Update: White House Vegetable Garden

According to a release by Slow Food USA, Michelle Obama has broken ground on the new vegetable garden at the White House.

She worked with a group of 26 area fifth graders on Saturday, March 21 (the first day of spring) to remove sod from the area they are planting.

Organic garden at the White House

One week ago, our blog was about Roger Doiron's campaign to establish an organic vegetable garden in the White House grounds. His work with Eat the View, along with other groups, including White House Organic Farm Project and others, has paid off.

Michelle Obama announced her intention to establish an organic vegetable garden at the White House. Though details are not confirmed yet, speculators predict that the garden will be planted on the South Lawn near the fountain. The residence staff is also expected to be responsible for the upkeep of the garden, rather than the National Park Service staffers that are generally responsible for the White House Grounds.

Once built, the Obama's garden will be the first at the White House since the Roosevelt's Victory Garden, built during World War II.

Activists hope that the White House garden will set an example to the nation about growing and eating healthy food. Obama seemed to confirm this when she said she "want[s] the White House to be a place of education and awareness."

White House lawn may soon become edible

According to an article in the Telegraph over 85,000 people have signed a petition encouraging the Obama's to start an organic vegetable garden on the White House grounds.

The petition is led by Roger Doiron, the founder and director of Kitchen Gardeners International. Doiron is working to localize food systems and his non-profit spans 100 countries with 10,000 members. He has also written articles appearing in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune and the Washington Post.

Doiron intends the garden to be a large project, big enough to fulfill the vegetable needs for the entire White House, with any surplus going to local food pantries. There is a history of raising food in the White House grounds, though the last vegetable garden was Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during World War II.

The petition is available to sign online at www.eattheview.org. It will be delivered with a package of heirloom seeds, ready for planting.

Full text of petition below:

We, the undersigned, are petitioning President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama to plant a large organic food garden or Victory Garden on the First Lawn with the produce going to the White House kitchen and local food pantries. The White House is "America's House" and should serve as a model at a time of economic and environmental crisis. In planting this garden, the Obamas would not be breaking with tradition, but returning to it (the White House has had food gardens before) and leading by personal example on global challenges such as economic security, food security, climate change, healthcare policy and energy independence.

Growing food is fashionable again in Britain

According to an article in the Telegraph, vegetable gardens have risen drastically in popularity. A survey of over 1,000 people found that 26% are growing their own fruits and vegetables. Many of these people are doing so to save money, but there is an environmental motivation at work.

During the 1970s, a television sitcom called The Good Life made gardening in backyards and allotments fashionable, but its popularity waned. Gardening was generally viewed as a hobby for older people with a lot of time on their hands.

Now, under the encouragement of Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, gardening is becoming normal, and many of the new gardeners are young. The article does not discuss the yield of these individual gardens, nor the effect it has had (if any yet) on produce sales in groceries. However, the implications of a quarter of the population taking agriculture into their own hands are enormous.

- Largely organic agriculture; cuts chemical waste from system

- Reduces carbon emissions two ways: reduced demands for transport of produce; increased production of oxygen through photosynthesis

- Potential health benefits: people are more likely to eat the vegetables they grow

- Increased awareness of global food and environmental issues