Pros And Cons Of Victory Gardens And Rationing

Victory Gardens and Rationing One of the many items that were first rationed was bacon on January 8, 1940 (work cited). Due to war, Victory Gardens and Rationing was a must during WWII. These concepts given from the government helped many Americans get through the war even though some may disagree. During WWII, a countries key point was to limit the consumption of food done by the consumers. One of the methods that United States took control of was to demand rationing; restrict the consumer’s consumption. Rationing became established to make sure every American got a fair share of their supplies. This forced many U.S. citizens to plant Victory Gardens. Some of the reasoning behind rationing and Victory Gardens was because the OPA (Office

Some of the outcomes were the black-market, coupons, people planting gardens till this day. Due to WWII, one of the reactions was the black-market. This was an illegal move that was conducted mainly in cities that could afford the high prices of the black-market. The government had a struggle between the consumers and the sellers of the black-market; it was a continuous war between the two. “Housewives routinely bent the rules by trading, giving away, or selling ration stamps, which the law forbade” (work cited). People become desperate for what they needed, and had to conduct illegal things to survive. It became such a problem during WWII that Mobsters became involved. “Mobsters entered the scene en masse, stealing ration coupons from OPA offices and reselling them, counterfeiting ration coupons and selling them, and hijacking trucks and selling their cargos without collecting ration stamps” (work cited). Instead of ration books, people today call them coupon books. “Every American was issued a series of ration books during the war” (work cited). These ration books consisted of stamps that were removable coupons for the rationed items that were being rationed. For example, a person could not purchase an item without giving the grocer the proper ration stamp. Today, Americans are free to purchase whatever they want in stores as long as they have enough money to buy the items they want. In fact, Americans can purchase what they want plus a discount with a thing called coupons. Coupons give discounts on foods so it benefits the purchaser. From ration books, it became something positive by turning it into coupon books. The idea of Victory Gardens encouraged many Americans to grow their own fruits and vegetables. “Victory Gardens yielded as much as 40 percent of the country's nonmilitary produce” (work cited). Citizens became more self-sufficient than ever. Many people saw the potential in gardens and