Victory Gardens Produced Nearly Half of America’s Fresh Produce in WW2. With Today's Supply-Chain Meltdowns, Are They Ready for a Comeback?

History Unplugged Podcast · Apr 4, 2023 · 40m

Victory gardens are perhaps the U.S. government’s most successful and long-lasting propaganda campaign. It began during World War One, when the War Garden Commission offered free handbooks for garden tips and published stories in newspapers to encourage citizens to plant food crops in any little piece of unused land so citizens could help provide food for America’s allies fighting in Europe. The idea caught on, and by the end of the war, over 5 million gardens were planted, producing nearly $10 billion (in today’s dollars) worth of food. By World War 2, nearly 60 percent of U.S. households…