V is for Victory, and Vegetables

The local, organic food movement, and with it the Slow Food organization, can get a bad rap as being expensive and exclusive. Here in San Francisco, tourists and locals alike gawk at the luscious edibles on offer at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market, perhaps the country's premier market. Yet even the head of the Slow Food movement called the Ferry Plaza "boutique-y" when he visited. In part as a response to that, and in advance of the Slow Food Nation event, Slow Food worked with local organizations and community members (like my friend Marco Flavio) to set up a victory garden outside of city hall in downtown San Francisco. Even our exceptionally attractive mayor planted lettuce! The point, you ask? Stefania already sold you on the idea of planting a backyard garden to supplement your family's diet. Through Victory Gardens 2008+, which leads the city hall project, citizens are encouraged to transform public and private spaces into places to grow organic food. The point is not simply taste (though once you bite into a home-grown tomato, that's likely all you need); Victory Gardens 2008+ considers food in the context of national security and sustainability. In an oft-cited statistic, household victory gardens in 1943 resulted in 40 percent of all of the food consumed in the US. Even Eleanor Roosevelt had a victory garden at the White House. Logical next step in 2008? Through Eat the View, activists are petitioning the White House to make the front lawn a garden. Hear that, Barack?

Photo source: Scott Chemis/Scott Chemis Photography.