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VICTORY GARDENS ARE NEEDED
An Increase in Vegetables Would Improve Our National Dietary Greatly
What would be the effects of doubling our national consumption of
vegetables? In essential nutrients, obviously we should obtain twice as
much as we now receive from this source: instead of one-third of an
average man's yearly requirements of vitamins A and C, he would receive
two-thirds; instead of calcium enough for 30 days, he would receive
enough for 60 days from his yearly quota of vegetables. On the other
hand, energy content would be increased by only the requirement for 22
1/2 days, and protein by that for 24 1/2 days a year.
The greatest increases resulting from a considerable addition to
our vegetable dietary, therefore, would be made in the vitamins and
minerals, in which we as a population are most seriously undersupplied;
the least increase, on the other hand, would be in energy, in which the
national dietary is most nearly adequate. The additional protein
contained in the increased vegetable supply is, like the minerals and
vitamins, needed to obtain a more nearly adequate supply.
An increase in vegetable consumption up to twice the present
amount would require no reductions in other foods except in those which
supply energy only, namely the sugars and starchy foods, chief of which
at present are the refined cereals. On a national basis, the cereals
thus displaced from human use might readily be converted to milk and
meat by feeding them to livestock, with a resulting gain in nutritional
state of the population.
As to manpower and land requirements, little change would result,
because these are not greatly different for equal energy and protein
content both in vegetables and cereals. The slightly greater manpower
requirement would be amply justified by the benefits obtained.
Why Increase Vegetable Consumption by Home Production?
As long as the war continues, any increased manpower for civilian
requirements had best be met by greater exertions of the civilians
themselves. In home vegetable production, manpower requirements can be
met by every member of the family, in most cases in a very healthful,
enjoyable way. By home production, furthermore, least demands will be
made on transportation facilities, and greatest conservation will be
accomplished of the nutrient values of the vegetables produced.
After the war, conversion to increased commercial production will
require some time, both to manufacture the increased requirements of
machinery and equipment and to replace that which has been worn out
during the war, as well as to increase facilities for processing,
storing, and distributing the greater quantities of vegetables which the
public will want and is entitled to receive. During this period of
conversion, Victory gardens in the most satisfactory sense will be
required, not merely to maintain the use of vegetables at the highest
level attained during the war, but to increase it to that level required
by the best nutrition of the population.
Victory gardens are required now and after the war, in brief, to
insure that one of the gains of the war shall be in the nutritional
state of all of our population.
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click for larger photo
Victory Gardens
Handbook of the
Victory Garden Committee
War Services, Pennsylvania
State Council of Defense
April, 1944
TABLE OF CONTENTS
page v
page vi
page vii
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