You Must Grow!
Current battles against the coronavirus rage and images of wartimes plague my thoughts, followed by memories shared with me of the famous “war gardens” of World War I and II. During both wars, over 20 million victory gardens, large and small, were planted and produced almost 40 percent of the nation’s fresh vegetables. People grew their produce in planters, on fire escapes, in empty lots and backyards. Around one-third of the vegetables produced by the United States came from victory [gardens].
Today, as the pandemic still takes hold worldwide, panicky shoppers are cleaning out stores, and essential foods like toilet paper and rice are becoming increasingly difficult to find. As a result, even individuals with no gardening experience are searching YouTube for DIY videos on planting gardens. As we dig into year two of our farm, we hear many other farmers worry that we won’t have access to seeds. President Biden assigned Vilsack to retake the helm of the Agriculture department.
Mr. Vilsack, if you remember, has faced particular criticism for the fading fortunes of Black farmers, who have long complained of discrimination when it comes to land and credit access. I didn’t fully understand the topic until becoming a farmer myself and did some extensive reading, and you should read up too if you are interested. He was at the center of a racial firestorm during the Obama administration. In 2010, he hastily fired Shirley Sherrod, a Black Agriculture Department official, after a conservative blogger released a misleading video clip showing her admitting antipathy toward a white farmer.
The pandemic has also exposed how the consolidation of an industry can leave the nation’s food supply vulnerable to disruptions. The closure of just a few slaughterhouses, even for a few weeks in April, reduced pork production by as much as 5 percent, leading to the mass killings and waste of thousands of hogs that could not be processed.
It is time to shut off Netflix and get our butts off the couch; it’s time to take back control over some portion of our destiny. I feel beyond blessed that while not a prepper, I have seeds to grow for a long while, and I know how to flower my crop to harvest more seed if need be. If you have space for a few pots or even a small piece of land, it is a wise decision to grow your Non-GMO vegetable garden.
We at Vitality Farms Company take our Vitality seriously; we are here to work alongside you. We have noticed a large increase in our seed sales, so we are bringing in more, and we are setting up classes to teach even the blackest of black thumbs how to grow. I do not believe there is any need to panic, but I 1000% think it is time to educate ourselves on areas where we may not have felt a need to learn till now. Grab a GIY kit and let’s get something started, the same seed we grow microgreens with are used to grow their mature counterpart.
