Obamas' Organic Garden?! It'll be ANARCHY!!!
So Michelle Obama decided to grow an organic garden at the White House, and get some local schoolkids involved in the project. Sounds all happy-warm-fuzzy, doesn't it? Apparently not to everyone … nosiree, the folks at the Mid-America CropLife Association sure don't think so, according to a newsletter sent out to their members:
Did you hear the news? The White House is planning to have an "organic" garden on the grounds to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the Obama's and their guests. While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder. As a result, we sent a letter encouraging them to consider using crop protection products and to recognize the importance of agriculture to the entire U.S. economy. Read below for the entire letter.
They go on to ask their readers to write the White House with the same request. Because, y'know, organic produce is just so cringeworthy. I mean, really! How the fuck did plants even grow before humans came along and invented synthetic fertilizers & chemical pesticides?! How did people eat before the advent of "RoundUp Ready" frankenplants?!
This is such unbelievable horseshit. Here's the First Family, starting a little project to show people that yes, indeed, you can grow your own food (given a bit of land to work with). You can be a little self-sufficient, and you don't need to spray/sprinkle/pour a bunch of laboratory-engineered bullshit all over your plants to do it. And the greedhead fuckers at MACA want them to stop, because they're somehow undermining the "importance of agriculture to the entire US economy" by doing it?! I assume they actually mean the Obamas are failing to cheerlead the importance of large-scale, industrial, chemically-sodden agriculture to the chemical manufacturing sector of the economy.
Is ConAgra going to write to them next, encouraging them to use patented plant varieties that don't produce fertile seeds? (Yup, big agri-business is ALL about making sure farmers have to buy truckloads of their seeds every year, because they've managed to create plants that can't reproduce.) Or maybe a coalition of boil-in-bag & microwave dinner manufacturers should chastise them for suggesting that pre-cooked, pre-packaged food isn't the optimal choice for family dinner? Or maybe the Daughters of the American Revolution can band together with some throwback Confederate organization and congratulate them on recognizing the traditional role of black children in agriculture, but respectfully request they appoint a white man to oversee the fieldworkers schoolkids?
Who cares if organic produce, grown with natural compost fertilizer and soil amendments, is more nutrient-dense than industrially-farmed produce grown in worn-out soil, kept alive by virtue of chemical sprays and 3-ingredient "bare necessities" synthetic fertilizers? (Maybe the Obamas are also conspiring to destroy the synthetic vitamin/supplement industry!) Who cares if low-income families with access to a garden plot (either on their own land, or through a local community garden program) could do a better & healthier job of keeping food on their table at less expense by composting kitchen scraps and arranging their gardens to allow the different plants to complement & enhance one another's natural pest-resistance? THEY'RE NOT BUYING ROUNDUP OR MIRACLE GROW!!! For fuck's sake! It'll be TOTAL AGRICULTURAL ANARCHY!!!
See, THIS is what is wrong with this fucking country: People like the assholes at MACA don't give one flying fuck about what a good idea something might actually be, unless it pads their fucking pockets. Please join me in telling MACA where to stick it by signing CREDO Action's petition, and leaving a choice comment for them. Hell, you could even write a nice little "keep the faith, Michelle!" letter to the White House! MACA helpfully included the White House contact form address in their newsletter: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Ahh, organic foods. How I'd love to partake in your chemical-free goodness, if only I had the extra money to buy you at the grocery store (or the patience to simply grow my own organic vegetables)!
Truth be told, the people bitching about this are even more retarded than the people who bitched about the whole "dying the White House fountain's water green for St. Patrick's Day"! Actually, I take that back, both groups are pretty much equal!
20th April 2009 at 8:32 am | permalink |It just goes to show how scared some people are of those who have different beliefs.
Nowt wrong with people who want to grow organic food, its their choice, but until they can produce it at less than twice the price of other produce I ain't going to buy it – but that's another matter.
I do wonder however, how the traditionalists can object to organic food as that was the way everything was done for centuries.
If the MACA lads are so scared of one person growing some organic produce then they must have some serious shit to hide :)
20th April 2009 at 3:06 pm | permalink |"No good deed goes unpunished."
20th April 2009 at 5:02 pm | permalink |How come they didn't complain when the Bush's planted an organic garden? Is it only evil when the Obama's do it?
20th April 2009 at 6:58 pm | permalink |Re: cost … I do consider myself fortunate to only be feeding myself. Makes it much easier to afford all the fancy organic stuff.
@ian: Quite simple as to how they object to it: Organic gardening/farming runs counter to their financial interests. I know you're cynical enough to think of that!
@Elie: Ooh. Good point.
@akshelby: According to the New York Times, there hasn't been a garden on the White House lawn since Eleanor Roosevelt planted her "Victory garden" during WWII. (And I'm pretty sure the Bush's wouldn't have done anything organic, even if Laura had deigned to dirty her hands growing produce… ;-)
20th April 2009 at 10:51 pm | permalink |=)
21st April 2009 at 4:01 am | permalink |Dammit, the comment monster ate my comment because it didn't like my use of >'s and <'s.
I'll go with "*glee* I live in one of the best food and wine regions in the world, with organic and local stuff easy and pretty damned cheap =D"
21st April 2009 at 4:09 am | permalink |@grimbles: Bastard! ;-) We have a local meat processor, and a farmers' market in the summer, but other than that it's all mass-market grocery-store organics.
21st April 2009 at 3:15 pm | permalink |