Back To Our Roots. If Baby Boomers Did It, So Can We…

Peak winter in the Lower 48 typically occurs around mid-January, while the U.S. growing season generally begins in late March or early April. With affordability increasingly top of mind and food inflation proving sticky, it is worth remembering that our grandparents – or even our parents, in some cases – turned to “victory gardens” during World War II, which supplied about 40% of the nation’s fresh vegetables.

Between 1943 and 1944, Americans planted upwards of 20 million victory gardens. These gardens produced 10 million tons of food annually, almost entirely fresh vegetables. They were planted in backyards, community plots, and schools, and they matched or exceeded the commercial vegetable production of the entire U.S. farming sector at the time. The most common crops included tomatoes, beans, carrots, beets, lettuce, squash, and potatoes.

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2026 MAHA agenda has been released, marking an escalating war against the processed-food industry and an effort to overhaul the entire food supply chain.  

JUST IN: Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2026 MAHA agenda has been RELEASED

– Petroleum-based food dyes
– Dietary guidelines
– Define ultra processed foods
– Infant formula safety
– “Generally Recognized As Safe” reform for food ingredients
– Front-of-pack labeling
-… pic.twitter.com/u9MpK0Si8Z

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 30, 2025

What is missing from MAHA, however, is a push for backyard and community gardens. Expanding household-level food production would boost supply, lower grocery costs, and restore self-sufficiency, reducing reliance on DoorDash and Walmart.

The lesson from history should be obvious. If our baby boomer parents could build victory gardens and achieve self-sufficiency, Americans can do the same eight decades later.

Today, roughly 40% of U.S. vegetables are sourced from California, while about 30% of fresh vegetables are imported from neighboring countries. That level of concentration and dependence exposes the food supply to disruption, especially when Chinese “agroterrorism” is an increasing risk.

A more resilient food supply chain starts in your backyard, with food production literally at our fingertips, turning thumbs green. Let’s get back to our roots.