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Victory Garden Alliance inspires Americans to grow and eat real food · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:10
  Hello everyone and welcome to the Maha Low Down.
• 0:13
  I'm Jeff Lauderback.
• 0:15
  We're glad you're joining us again.
• 0:17
  It's uh mid-March.
• 0:18
  So it's about time to start thinking about if you haven't already, uh, what you're gonna plant.
• 0:26
  And I know a lot of you who are listening to this are uh big proponents of the eat real food movement.
• 0:33
  And uh maybe you're like me who uh I think uh I've grown one garden.
• 0:39
  I'm about to go into my second gardening season, or maybe you're uh proficient long-term gardener, and but I know it's about gardening season, and um uh our guest today is Jacqueline Capriati of the Victory Garden Alliance, and we'll get into what that's all about.
• 0:58
  But uh welcome to the show, Jacqueline.
• 1:01
  Thank you, Jeff.
• 1:02
  Thank you for inviting me on.
• 1:03
  Yeah, and I know um we'll just get right into it.
• 1:06
  I know some people who are history enthusiasts will remember what the Victory Garden is all about because it dates to World War I and especially World War II, and uh, and then I know it uh now is making a comeback because of your efforts and the uh um what's going on with uh RFK Jr., the uh eat real food movement, and now we have we've got a new food pyramid that finally encourages uh real food, homegrown food.
• 1:39
  And uh what are your thoughts about that?
• 1:41
  First of all, while we're talking about that, what are your thoughts about the new uh food pyramid and the eat real food uh movement going on?
• 1:51
  I I mean I think it's absolutely fantastic.
• 1:53
  It's it's all about going back to the basics and uh, you know, uh pulling away from just making our lives just a little bit more simple, which I think that our nation and just humans in general.
• 2:07
  Um we have a tendency to overcomplicate our lives, and uh that has trickled into our food and and everything else, including our health care.
• 2:17
  So I think that when it comes to the basics, uh simplifying that part of it uh is is just absolutely fundamental for success.
• 2:29
  Now I know some people uh who are listening to this read the original article I uh wrote about you on uh for the Epic Times, and I'm gonna be posting it again on the Ma a new article on the Maha Lowdown um website on America Out Loud Network, and you are listening to the Maha Lowdown All in America Out Loud Network, which is broadcast on iHeart Radio, uh, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, and others.
• 2:56
  So you're gonna be able to who if you're listening to this, you're you'll be able to uh go learn more about the Victory Garden Alliance through um the website.
• 3:06
  But I know that um it's pretty interesting how this came to be with your how you were inspired to do this.
• 3:14
  If you could uh let us know about that now, because I know it ties back to the RFK junior presidential campaign.
• 3:21
  Yeah.
• 3:22
  Um, well, uh I I've been an avid gardener for a long time.
• 3:26
  Um I I started out in um more on the pollinators.
• 3:31
  Um I have two children uh who were adults that have um health challenges, they both have cystic fibrosis.
• 3:38
  So we've spent on unfortunately a lot of time in the hospital when they were younger.
• 3:43
  Um and uh when I came home, it was uh my garden was my haven.
• 3:49
  So uh it was, but at that point, because I didn't have time to tend to it on a regular basis.
• 3:56
  Um I just kind of helped nature do its own thing by planting pollinators.
• 4:02
  So that's where I really started on that end of it.
• 4:06
  Um as things started to stabilize with their with their health.
• 4:10
  Uh I was able to spend more time in and got into more growing food there.
• 4:16
  And uh in co I'm I love to cook, I love to cook with fresh food.
• 4:20
  So I started incorporating um, you know, the our own what I was uh started out with herbs and then moved into actually vegetables and fruits.
• 4:29
  So and I have a small, you know, nice little garden in in little suburban New Jersey.
• 4:35
  So um that's just been each year steadily growing.
• 4:38
  Uh during um uh 2023, um, I got involved as a volunteer with the RFK Junior campaign here in New Jersey uh at first.
• 4:52
  Um and uh, you know, I took on more roles in the campaign, and uh a big part of the reason why, or actually the main reason why I got involved with the the campaign was because he was addressing something that I've never heard a candidate or a main public figure, actually, not even just somebody running for an off for office, let alone the office of the presidency.
• 5:18
  Um how he was addressing and speaking about health care and about the vulnerable population, and um, you know, my kids are part of that uh that you know major vulnerable population.
• 5:31
  So it was refreshing to hear real open, you know, honest conversations and uh not being lectured to or being feeling used.
• 5:44
  So I threw myself into the campaign.
• 5:47
  I was very committed to it.
• 5:48
  I believed in you know, uh his messaging in the messaging all around with the Kennedy campaign.
• 5:56
  And uh uh in 2024, I actually had a dream.
• 6:01
  And in that dream, I saw the White House with the Victory Gardens, which actually they had a victory garden there back in early days, which we can talk about that.
• 6:12
  But in that dream, I saw a I saw the White House with just as many victory gardens as you could see.
• 6:20
  And then behind that, it was for miles and miles as uh to the horizons, just gardens and gardens.
• 6:26
  That was the dream.
• 6:27
  I don't actually remember my dreams.
• 6:29
  So it was very profound at that time because it just was so vivid.
• 6:35
  And uh I I took that and I decided to, I said, uh well, I'm involved with a campaign.
• 6:44
  Maybe there must be some, you know, uh um this must be a higher message coming to me at that point.
• 6:52
  So what I did was I proposed, I just started encouraging people to plant a Kennedy Victory Garden.
• 6:59
  So it was an homage to um uh Robert F.
• 7:03
  Kennedy Jr.'s commitment to our health and environment that he has been doing for for decades uh up until that point.
• 7:14
  And uh I felt like it was a great way to connect people and encourage community as the Victory Gardens originally had, where it was just growing your garden, sharing your food, uh sharing garden tips, being outside in fresh air and reading eating real food.
• 7:33
  So that was basically the basics of it.
• 7:36
  So that's how that started.
• 7:39
  Yeah, that's interesting about the and I love that too, because uh, and I shared my story uh my Maha Wellness story and how it's inspired me to uh get back into good shape, but not only that.
• 7:54
  Eat again, eat real food as far as from covering this, you know, I you get to know that regenerative is the way to go, regenerative organic, where um it's not just uh growing and eating produce and uh and making connections if you don't raise your own meat, like with farmers who raise meat regeneratively and eggs and raw milk, and it's it's like a complete movement.
• 8:25
  It's all about changing the mindset, and I just think that's fascinating.
• 8:28
  And that that was uh the theme.
• 8:32
  That's why I loved covering the RFK junior presidential campaign because it wasn't so it wasn't like typical politics.
• 8:40
  It was uh it was about shaping or shaping a mindset for uh to get back to maybe the way the way it was back.
• 8:50
  Uh obviously the victory gardens, and we'll get into that more uh in this conversation about uh World War II.
• 8:57
  And I think it dates back if I'm uh during our first conversation, maybe World War One.
• 9:04
  Yes, yeah.
• 9:05
  Um so the um Victory Gardens were originally called the war gardens, and uh the concept was actually uh created by Charles uh Lathrop Pack, who was a uh uh he was a timberman and uh forest conservationist, and um he saw a need for this for that growing food, supplying food, because actually it was it was really it was fundamental of not just of community at that point, although that came out of that.
• 9:40
  It was also about um feeding us.
• 9:45
  So we were dealing with rations at that time.
• 9:48
  We were coming out of the Great Depression.
• 9:50
  We had the Dust Bowl.
• 9:52
  There were so many different factors.
• 9:54
  Um, you know, the Spanish flu at that time, there was just so many different factors that were going.
• 10:00
  Going on.
• 10:01
  And he started a national campaign with the government where they encourage people to grow their own food and share their harvests.
• 10:14
  And they it educated the public in how to do that through pamphlets and they used positive propaganda through different posters and ads and uh encouraging different communities to do this.
• 10:29
  They used artwork was a really, really big part of it.
• 10:32
  I don't know if you've ever seen the Victory Garden posters, but they're absolutely beautiful.
• 10:38
  Um what is very interesting also is that so at that time there were multiple different um programs that were starting, um uh including um the Future Farmers Association that are still in existence, the um the university extensions were starting.
• 10:58
  Um, and uh there were all these different programs that were were starting to form.
• 11:04
  Home economics was a part of education and and our schools, and all these little uh components came together, and the victory what ended up being called the Victory Gardens, but what were the war gardens?
• 11:18
  It pulled in those avenues of resources and started educating the youth and the parents and the communities on how to grow their own food in order to sustain themselves and feed themselves so they didn't have to be so dependent on you know the ration food.
• 11:37
  So whatever they could grow and whatever they could share, it would take off the burden off of the off of the farmers and off of the government to supply them that food.
• 11:46
  So, and plus, we were shipping out a lot of that food to Europe, our own uh um crops to Europe as well.
• 11:54
  Plus, there was another part of it was uh we most of our young men, abled young men were out fighting in World War One and World War II.
• 12:05
  So they encouraged the women, the children, and those that could not serve to pick up a spade and and uh start to grow.
• 12:14
  So um by 1945, which I think is just so uh unbelievable.
• 12:21
  By that time at the end of the of World War II, we had 20 million gardens that were connected.
• 12:28
  We had more than that, but we had 20 million gardens, home gardens, community gardens that were all interconnected that were sharing and and working together that were registered with the Victory Garden program.
• 12:43
  Um, and that produced 40% of our produce.
• 12:47
  I mean, wow.
• 12:49
  Staggering.
• 12:50
  Yeah, I mean, that's absolutely church.
• 12:52
  They were grown in churches, they were grown in front yards in um in between streets, any rooftops in the urban areas in the rural areas, and this you know, any plot of land that they could find.
• 13:07
  They took baseball fields that were not being used since you know, the those that were playing baseball were out in uh fighting our war.
• 13:17
  So they took baseball fields and all and just gardens and parks, and they turned them into community gardens.
• 13:27
  That's fascinating because um we're we're kind of uh coming full circle back to a need for that.
• 13:35
  And uh I just wrote a story.
• 13:37
  I've written multiple stories on it, but I wrote a feature on how the Maha movement is pivoting now.
• 13:44
  President Trump uh came up with a glyphosate executive order, and uh we've come to realize that uh glyphosate in one shape or form is not going to be going away.
• 13:58
  So it's important to educate farmers about transitioning and help them transition to regenerative methods, but also educate consumers about how to grow their own food healthfully and uh I know the local push is big.
• 14:16
  I mean, it all starts locally because uh that that's that's how it was back uh what say 1945 or say 1935.
• 14:29
  That's how uh we got most of our food.
• 14:31
  If you didn't grow it yourself, you got it from other farmers in your area, or even if you lived in a small town or even a bigger town, there there is fresh produce, fresh meat available and it wasn't shipped in from out of the country or uh from across the country.
• 14:50
  And I mean, yeah.
• 14:52
  Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.
• 14:53
  Now I was gonna say to the point of the of the fresh food.
• 14:56
  I mean, the fresher the food, the more nutrient it is.
• 15:00
  So any uh every moment that it is uh from the time that it is picked or harvested, that nutrient starts to deplete.
• 15:08
  So localizing our food is is so imperative to our health in a multitude of ways, but it also supports the community as well.
• 15:17
  If we are supporting the the small businesses and the small farmers or the small uh food producers, that's only going to help support our own um economics and within our community.
• 15:32
  Now expounding on the local angle, how how is the Victory Garden Alliance really emphasizing that?
• 15:42
  So that's actually something that that is our mission is to help localize our food.
• 15:48
  Um and that was the core mission, I believe, and what I've seen of the Victory Gardens from the very beginning was about focusing on localizing our food.
• 16:00
  And I look at it at a point of like localizing our food where we start from our windowsill to our garden to our potentially community garden, our local farmers, our local farmers' market, and then from there expanding out, you know, to our you know, our American farmers, our allies, and outwards that way.
• 16:22
  But I feel you know, we need to focus on home, and that's where if we start to focus on our home, where people even, if you say, I understand not everybody can have a garden, but if you have a little windowsill, you can definitely grow something.
• 16:37
  And there's just there's a big emotional piece of that, and um, you know, having a connection to something that you are going to consume is uh I personally feel is is quite profound, even if it's a basil plant on your uh windsill.
• 16:57
  I get very excited about it emotionally.
• 17:00
  I feel that it it helps me um ground myself and then uh gives me some pride that I grew that and I nurtured it.
• 17:10
  I think it's a great lesson for children as well to help them see how something can grow and flourish.
• 17:18
  Uh, but from there, as far as uh the Victory Garden Alliance, that is our core mission that we want to help localize our food, and we're encouraging in different ways that we can do that through veteran programs, school programs.
• 17:33
  Um I really would like to take the next step where I'd like to really start encouraging um religious organizations and and churches to start um growing in on their land if they have where a lot of them have just lawns, turn those lawns into food-producing food forests and gardens that your parish can participate in and then share that food with your community.
• 18:03
  And I think that that would be a great way not to just to um resolve uh you know food deserts and and food disparities, but also create a community there as well.
• 18:17
  And if you don't have uh, you know, a church that has or religious organization that has a uh garden, you may have a parking lot.
• 18:28
  So, you know, what's to say you don't have a uh a farmer's market uh once a month in your parking lot after Sunday, uh where your your community your parish community and the community at large can come there and enjoy fresh food.
• 18:47
  So there's many ways that we can address localizing our food and get creative that way through this concept.
• 18:55
  You're listening to the Maha Lowdown.
• 18:57
  I'm Jeff Lauterbach.
• 18:58
  Um our guest today is Jacqueline Capriati of the Victory Garden Alliance, and we're gonna take our first break, and when we come back, we'll uh talk further about uh what's in store now and what's in store in the future.
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• 21:17
  Welcome back to the Maha Lowdown.
• 21:19
  I'm Jeff Lauterbach.
• 21:20
  I'm here with Jacqueline Capriati of the Victory Garden Alliance.
• 21:24
  We've been talking about the history of the Victory Gardens and how the organization now is uh shaping up for the present and uh and the future and potential ways to get involved.
• 21:38
  And I think it's interesting, Jacqueline.
• 21:40
  You were talking about that a lot of people have the perception that to grow a garden or to grow your own food, you have to be out in the country and have a homestead.
• 21:51
  And I know from covering like events like the Food Independent Summit, Joel Salatin, who uh is uh one of the uh leaders in the regenerative farming movement.
• 22:03
  He I know he talks about the homesteading tsunami, but he also talks about uh starting small.
• 22:10
  He he jokes around that start with uh something that's not going to run away from you.
• 22:17
  Yeah, so like growing your own produce instead of going out and getting a bunch of chickens and uh a bunch of cows.
• 22:25
  So, but you can do this regard you could be uh in a high rise in uh Manhattan and still do this.
• 22:35
  Um it doesn't have to be uh like I live down here in the Appalachian Foothills, so it's easier for me to do it here.
• 22:41
  But but I thought it was interesting.
• 22:43
  You're talking about putting a pot on your patio, uh, or you can in in your window seal grow uh grow herbs.
• 22:52
  Um what are your thoughts about that as far as educating people about no matter where you are, no matter how much property you have, you can still do this.
• 23:01
  Well, I first of all, I think it's very empowering.
• 23:04
  It really is.
• 23:05
  It's um it may seem such a small gesture, but it is very, very empowering.
• 23:11
  It's something you're doing for yourself.
• 23:14
  Um, and it shows you that you can accomplish this, where people say, Oh, I can't I I have a black thumb, I can't do it.
• 23:21
  Well, you know, try and fail and keep trying until you until you succeed is is kind of the kind of the goal.
• 23:30
  Um, and uh, you know, don't don't give up on on just you know planting something, even one seed in a tiny little pot and putting it on your on your windowsill uh and seeing it it sprout through that that soil and coming up and and you had a part in that that that would have not happened if you didn't create the little tiny little environment there for that to happen.
• 23:56
  And that's what I think all in all that we have to do is be able to lay the ground, no pun intended, whatever size or shape or or place that ground is to be able to start this, or however large or small it is.
• 24:11
  It's gotta start somewhere.
• 24:13
  So um, yeah, so uh that's what I'm gonna encourage people to do.
• 24:18
  Just start small.
• 24:19
  That's what I did.
• 24:21
  And like I said, I have a small garden.
• 24:23
  I don't have like the most big elaborate, it's kind of messy.
• 24:27
  I have, you know, I'm not uh an officiando, I'm not the perfect gardener either.
• 24:33
  Um I I have crops that like I'll have uh you know one batch that'll not do well, or they're doing really well and suddenly they don't.
• 24:42
  I mean, it's there's a lot of life lessons in gardening in general, um, because that's how life is.
• 24:49
  So, but that's what I would encourage people to do is just just start something small.
• 24:54
  If you have a child, um, you know, or or you you or a grandchild or or there's a child in your life, this is something quite um, you know, connecting that you could do a very simple project that you could do with them.
• 25:07
  And I tell you, the the light in their eyes, how they light up when they see something like that happen, that they had a hand in it.
• 25:15
  And then think of yourself.
• 25:17
  Like when you do something like that, it's just very rewarding.
• 25:22
  I think it's interesting that this you look back at the uh original Victory Guard, at least the World War II, because I think I'm a history enthusiast, and I think a lot of people tend to focus more or remember more about World War II than World War One.
• 25:39
  And uh and I know back then it was still a lifestyle where most you know we mostly had a rural agrarian society in the 1940s, and uh a lot of small towns people tended to have gardens, they tended to raise their own foods.
• 25:59
  But I think it's interesting even then when that was more commonplace that that there was a big movement to encourage people to um grow their own food because of the reasons you mentioned about uh rations and then um supplying overseas that I mean we were fighting on two fronts.
• 26:18
  So that I think that's uh that's relevant to today, where now we uh I mean, thanks to the RFK Junior presidential campaign and then the what HHS is doing and uh make America Healthy Again movement education about all the chemicals and foods and and even when you go to the grocery store, you don't even know the produce is healthy for you because there's a lot of uh chemicals on that.
• 26:49
  So again, the it's coming back uh where for different reasons where growing local or focusing on local compared to uh shipping something in from overseas or from across the country is so important, and this is a way uh one of the reasons I love uh what you're doing with the Victory Garden Alliance is people are looking, I I think it dates back to COVID.
• 27:15
  COVID was a wake-up call for a lot of people for multiple reasons, and a lot of people started getting wanting to get involved, and especially at the local level.
• 27:25
  I mean, some people they're the way they get involved, and it's okay.
• 27:28
  They want to run for office or support political causes, and I think that's a good thing.
• 27:34
  But other ways you can get involved is like your start your own nonprofits or be involved with a national movement.
• 27:42
  So with Victory Garden Alliance, I know it's a way to be involved with international movement and also apply what uh the Maha movement striving to do locally, and I think it's important.
• 27:57
  Uh that's why I love I've I know I've written a couple articles on what you're doing and having you on here.
• 28:03
  And so how how do you think uh or how do you encourage people or how can they get involved in if they want to be involved in the Victory Garden Alliance?
• 28:14
  Well, I I would first say if they want to visit our website, which is um victory gardenalliance.org.
• 28:20
  Um, and you can get some more information.
• 28:23
  We're we're working on building our our network and our um our uh website as well.
• 28:29
  We do have multiple organizations that we partner with to help support them.
• 28:35
  Um we are officially now a nonprofit, so we are uh hoping in the near future that we'll be able to have different grants, education grants.
• 28:45
  Um, so we're moving towards that that realm at this point.
• 28:50
  Um I would uh I would encourage them to even send in photos and videos of their of their gardens of getting out there, being involved, not just of their gardens, but of themselves gardening.
• 29:05
  And we are on social media, so we're on Instagram, we're on Facebook, we're on TikTok on all of them.
• 29:11
  So you can always tag us, and then we can start to help encourage because the more plurality that comes out of this, it's going to encourage other people to start their own garden.
• 29:23
  And even to the point of like an urban area that you don't have, you can definitely join a community garden or start your own as well.
• 29:32
  Get it just a group of people, be it that it's at your parish or start a school garden.
• 29:37
  It it only takes one or two people to start a little project, and that's what we're all about is encouraging people that we can empower ourselves to find the answers for this.
• 29:49
  Um to the point of the regenerative agriculture.
• 29:53
  I actually and uh soil health.
• 29:55
  I really did not really know much about it up until.
• 30:00
  When I started getting involved in the campaign.
• 30:03
  And when I started, you know, having a deeper understanding of the connectivity of the soil health of like uh nutrients and and also the pesticides, how it can impact our health.
• 30:16
  Um that drew me towards pulling, and now my my garden in the backyard is a I guess regeneratively grown uh I use regenerative methods in my garden and organic as well.
• 30:30
  And each year I I'm it's like a little science experiment where I'm putting half the garden, I'm doing something, trying something out, and then the other half, so seeing which one is better.
• 30:42
  Um having a lot of uh, you know, fun ex science experiments, which are great to do with your children and with your community as well.
• 30:52
  So I would definitely encourage people to get involved in that.
• 30:56
  Um and uh during the campaign, we did that.
• 31:00
  So we had so many people pouring in their photographs of that.
• 31:04
  Uh, even RFK Jr.
• 31:07
  Um we uh he built a Victory Kennedy Victory Garden, which is what the original project was called was the Kennedy Victory Garden Project Um in his home in California.
• 31:21
  So um, and uh it was it was a really fun project there.
• 31:26
  And uh since then we've had just people feeling that they want to be part of something.
• 31:33
  I I think that our food issues, our uh our health issues um are a big part of that.
• 31:41
  We've gotten to the point that we've sanitized our lives and disconnected so much that we're disconnected from our food and from our own ability to take charge of our own health.
• 31:55
  Doesn't mean that we can solve everything on our own.
• 31:59
  Um medicine is important, as I told you that both my children have a severe disease.
• 32:04
  We're very, very dependent on pharmaceuticals to keep them alive.
• 32:09
  Um, but at the same time, foundationally, um it it is important to do what you can for yourself, be it how you uh how you eat, how you exercise, what you expose yourself to, and uh do what you can and within your own power.
• 32:29
  I think that is what we should focus on first and making that a big part of American culture.
• 32:36
  American culture is kind of that we've deferred all our responsibilities to others, say to the government or to large corporations and let them take charge and and they've run away with it, where you know they're adding different chemicals that we don't even know what they are because they're they're adding multiple chemicals together that are creating new chemicals, and we don't know what the full impacts that that they are on our health short term all long term, but we do know that something is wrong.
• 33:09
  And we have a chronic illness epidemic through all the different generations, the different ages through uh and different demographics in the United States.
• 33:19
  And um, in order to address that, I think that we really have to focus first on what we can what we can change in our lives and what we can empower ourselves, and then start educating ourselves where our food comes from.
• 33:34
  And you know, that is that I think is within all our power.
• 33:42
  And this is a good time uh to take our go into our second break because that's uh knowing where our food comes from, that's a good topic to uh further discuss.
• 33:54
  You're listening to the Maha Lowdown.
• 33:56
  I'm Jeff Lauderback, and we'll be back in a few moments.
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• 36:27
  Welcome back to the Maha Lowdown.
• 36:29
  I'm Jeff Lauderbeck.
• 36:31
  I'm here with Jacqueline Capriati of the Victory Garden Alliance.
• 36:34
  And we've been talking about a wide variety of really eat it comes down to eat real food and know where your food comes from.
• 36:44
  And that's uh I I bet that's why you're you're growing uh Jacqueline.
• 36:52
  What why do you think uh it just seems like the timing is perfect for all this.
• 36:57
  I know you started um towards the end of the Kennedy campaign, then I think it was August 23rd of 2024, when uh RFK Jr.
• 37:13
  was in Arizona and he decided to leave the race and he had that powerful speech.
• 37:19
  And then he uh I think that's when he said um I thanked President Trump for giving me the chance to make America healthy again.
• 37:29
  And then that became a hashtag, and that became a the that's how Maha the was born, the official Maha acronym.
• 37:39
  But I know the movement has been around and for years and years, whether it be vaccine safety and efficacy or the clean eating and the clean environment and removing the corporate capture from government agencies and pretty much uh all the all the main uh issues that RFK Jr.
• 38:02
  stood for.
• 38:04
  But I think that's interesting.
• 38:05
  We all had to pivot.
• 38:07
  Like I was covering the campaign, and all of a sudden I I wasn't I was expecting it to go on till the till the end, and then it just opened up uh a new avenue that really has changed my life, and I've written about that because I've I've lost 65 pounds and gotten back to the way I was about five, six years ago by eliminating processed foods fully and eating whole foods and herbs and minimizing sugar, um starting to grow my own uh food and I have networks down here, and um I'm blessed to be in the Appalachian Foothills of Southern Ohio around a lot of Amish farms and a lot of um regenerative farms in general.
• 38:55
  And so it's uh it's really uh impacted me, and that's why I'm so I'm trying to get more and more involved in it.
• 39:02
  So it's the reason for creating the Maha Lowdown and covering Maha.
• 39:07
  And I know we're and we could talk about this before our show ends with our charity down here, Strangers Helping Strangers, we address food insecurity.
• 39:18
  And I know we want to be involved in Victory Garden Alliance, but we'll get back to what you were talking about, the growing or the the whole local aspect.
• 39:32
  I just think that's that's fascinating.
• 39:34
  The because we're now realizing like when we go into the grocery stores and look on the shelves like it, we don't know where it comes from.
• 39:42
  But uh when you know where your food comes from, you uh it seems like it provides a greater peace of mind.
• 39:50
  Uh is that is that part of what I know through our previous conversations you've talked about that, the the peace of mind of knowing that.
• 39:58
  Oh, absolutely.
• 40:00
  Absolutely.
• 40:01
  And it, you know, I think that as Americans, we've like I mentioned that that sanitized and disconnected from that.
• 40:08
  We've we are so disconnected from our food, where we have, you know, the fast food and we have fast lives.
• 40:15
  And um we've, you know, even the family where we're not everybody's online and not having conversations and doing things together as families.
• 40:27
  I think that that is all the disease different factors have um uh made this possible for like you said, corporate capture, because um we've asked for it.
• 40:40
  So we we've we've you know asked for convenience.
• 40:45
  So uh the corporations and the companies have found ways to be able to serve that that convenience and and tenfold to the point that now we're completely sorry about that.
• 40:59
  Completely oversaturated with um hang on.
• 41:03
  So so what I'm saying is is that we've kind of asked for this convenience in our lives as our lives have been, you know, become so much faster and faster on that, trying to keep up uh no pun intended with the Joneses, you know.
• 41:18
  So it's it's become that American way of life.
• 41:22
  And it's like, you know, I think it's easy for us to fault the the corporations to say that it was their you know their fault, they're they're poisoning us, but uh, you know, we've kind of become ourselves, we have to take some responsibility in that that we've kind of become blind to it, that we didn't want to know.
• 41:40
  We we were busy doing other things.
• 41:43
  So I think that we have to make a little bit of personal peace with ourselves on that, where we say, okay, well, maybe let's turn this around and the American population, we need to change this.
• 41:55
  Um, you know, mindset where we have to be a little more connected with our lives and the people in it and the the components of our lives, including our food and our health.
• 42:06
  Um so I I think that through all of this, that over time, if we start to change this in our culture, which I see it happening, you know, um, it's definitely getting better.
• 42:20
  Um and my dog is definitely having fun talking in uh in this conversation too.
• 42:27
  I can't really hear him too well.
• 42:29
  I uh I told you uh we were talking before we went on air that and I have my two dogs here in my office.
• 42:35
  So that uh that adds to the appeal when that uh I think most people are dog dog people.
• 42:42
  Yeah.
• 42:43
  So I I would add to that is that COVID did change things a lot in our lives.
• 42:49
  I mean, for for us for our family, it was a it was a rough time for all of us.
• 42:56
  I will say being uh the mom of two uh you know, young adults with cystic fibrosis, one of them who had a transplant.
• 43:04
  Um he had a total pancreatectomy with an auto-eyelet cell transplant, large mouthful, when he was 17 years old, they were that vulnerable population that apparently the whole country and world were trying to protect, although we didn't feel very protected, we felt used a little bit and uh actually a lot.
• 43:26
  So um, and at that point, uh that's when I you know made a little bit more peace with myself, where I'm like, well, for me to wait for others to protect us and and serve us and and keep us safe.
• 43:42
  That's not that's not really coming.
• 43:45
  So we have to find ways to be able to better better our lives.
• 43:49
  And that's actually when I threw myself into the gardening the food and making our own food and cooking at home because there was no way I was gonna go outside.
• 43:59
  And we were told not to leave our house at all.
• 44:03
  Like people go, yeah, yeah, well, I didn't leave my house.
• 44:05
  I said, No, you don't understand.
• 44:07
  When you have two kids with a life-threatening lung disease, um, you cannot, you know, at that point, we were just saying the best choice is to not leave your house.
• 44:18
  So we did not leave our home for over a year.
• 44:22
  Um, we had things delivered, but I didn't get fast, I didn't get food or pizza delivered because I was concerned of we didn't know.
• 44:30
  We didn't know was, you know, my son is so vulnerable, both my kids were vulnerable.
• 44:35
  I didn't know if there's a virus going around, why would I order a pizza of someone who might have that virus as well?
• 44:42
  That's where my mindset was at that point.
• 44:45
  So at that point I felt, well, I need to be able to, and be it that that that's true or not, that's where we were at that point.
• 44:53
  So it was like, well, then I have to just start cooking more at home.
• 44:58
  And then I started doing that and growing food at home more, and then I started doing that.
• 45:03
  And that's where it was about taking responsibility um for our own family and getting a little bit more back to the basics and not dependent on others so much.
• 45:17
  So I'm not saying that we shouldn't we don't need each other, we do, but uh, I think that we gotta create focus on the core family uh, you know, at large.
• 45:27
  But to that point, since then there have been so many programs that have actually uh been formed out of this.
• 45:36
  Um the victory garden movement started to come back where so many people were growing their food during the lockdown during COVID.
• 45:45
  And this has been a phenomena through that.
• 45:49
  So there has been, if you notice there's garden, more gardening shows and the gardening business in general has actually flourished.
• 45:56
  And then that uh interest in soil health has flourished from that.
• 46:02
  And um, I think that COVID did play a part of that because we had to just shut the lights down a little bit and slow down and just look at each other and in a room and say, how we're gonna do this.
• 46:15
  So I think that that was although it was painful for a nation and a and a world at that point, we should take some positivity of the lessons that we learn from that and not let it go, you know, continue that.
• 46:30
  And then also with the Maha movement and RFK uh junior, it for me, that all organically happened to re rise, which it was already rising ahead of time beforehand, but uh it seemed like COVID definitely was um a big positive catalyst in that in that whole movement.
• 46:52
  So um food is medicine, um, it is the best medicine.
• 46:57
  I think home economics, we don't have that in school anymore.
• 47:01
  I'd love to see a revival of real home economics.
• 47:04
  Americans don't know how to cook their own food.
• 47:07
  We don't know how to grow our own food, but we don't even know how to cook our own food.
• 47:12
  So um that's a skill that we've lost.
• 47:16
  And I would love to see that but put back into the school systems, sewing a button on your shirt, like just simple things, balancing your checkbook, you know, really making a modern version of home economics um across the board for you know uh boys and girls, and and uh I think that that'll help support the family as well and the parents who have kind of gotten away from all of that too.
• 47:46
  So I think that would help support the family and communities too.
• 47:51
  How do you think that what you're doing with the Victory Garden Alliance is contributing to changing the mindset of people as far as I mean, people are starting now because of the Maha movement uh to look at ingredients on labels, but also recognize that not all just because you're getting produce or meat doesn't mean it's healthy.
• 48:15
  I mean, it's important to know where it comes from and how it's raised and uh and then encourage people to when you talk about soil health and I never knew any of this until like the past uh year and a half, two years, and I've completely poured myself into it.
• 48:31
  And that's that's fascinating itself, soil health because of all the chemicals that have been used for years, a lot of the soil is shot, and that's why uh it's important soil health for uh growing regeneratively organic.
• 48:48
  And uh it just seems like that's um people are starting to think about that.
• 48:54
  And I know it started with RFK Juniors presidential campaign, and then since uh the new HHS and USDA has been heightening that message, and then the Maha movement in general.
• 49:08
  I know Maha Action, the pack is uh heavily involved in that, and then organizations like yours.
• 49:15
  I mean, where where do you see it going from here as far as and why uh why do you think that's important as far as changing changing the mindset that we uh not only I know during COVID the supply chain was disrupted, so people realize they can't go to the grocery store and rely on that all the time, but also people started to realize that just because there's produce and meat at the grocery store doesn't mean it's uh it's healthy.
• 49:45
  So it's kind of the messaging keeps evolving, I think.
• 49:50
  So I guess what I'm uh trying to ask you is the uh the mindset, how do you continue to change the mindset?
• 50:00
  Well, I think it's it really at its core.
• 50:02
  It's it's about cultivating relationships with our food producers.
• 50:09
  Um having a relationship with a local butcher.
• 50:13
  Even if the butcher is at your local grocery store, you know, talk to them, ask them, ask them questions about that.
• 50:22
  Uh you can do that.
• 50:23
  You're the one who's paying the price there.
• 50:25
  And there, it's not like it's that food is cheap either.
• 50:28
  So reading the labels, uh maybe finding out what company it was.
• 50:34
  Is it a family-owned company?
• 50:36
  Where did they source their food?
• 50:38
  Um, educating ourselves on that of where it comes from.
• 50:42
  Um, if if, you know, you I love there's a um there's a food market.
• 50:48
  Well, it's like a garden center, actually, that's down the road where I get a lot of my uh uh some of my plants if I don't grow them from seed around the called Dulettes, and it's a um family-owned uh Polish immigrants for I think over a hundred years, and they have a fresh fruit of fruit and vegetable stand in the garden center because they have a farm and they grow their own food and they also buy food from um produce that they don't grow locally, and they offer it to purchase it there.
• 51:22
  So, and they're they're telling you this is something we grew.
• 51:26
  This one comes from this farm, and then you start to understand like the actual source of that and having a relationship with that, calling up a local farm and asking them what do you offer?
• 51:37
  Do you sell directly to the public?
• 51:39
  Uh, do you sell your eggs?
• 51:41
  Can I find uh, you know, a local egg producer and get your eggs there and find out how they you know how what do they feed their chickens for?
• 51:50
  These are things that the more information that we have that we can educate ourselves and build that relationship with our local food producers.
• 51:59
  I think that that is a big, big core on that.
• 52:03
  I will say that it'll help cultivate our core culture, but also help the small businesses in our area, which will help beef up the economics in our area.
• 52:15
  So if our uh if our local community is thriving financially, it's going to trickle out to ourselves too, especially in the ag world.
• 52:25
  And you'll be surprised.
• 52:26
  You can live in the suburbs.
• 52:28
  I live in a suburb, suburban town in New Jersey.
• 52:31
  And I mean, I'm live by the shore as well, and I have so many local farmers in my town.
• 52:39
  It's unbelievable.
• 52:40
  You would be surprised how many small farmers, but they're not really producing where the big supermarkets are having.
• 52:48
  So why not?
• 52:49
  And you're gonna get it a lot cheaper too.
• 52:51
  So uh many uh many times, and you're getting something healthier, but you can ask them questions directly.
• 52:58
  Um, the other part of it is is that um, you know, there are some organizations that I think are doing some great work.
• 53:09
  They're partners of ours, as like Fresh Rx Oklahoma, um, Erin Martin.
• 53:15
  She's a young woman who were um has a food bank in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that she locally sources and even grows some of her own food.
• 53:24
  And she's has a program that she's been able to fund this through SNAC and through um CMS through Medicaid that she's um with uh cooperation with helping seniors get access to fresh food.
• 53:39
  And she's doing phenomenal work, and even on this legislative end to be able to get um coverage for getting fresh food.
• 53:49
  So instead of having a dependency of insurance covering um just the medication and having the the uh her um clients or patients being dependent on medication, that medication is actually keeping them healthy through food, so they're not so dependent on pharmaceuticals.
• 54:08
  Um so that is an incredible organization.
• 54:11
  There's another one, World Food Bank with Richard Lackey.
• 54:15
  He is has actually an app that's gonna be coming out that is um has for home gardeners that they can donate their food to certain food banks so they the food banks will be able to supply fresh food to their communities.
• 54:32
  I mean, there's so many great creative ways that we can pull together as a nation.
• 54:38
  There's a story actually in uh a part of a real story in Finland in the 80s and and 70s, 80s, and 90s, where there's a section called North Coralia.
• 54:51
  If you ever look at North Coralia project, they actually had the worst life expectancy due to heart disease and and chronic illness in North Karelia and Finland in it during that time.
• 55:05
  And there was a doctor there that decided to create a program to help change the culture in a multitude of ways through the government and through the community and the people themselves to educate them of where their food comes from and understanding that and getting healthier access to food and uh teaching people how to cook their own food, kind of just they were they were ahead of us, definitely, and they had that their own little maha movement.
• 55:36
  So um now they have the highest, just about the highest life expectancy in the world.
• 55:42
  So, and they were turn they turn that around by changing their culture and their relationship with food and medicine and health.
• 55:50
  So I see this as an opportunity to do that ourselves in our country.
• 55:56
  And I think that's why it's uh inspiring so many people, the Maha movement in general and organizations like yours, because that is I mean, we can't really uh depend on or we we can't really change what happens at the across the world or uh nationally.
• 56:17
  But we can in our own backyard, we can make uh an impact.
• 56:21
  I appreciate you uh Jacqueline Caprady, the Victory Garden Alliance for being on the show and for listeners.
• 56:29
  You can uh go to the Maha Lowdown section on America Out Loud Network to find out more details.
• 56:36
  I'll include links and information about the Victory Garden Alliance.
• 56:40
  And uh we appreciate you joining us again to all the listeners and to Jacqueline.
• 56:45
  And I'm Jeff Lauderbach, and that is the Maha Lowdown.