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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Back to the Land: villaging instead of pillaging

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  • From: Pego Rice <firekeeper38@yahoo.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Back to the Land: villaging instead of pillaging
  • Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:30:35 -0700 (PDT)

Ok yes, my humor pops out in quips but the point really stands that few
people have either the knowledge, energy or talent to walk out into nowhere
and turn it into a self-sustaining steading. What works, by repeated
example, is people working together, preferably within familiar working
relationships. This is why the Victory Garden movement worked and the Back
To the Landers had so much difficulty. Victory Gardens had publicity,
educational materials, government leadership and even some support and, more
importantly they didn't leave their homes or jobs. By the last 2 years of
WWII, they produced 40 percent of the nations total veggie needs and that is
nothing to shake a stick at.; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden
But the moment the need seemed over, and in fact well before need actually
WAS over, most people stopped these gardens. This left, as it had from the
first World War a small body of knowledgeable gardeners and community
gardens in urban areas which we still have today.

"Canned foods were rationed regularly in the United States, but the poster
campaign ("Plant more in '44!") to plant a Victory Garden was answered by
nearly 20 million Americans. These gardens produced up to 40 percent of all
the vegetable produce that was consumed in the nation....Basic information
about gardening appeared in public services booklets distributed by the
Department of Agriculture, as well as by agribusiness corporations such as
International Harvester and Beech-Nut.
Victory gardens were planted in backyards and on apartment-building rooftops,
with the occasional vacant lot "commandeered for the war effort!" and put to
use as a cornfield or a squash patch. During World War II, sections of lawn
were publicly plowed for plots "

There's a guy up north that decided to produce everything he ate except salt,
pepper and coffee, during summer break and dumped 11k into his back yard, in
the form of rabbits, chickens, geese, new garden soil to cover his clay and
in crops. Out of this he ate only his own for 3-4 months, (wife and kids
still went to the grocery) lost 27lbs and had to handle a militant child
uprising. (don't kill the Bunnies!) He simply found that trying to do
everything, all at once, was unmanageable. He made a film about it and that
may recoup his expenses but for now he and his family have a very good garden
and hens for eggs, plus a few pet rabbits and his kids have taken on giving
the roosters their walks in doll strollers dressed up in pink pinafores. If
I had caught the guys name while I was driving around listening to NPR I
would link you to is but this is what I recall and I have had enough
similarity in my personal experiences that, well <spreads hands>

On the other hand; the Back-To-The-Landers and the homesteaders and the
communes that followed did not succeed on anything like this kind of scale in
their immediate food production but I have to say that the stubborn, lucky,
talented 3% have something to do with with our current change in favor of
organic local produce. Small ICs that were successful, like Peaceful Valley
helped to conserve heirloom plants and create markets for organic produce.
The Impact of people like this has been incremental but today the same people
who started Peaceful Valley now have organized national, or rather the now
international Bioneers conferences.

Now, the fact is that people were doing their darnedest to maintain
traditional farming and gardening world over, families have been trying to
maintain farms everywhere. Native Americans attempting to maintain
traditional waffle gardens were being rooted up as fast as possible. Indians
were being paid to dump old seed stock and take up Monsanto commercial crop.
The change is not in them, my guess is that it is a layer of idealists that
are also educated and effective communicators (who were VERY familiar with
urban thinking and biases, while identifying with traditional people) taking
up, not the over all food production, but the voice and activist movement.

The lesson, from both directions, is that small changes make big differences.
20 million yards and roofs carried our nation, 3% sticking it out over the
last 70 years eventually made enough noise to make people think that organic
is better and OF COURSE home grown tomatoes taste better.

Yours, Pego

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  • Re: [Livingontheland] Back to the Land: villaging instead of pillaging, Pego Rice, 10/17/2007

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