Victory Garden — World War II US Propaganda Posters

In order to meet the huge demand for domestic food supply, a number of people proposed to the Department of Agriculture to follow the example of the wartime vegetable garden program of Charles Pack, an American industrialist during World War I, to promote a similar planting program among the population and encourage each family to be self-sufficient and meet their daily food needs by establishing their own vegetable gardens. This proposal received a positive response from Eleanor Roosevelt, and Eleanor’s approach not only created a good propaganda image, It also showed allies a friendly move by Americans to actively stockpile food.

While American officials remain hesitant about the plan, the American public has begun to take action. In October 1942, the long-established Burpee Seeds Company in Washington, D.C., pioneered the Victory Garden Seed Packets program – depending on the size of the garden for the buyer a reasonable mix of seeds for simple crops; and Rockefeller Center also began to use a former ornamental garden to grow potatoes and lettuce and other crops. Over time, this method has become an effective solution for many American families to solve the problem of three meals a day ingredients.

Under this influence, the Ministry of Agriculture in Vikard finally decided to officially launch the “Victory Garden” program under the slogan of “Planting for Victory and Peace”. In order to ensure the production, the Ministry of Agriculture has also carefully selected a list of recommended crops that are easier to grow and have a higher survival rate, in addition to the Ministry of Agriculture will regularly send commissioners to guide the planting work of the general public. The main products grown in each state are also the result of a consensus among U.S. agricultural and geographic experts, more often than not, to meet their own family food needs, many U.S. families have set up fields in their own backyards, specifically for growing daily food needs, and some neighbors will exchange some of their own surplus plants.

While the “Victory Garden” program was being successfully promoted, the General Administration of Wartime Food soon developed a meal plan for the population, dividing the various food groups into seven groups according to their nutritional content, and asking the population to adopt the recommended combinations in the recipes as much as possible. However, this approach was questioned by the population,Because at least half of the menu has become a luxury for them, and some other foods were not available in regular quantities. But the “Victory Garden” program was a huge success. During the year, Victory Gardens harvested more than 8.2 million tons of fresh vegetables and about 700,000 tons of fruits, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the nation’s vegetable production that year, and the food shortage was largely resolved. In addition to the nearly 15 million households that have their own Victory Gardens, some large cities such as Washington, D.C., New York, Boston and San Francisco have dedicated large acres of land to common areas for growing various types of vegetables and fruit trees, and most American households that do not live in cities also have a garden of varying sizes.

Starting in 1944, the Department of Agriculture changed its slogan to “Grow More,” and the total number of victory gardens continued to grow to 22 million. In that year, the total production of victory gardens increased by a modest 5% compared to 1943, and even a small percentage of that production was sent to the front; in fact, by the end of the war, some 20 million people across the United States had participated in this activity, growing 41% of the country’s total vegetable production.

The only regret is that the food included in the meal plan introduced by the General Food Administration during the war, to the end of World War II only part of the basic to meet the demand for supply, because for many Americans at that time, they can drink a glass of milk or chew a steak in half a month, it is already a great enjoyment.