Food Supply Anxiety Brings Back Victory Gardens - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/dining/victory-gardens-coronavirus.html
Americans were once urged to plant in every patch of available soil — and produced about 40 percent of the nation’s fresh vegetables.
As the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc around the world, economies are tanking, supply chains are being disrupted, and shortages of critical supplies and food items are already commonplace. Given the likelihood of skilled farmworker shortages due to restrictions at the US-Mexico border, along with the possibility of farmers and truck drivers and other key people in the supply chain choosing to stay home during this pandemic, further shocks to the food system over the coming months are now a distinct possibility. Many believe they are inevitable, and that fear has fueled a rush to buy seeds from companies and non-profits like ours.
In response to this crisis, Experimental Farm Network (EFN) is urging all people who can to establish “Cooperative Gardens” to grow as much food this year as they possibly can. We hope this effort will help people across the country (and potentially in other countries as well) to provide themselves and their communities with healthy fresh food, reduce our reliance on the faltering industrial food system (which is terrible for the environment and human health even when fully functioning), and make it easier for folks to stay in their communities and avoid further transmission of the virus.