of Boston’s Community Gardens. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1987.
During World War I and II gardening became a patriotic and fulfilling activity for all Americans, both from the United States and Canada. The First World War, also known as the Great War, was the largest war the world had ever known. It was the first time in history that more countries were at war with each other than were at peace. Canada joined the war with the Allied forces when it began in the summer of 1914, following the assassination of the heir the Austro-Hungarian throne (Wikipedia, WWI). The US stayed neutral for three years, only joining the fray when a German submarine attacked and sank the luxury ocean liner, the Lusitania in Spring of 1917(Wikipedia US History).
Throughout the war, Europe had serious problems getting producing enough food. All the farmers in Europe had gone off to war during the summer of 1914, leaving their crops ripening in the fields, some never to be harvested. Since that time, much of the land in Europe had fallen into the war zone, making it impossible to farm and the possibility of shipping in food to Europe was threatened by the German’s aggressive use of submarines to sink any ship. The burden fell to North America to provide food for the 120.000.000 people in the countries of the Allied Forces.
Allied forces provision trucks line a roadway in France, 1915.
(Image courtesy of Library of Congress Digital Photograhy Collection)
In Europe, food production was at an all time low. There was no meat to be found and, in England, dairy products were so restricted that a doctor needed to certify that it was necessary for the recipeints health. In some cities, bread was in such shortage that, many days, it was not available.
Women in France plouging hardcore, 1917.
(Image courtesy of U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
The US, though it had not yet joined the war, had to cut consumption greatly as well. Prices increased for foods such as butter, eggs, and coffee. There were meatless and wheatless days to try to cut consumption of highly valued food products. As a response to the cuts in consumption, community gardens began to spring up everywhere. In the early months of 1917, as it became clear that an increase in production was the only answer, Charles Lathrop Pack founded the National War Garden Commission. Through a campaign of posters, cartoons, press releases, and pamphlets the commission strove “to arouse the patriots of America to the importance of putting all idle land to work, to teach them how to do it, and to educate them to conserve by canning and drying all food that they could not use while fresh” (Pack 1919: 10). Their posters boasted phrases such as, “Will you have a part in victory?,” “Every war garden a peace plant,” “Can the Kaiser,” “Sow the Seeds of Victory,” and “Put the slacker land to work.”
A Poster distributed by the National War Garden Commission
And America responded. President Wilson “called for ever American to contribute in the war to establish democracy and human rights.” In a proclamation, President Woodrow Wilson said to Americans, “Everyone who creates or cultivates a garden helps…This is the time for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance.” (Krochmal, Connie) The US Department of Agriculture formed a committee on pubic information to help plant “a million new backyard and vacant lot gardens.” (Tucker 1993: 124) It was thought that victory gardens would not only feed America so that we could send food abroad, but also that we could save on fuel and free transportation and middleman jobs to help with the war effort.
Here’s an idea of the scale of the war gardening effort- In Dallas in 1918 there were 20,000 gardens that produced over 17,500 cans of vegetables in just a few weeks. The Town of Marian, Indiana had just 29,000 people and 14,081 gardens- that means that almost ever other person in Marian had a garden. National-wide there were 3 million garden plots in 1917, according to the National War Garden Commission. In 1918, that number increased to 5,285,000 plots. Due to rising education level of gardeners, these 1918 plots were cultivated more intensely. Over 528.5 million pounds of produce has harvested that year (Pack 1919).It was here that the idea of the “city farmer” was born.
When the war ended in 1919, the war garden effort dropped off, but many people kept their gardens and would use them again in the victory garden movement of the second World War.
Below is an assortment of war garden propaganda from both the National War Garden Commission and the US Department of Agriculture published between 1917 and 1919. They advertise anything in the name of reduced consumption and increased local production of vegetables: free bulletins about gardening, opportunities to garden through schools and various other programs, and promote food saving methods such as canning.
Below are some examples of war gardens in America during World War I. In the background of many you can see the buildings of cities.
A Liberty Garden, approximately one block square, Polk St., Chicago.
Some companies started their own war gardens such as this first year garden started by the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York
The Women of Gates Rubber Company tend to a war garden plot, 1914.
Typical City Garden in Rochester, New York. One of 15,000 in 1918.
Xavia garden on East Sixty-third street in Cleveland, OH.
East Liberty, Ohio.
To find out more about victory gardens in World War I here are some references in links below:
Bassett, Thomas J. “Reaping on the Margins: A Century of Community Gardening in
America.” Landscape, 1981 v25 n2. 1-8.
Goldstein, Libby J. “Philadelphia’s Community Garden History.” City Farmer, 1997.
Online ebook first published in 1919 by the founder of the National War Garden Commission. Really interesting, though certainly opinionated and contains very floral and patriot language. And lots of good pictures
Tucker, David M. Kitchen Gardening in America: A History. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State
University Press, 1993.
Warner, Sam Bass, Jr. To Dwell is to Garden: A History of Boston’s Community
Gardens. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1987.
Williamson, Erin A. A Deeper Ecology: Community Gardens in the Urban Environment. U Delaware.
Really great paper found of the City Farmer website, it has great background and history and insite into the need for and role of community gardens in North America.
Cityscape by City Beautiful Reformer Jacob A. Riis, 1890
From 1860-1910 the US population jumped from 31.4 million to 91.9 million. That means that over this span of forty years the population tripled in size. Urban centers especially felt a strain as 46% of the population lived in urban areas. Cities stretched to accommodate these millions and deteriorated in the process. As the destitute crowded cities, living in back alleys and crowded apartments, the upper classes moved out of the city centers to the peaceful retreat of the countryside. The advent of urban rail systems and roadways allowed for this upper-class migration to the suburbs. Those elite who stayed in the city were surrounded by poverty and feared for their safety, many city-dwellers were desperate for money and food. In the center of Washington, D.C., 18,978 people lived in 303 alleys surrounding upper-class townhouses (Rose).
The National Mall was a City Beautiful Plan passed in 1901
The City Beautiful Movement, lead by the middle and upper classes, was meant to deal with these rising issues of sanitation, crime, and over-population of cities. In the height of the Gilded Age, these reformers felt the best way to deal with these issues was through consumption and creation of beauty. They felt that classic beauty of the city would inspire feelings of civic loyalty and moral rectitude in the impoverished that would help to lower crime rates. Uncultivated backyards and vacant lots were seen as eyesores (Basset,1981). In fact, some kitchen gardens nourishing the poor were “improved” or destroyed to be replaced by elegant and classic-style parks and promenades (Williamson).
Lady Henry showing T.P. O’Connor the Children’s Garden
Basset, however, believes that it gave teachers and school children an opportunity to become involved in gardening and being outside. For example, Minneapolis’ Garden Club cultivated many of the city’s vacant lots. They grew so many vegetables that local stores began carrying their produce. These garden city plots worked across social classes to improve health, save money, and “provide rest from the tensions of urban life” (Basset 1981). The benefits of these gardens helped to shape America’s perceptions of growing vegetables in cities, aspects reflected in current day community gardens (Williamson)
Really great paper found of the City Farmer website, it has great background and history and incite into the need for and role of community gardens in North America.
Sprouts in the Sidewalk 
