We've gone mainstream.

It's official. We've gone mainstream. "Business Week," a magazine you may have seen sitting atop the coffee table in the lobby of your rich uncle's accounting firm, has recently published an article about the economic, yes economic, impact of eating locally. And I quote:

"It's a movement that is gradually reshaping the business of growing and supplying food to Americans. The local food movement has already accomplished something that almost no one would have thought possible a few years back: a revival of small farms. After declining for more than a century, the number of small farms has increased 20% in the past six years, to 1.2 million, according to the Agriculture Dept."

That's good news to those of us who care about local eating, and it suggests that the lunacy of our project (WE HAVE HAD NO BREAD IN 2 MONTHS) may someday be irrelevant.

With rising food and fuel prices, it seems an increasing number of folks are starting to ask questions about where their meals come from. And, with summer just around the corner and everything growing at full tilt, many are cultivating their own home gardens - some for the first time. This new trend in home gardening reminded me of the Victory Gardens of WWII. During the first World War the government started a commission called the National War Garden Commission that encouraged citizens to grow their own food. They even offered a pamphlet with the wonderful slogan, "Can Vegetables, Fruit, and the Kaiser Too!" and some canning supplies to help you get going. In WWII these efforts were escalated even further, with huge propaganda posters, a film from the Department of Agriculture, and extension agents who could help you turn your yard into a "munition plant." Well it turns out there's a website devoted to helping revive victory gardens - victory not over the Axis powers but rather victory over global warming. There you'll find seed sources, gardening suggestions, and a food miles calculator. A few clicks later will land you on an ingenious idea posted on another website - an effort to get the next president to cultivate vegetables on the White House lawn. Now this may be a bit of stretch, but with the current awaking about food sources and local eating (did I mention "Business Week?"), this might be within the realm of possibility. After all, the White House already employs eight full-time gardeners, and historically there was a vegetable garden dating back to John Adams, the first president to live there. I'm not suggesting that we tear up the Mall and make a huge CSA...but, why not?

The point is, as many are now taking up this call to arms, maybe it's time we consider a popular slogan on European bumper stickers: "Eat your view."

Here's what I see when I look out my home office window. We like to think of it as our little munitions plant.

Comments

[The Gourmand & the Peasant]

From today's Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121262319456246841.html

[Lil Bill]

This is what I see from my desk.


Pray for me.

http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2007/12/gallery_cube_fixes/boring.jpg