The White House is digging a garden. Not another showcase flower garden. A vegetable garden… finally. They plan to have 55 varieties of vegetables, which in the mid-Atlantic climate is not hard to do. So why was Eleanor Roosevelt the last White House occupant to plant seeds?
It’s taken the hip trend of “being green” to turn people around. Gardening, composting, buying veg at your local farmer’s market, knowing the difference between arugula and lettuce… it got cool all of a sudden. Sometimes I feel like the twilight zone hit. People who previously made fun of (or downright attacked) “hippies” who work on farms, or those who value nature as balm, or all that environmental mumbo-jumbo, are suddenly asking questions, like: “Is there a CSA near me?” There are lots of pretty ladies in Manhattan walking around with their “I’m Not a Plastic Bag” bags, which in fact, they bought, instead of using whatever canvas tote was hanging around. 98% of me scoffs, the other 2% of me (the more patient, compassionate bit) says, Aww, it’s a very good thing. Trends have power. Let’s hope this one sprung from urgency. Let’s hope it lasts. I wonder why it took us so long to even blink an eye?
Michelle Obama says the impetus for the garden is to educate around obesity and healthy living. In the refreshing “open-doors” policy the Obamas have set, some kids from a local school are coming to help plant the garden. Even Barack, Michelle and their girls will be weeding. Woah. Will all the produce end up at fancy dinners? Or will some it go to those in need? However it develops, I hope it spreads like wildfire. I hope people in suburbia look at their water-fed green lawns and think, “Hmm, there might be a better use for this space.” I hope communities everywhere say, “Hey, we should have a garden too.”
I tend to agree with you Molly, about the trend thing. But for good trends, I don’t really care. Whatever gets people going in the direction of good is ok by me. I know, it’s lame, but unfortunately humanity is lame sometimes.
I just hope the trend lasts. It’s got to. The world won’t survive if it doesn’t.
And with that, happy spring!
This is so awesome! How fucking cool are the Obamas! It’s insane how much they live the talk!
Kate, You’re right. Whatever nudges the masses, so be it! Though, I wonder if “lame” is the right word. Uninformed or superficial, in the literal sense of the world, as in having an understanding that is about 1 inch shallow. I have this on many topics.
Besides the obvious benefit of food production for hungry people, a garden offers the deep learning sages have written about for centuries. The act of caring for a plant reminds you to take care of yourself. We don’t all have room for an expansive veggie garden, but we do have room for one potted plant, just one. You water the plant, you drink water; you weed away the dead leaves, you weed away the unnecessary in your life; you open the curtains to sunlight, you go outside and get some Vitamin D. So simple, but the daily reminder of my plants helps me feels a part of something larger, and simultaneously less ego-centric. The best is to watch a child pull a carrot out of the ground for the first time and go, “Woah!”
Kimmi, I am equally impressed. I didn’t think it would actually happen. Really, the shout-out goes to the hard-working journalists out there. Michael Pollan, for one, has done A LOT to get mainstream America paying attention, which we can see, has trickled up.
In the course of my after-school work with high school students in the South Bronx, I spend a lot of time sitting around eating. We eat mostly what the Fine Fare around the corner has on offer, and our tight non-profit budget allows. PBJ, grilled cheese etc. One baby step away from fried chicken. A few weeks ago one of the students noticed that the cheese singles he was eating were “cheese product” rather than “cheese.” So I attempted to initiate the conversation of processed foods vs. (somewhat) pure foods, only to discover that the majority of the students didn’t know that cheese came from the milk of cows (I didn’t even try to get into goat’s milk). Considering the cheeses readily available at the local mart, this might not actually be that surprising, as “cheese product” is sufficiently far from “cheese” or “milk” to warrant another name.
The good news is that I now get bi-weekly deliveries of cases of bananas, citrus, and apples. I expected to be delivering a bi-weekly bag of rotten fruit to the garbage can, but damned if the students didn’t eat all the fruit, even smuggling out green bananas under their shirts. Paradoxical, and certainly proof enough for me that even teenagers have the capability to eat better than we give them credit for- we are (most of us) opportunistic omnivores, after all. There is also no doubt that every one of these students looks to Obama in a way they have never looked to a political figure. From “cheese product” to great hope!
i love the obamas. i love their garden. i love america so much more because of that garden. i hope we start planting gardens all over this fine country.