During both World Wars, folks in England, Canada, and The US were encouraged to grow their own food to aid in the war effort. It was both a way of empowering people to rely less and less upon public food supply, as well as of improving morale during troubled times. It’s estimated that as many as 20 million families growing victory gardens accounted for up to 40% of all food production during wartime.

Information about farming was made available to everyone through pamphlets distributed by the Department of Agriculture. Folks were encouraged to make it a hobby, a family pastime, rather than a chore or a civil duty. There were cartoons, posters, a USDA propaganda film called Victory Garden, and other media promoting the idea.

In one clip from The March of Time, the narrator discusses the purpose of the gardens in a classic 1940’s voice over scenes of happy families happily gardening together: “(…) for constructive social activity, and keeping them interested in America’s biggest business: agriculture. Such useful wartime projects as Victory Gardens have served the incidental purpose of giving the young their chance to make their contribution to the common effort, while bringing them closer to the home and to their parents. “

It’s hard not to think of Alice’s Alemany Farm when seeing these clips. It’s not a wartime effort, or not in the same way, but the ideas of family, community, and constructive social activity are the same as they were 60 years ago. The Victory Gardens of the first half of the 20th century represented some of the most vital aspects of today’s urban farms: community, health, family, self-reliance, empowerment, and good eats.

The Victory Gardens dissolved over time - including the one in front of San Francisco’s City Hall - but various groups are making it their business to see that they return, in one form or another. EBPI covered Slow Food Nation’s Community Planting Day last weekend, where volunteers planted food in a half-acre plot where the old garden used to be. Mayor Newsom gave a gravelly-voiced speech about the importance of the event, and we heard from City Slicker Farms and Alice Waters as well.

In related news, there also appears to be a semi-Christian band called Victory Garden, which is all over youtube.