The other day, I was talking about urban agriculture in America through World War I.
When the Great Depression hit in the U.S. in 1929, it hit hard and lasted about 10 years. During that time, many cities instituted what became known as relief gardens. These gardens, also called welfare garden plots, were used to not only feed people, but also take their minds off desperate times. In places like Detroit, city employees who still had jobs donated money to help finance the gardens.
Soon, organizations such as the Family Welfare Society and Employment Relief Commission were formed to help run the gardens. After Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided three billion dollars worth of aid to the garden program. Gardeners who met certain requirements were paid to both grow fruits and vegetables as well as distribute them to the poor.
By 1935, interest and funding for the relief gardens was waning. But, the idea of urban gardens wouldn’t be silenced for long.
In 1941, the United States entered World War II and the National Victory Garden Program was created. Its goals were to decrease the demand on commercially grown vegetables (so more could be available for the troops), to reduce the materials used in processing and canning, to lessen railroad usage for food (to allows more for war munitions), to help the morale of Americans, and to have enough fruits and vegetables to preserve in case of shortage.
The victory gardens brought Americans together and within a year, there were almost six million gardeners. Americans were canning vegetables like never before, with seed sales rising about 300% to accommodate the estimated 20 million garden plots.
Of course, just like when the economy recovered from the Great Depression, after the war ended, most Americans lost interest in urban gardens.
In the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, Americans would once again become interested in urban gardening and that interest has existed off and on until today. In fact, one of the least likely places, at least to me, has become the new urban farming hot spot. Tomorrow, I will tell you more about Detroit.