Michelle Obama Creates an Organic Garden at the White House
Megan Mulligan, Guardian: Just beyond the new swings the Obamas have installed for Sasha and Malia in the grounds of the White House, the first lady last Friday and 26 Washington schoolchildren began digging a 1,100-square-foot organic kitchen garden on the South Lawn.
Nearly everyone who has called 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue home has added personal touches to America’s most famous backyard. Bill Clinton laid a running track, Jimmy Carter’s daughter Amy got a tree house, and Dwight Eisenhower put in a putting green to hone his golf game.
But Obama’s seemingly simple move is seen by many as a political statement akin to Eleanor Roosevelt’s 1943 victory garden. Food activists, led by the California chef and Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters, have been lobbying for an organic White House garden since 1993. Now they are celebrating what they call a new “victory” garden. It sent out a message, Waters said, “that everyone can grow a garden and have free food”.
Others are less sure. Chef and writer Anthony Bourdain, who penned Kitchen Confidential, caused a stir in January when he said: “We’re all in the middle of a recession. Like we’re all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market. There’s something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic.” The White House said materials for the garden, from seeds to mulch, cost $200 (though that figure doesn’t account for labour provided by the White House staff, who will perform most of the maintenance).
