I sincerely hope that the Obamas plant a vegetable garden at the White House. Frankly, I’m a little appalled that there isn’t one already on the property, and I view this as a tremendous shortcoming on many different levels. Without a doubt, I place a lot of the blame on the White House executive chef, whom I felt should have been lobbying for this resource all along.
I first heard about the movement to create a White House vegetable garden during an NPR interview with Alice Waters. She had mentioned this cause alongside her own Edible Schoolyard program, which shares a similar ideology: that people will tend to eat better when they develop a connection to their food. Waters often cites the fact that kids will eat vegetables more readily when they have grown them themselves, which makes perfect sense.
It is extremely easy to view food as a common commodity these days, with so many products pre-packaged and overly processed. Thanks to supermarkets, very few people in America consider where their food comes from, which is an alarming trend. It has allowed many of the large agricultural corporations to commit various crimes against nature, such as turning cattle into carnivores (which, in turn, has led to Mad Cow Disease). The meat industry, in particular, is one horror show after another.
Granted, a White House vegetable garden will not solve the agro-industrial problems that have begun to plague this country over the last several decades. But it would at least shed some light on the importance of eating well, and it would set a good example for the public. The way I see it, any house that has a bowling alley should also have a vegetable garden — it’s really not too much to ask.
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