[Community_garden] Which Will Be First State to Offer Tax Breaks for Victory Gardens?

[James Godsil]

Roger Dorian inspired this concept and prose.
Americans love a competition.
Which state will mobilize the locavores
Most effectively?

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/HomePage

We provide fiscal incentives to people to encourage them to put hybrid cars
in their garages and solar panels on their roofs, so why not offer
incentives for solar-powered, healthy food production in their
backyard?(Editors Note:  In Wisconsin we offer tax breaks for owners of
historic homes)  With wars still waging, food and oil costs rising, and
paychecks stretching to the breaking point, now is the time for a home-grown
revival. What better way to usher in this revolution than by marrying two
great American traditions: vegetable gardening and tax cuts?

It wouldn't be the first time that our country encouraged its citizens to
grow some of their own food. The government's wartime "Victory Garden"
campaign was a success by every measure. By 1943, 20 million gardens were
growing 8 million tons of food (an amount comparable to that of the nation's
farms) and Americans were eating more healthy fruits and vegetables than
ever before.

More home gardens would offer us victory not only over rising food and
health care costs, but also foreign oil dependency and climate change.
Researcher estimate that locally-grown foods use up to 17 times less
climate-warming, fossil fuels than foods from away. And when it comes to
local foods, it doesn't get any "localer" than one's own yard.

There are different breaks that local, state and federal governments could
offer home gardeners. Sales taxes on seeds, seedlings, fruit bushes and
trees could be removed. Better still, an income tax break could be
administered as is done with home offices where people measure and deduct
the square footage of their houses used for business purposes. The bigger
your garden, the better the tax break. Those with no yard could deduct the
rental fee for a community garden plot.




Dear Kitchen Gardener,

>From times immemorial, gardeners throughout the world have endured hardships
of all kinds: floods, droughts, blights, swarming locusts, and, in the case
of Dutch growers, centuries of uncomfortable footwear.

As a New England gardener, I have my own share of climate-related
challenges, for example trying to keep track of seasons that can change from
one hour to the next. For those of you who haven't been to Maine before, we
just recently welcomed the arrival of our fifth season – mud season – which
is sandwiched between winter and spring and which helps explain why babies
here are born wearing miniature LL Bean boots instead of pink and blue
booties. Spring here only starts around May 1st and usually wraps up around
May 10th or 15th. For those of you who are curious, Maine's summer
officially starts with the arrival of the first mosquito or Massachusetts
tourist, whichever comes first, and ends when all of them, tourists and
stinging insects, have left.

In celebration of mud season, I am proposing that home growers finally catch
a break. Not from bugs, weather, or clunky garden shoes, but from taxes.
It's not as silly an idea as it may sound. We provide fiscal incentives to
people to encourage them to put hybrid cars in their garages and solar
panels on their roofs, so why not offer incentives for solar-powered,
healthy food production in their backyard? With wars still waging, food and
oil costs rising, and paychecks stretching to the breaking point, now is the
time for a home-grown revival. What better way to usher in this revolution
than by marrying two great American traditions: vegetable gardening and tax
cuts?

It wouldn't be the first time that our country encouraged its citizens to
grow some of their own food. The government's wartime "Victory Garden"
campaign was a success by every measure. By 1943, 20 million gardens were
growing 8 million tons of food (an amount comparable to that of the nation's
farms) and Americans were eating more healthy fruits and vegetables than
ever before.

More home gardens would offer us victory not only over rising food and
healthcare costs, but also foreign oil dependency and climate change.
Researcher estimate that locally-grown foods use up to 17 times less
climate-warming, fossil fuels than foods from away. And when it comes to
local foods, it doesn't get any "localer" than one's own yard.

There are different breaks that local, state and federal governments could
offer home gardeners. Sales taxes on seeds, seedlings, fruit bushes and
trees could be removed. Better still, an income tax break could be
administered as is done with home offices where people measure and deduct
the square footage of their houses used for business purposes. The bigger
your garden, the better the tax break. Those with no yard could deduct the
rental fee for a community garden plot.

Tax break or not, I'll soon be outside fighting climate change, rising food
prices, and mosquitoes in my own modest backyard. Last year, my family and I
converted our $85 seed order into six months worth of delicious, fresh
vegetables. This year, if we're lucky, that should take us right into winter
which in Maine starts in mid November, except for those years when it comes
early.

Wishing you bountiful harvests and comfortable footwear this season,
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