I have a strange feeling the chemical industry may put enough pressure on the White House to actually get the organic garden sprayed.....or, more likely the 'compromise' of no garden at all....or spray the new dogs with pesticides. Montsanto has had its way with every administration so far and every living creature on the planet is polluted with its DDT, PCB and other deadly chemicals.
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Pesticide Lobby Bugged by Michelle Obama’s White House Organic Garden
by Elizabeth Balkan
Sustainablog reports:
Are you worried that an organic garden on the White House grounds might cause some Americans to start eating a wide variety of chemical-free, locally grown produce? The Mid America CropLife Association, a lobbying group for agribusinesses giants, is.
Just a few days after Michelle Obama invited local fifth graders to help plant the White House Kitchen Garden, the MACA, a group which represents and is comprised of former executives from Dow AgroSciences, Monsanto and DuPont Crop Protection, sent the White House a letter (which can be viewed in its entirety
here) expressing their disappointment that she had not "recognize[d] the role conventional agriculture plays in the US."
But that's not all. The group went on to provide a dose of propaganda educational information, including little known fact that "technology allows for farmers to meet the increasing demand for food and fiber in a sustainable manner." Drawing a clear line between technology, undefined, and sustainability does not, in the strictest terms, suggest the group's total disapproval of organic farming methods.
That outright statement came in an email MACA sent their members shortly after sending the first lady aforementioned letter, in which they said that the idea of an organic garden "made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder." [italics mine].
MACA also informed Michelle Obama of the apparent causality between agricultural engineering and national pre-eminence in just about every field:
If Americans were still required to farm to support their family's basic food and fiber needs, would the US have been leaders in the advancement of science, communication, education, medicine, transportation and the arts?
At least one group is reacting to the new War on Homegrown Tarragon.
Quickly responding to MACA's below the beltway tactics, Credo, the mobile phone company founded on the principle of social responsibility, has launched a campaign asking concerned citizens to "Tell the Pesticide Peddlers: We support Michelle Obama's organic garden."
How ungrateful of Credo, which evidently fails to realize that, were it not for the "advancement in...communication" made possible by agricultural engineering, they would not even exist.
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/04/12
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March 26, 2009
Mrs. Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mrs. Obama,
We are writing regarding the garden recently added to the White House grounds to ensure a fresh supply of fruits and vegetables to your family, guests and staff. Congratulations on recognizing the importance of agriculture in America! The U.S. has the safest and most abundant food supply in the world thanks to the 3 million people who farm or ranch in the United States.
The CropLife Ambassador Network, a program of the Mid America CropLife Association, consists of over 160 ambassadors who work and many of whom grew up in agriculture. Their mission is to provide scientifically based, accurate information to the public regarding the safety and value of American agricultural food production. Many people, especially children, don't realize the extent to which their daily lives depend on America's agricultural industry. For instance, children are unaware the jeans they put on in the morning, the three meals eaten daily, the baseball with which they play and even the biofuels that power the school bus are available because of America's farmers and ranchers.
Agriculture is the largest industry in America generating 20% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. Individuals, family partnerships or family corporations operate almost 99% of U.S. farms. Over 22 million people are employed in farm-related jobs, including production agriculture, farm inputs, processing and marketing and sales. Through research and changes in production practices, today's food producers are providing Americans with the widest variety of foods ever.
Starting in the early 1900's, technology advances have allowed farmers to continually produce more food on less land while using less human labor. Over time, Americans were able to leave the time-consuming demands of farming to pursue new interests and develop new abilities. Today, an average farmer produces enough food to feed 144 Americans who are living longer lives than many of their ancestors. Technology in agriculture has allowed for the development of much of what we know and use in our lives today. If Americans were still required to farm to support their family's basic food and fiber needs, would the U.S. have been leaders in the advancement of science, communication, education, medicine, transportation and the arts?
We live in a very different world than that of our grandparents. Americans are juggling jobs with the needs of children and aging parents. The time needed to tend a garden is not there for the majority of our citizens, certainly not a garden of sufficient productivity to supply much of a family's year-round food needs.
Much of the food considered not wholesome or tasty is the result of how it is stored or prepared rather than how it is grown. Fresh foods grown conventionally are wholesome and flavorful yet more economical. Local and conventional farming is not mutually exclusive. However, a Midwest mother whose child loves strawberries, a good source of Vitamin C, appreciates the ability to offer California strawberries in March a few months before the official Mid-west season.
Farmers and ranchers are the first environmentalists, maintaining and improving the soil and natural resources to pass onto future generations. Technology allows for farmers to meet the increasing demand for food and fiber in a sustainable manner.
Farmers use reduced tillage practices on more than 72 million acres to prevent erosion.
Farmers maintain over 1.3 million acres of grass waterways, allowing water to flow naturally from crops without eroding soil.
Contour farming keeps soil from washing away. About 26 million acres in the U.S. are managed this way.
Agricultural land provides habitat for 75% of the nation's wildlife.
Precision farming boosts crop yields and reduces waste by using satellite maps and computers to match seed, fertilizer and crop protection applications to local soil conditions.
Sophisticated Global Positioning Systems can be specifically designed for spraying pesticides. A weed detector equipped with infrared light identifies specific plants by the different rates of light they reflect and then sends a signal to a pump to spray a preset amount of herbicide onto the weed.
Biogenetics allows a particular trait to be implanted directly into the seed to protect the seed against certain pests.
Farmers are utilizing 4-wheel drive tractors with up to 300 horsepower requiring fewer passes across fields-saving energy and time.
Huge combines are speeding the time it takes to harvest crops.
With modern methods, 1 acre of land in the U.S. can produce 42,000 lbs. of strawberries, 110,000 heads of lettuce, 25,400 lbs. of potatoes, 8,900 lbs. of sweet corn, or 640 lbs of cotton lint.
As you go about planning and planting the White House garden, we respectfully encourage you to recognize the role conventional agriculture plays in the U.S in feeding the ever-increasing population, contributing to the U.S. economy and providing a safe and economical food supply. America's farmers understand crop protection technologies are supported by sound scientific research and innovation.
The CropLife Ambassador Network offers educational programs for elementary school educators at
http://ambassador.maca.org covering the science behind crop protection products and their contribution to sustainable agriculture. You may find our programs America's Abundance, Farmers Stewards of the Land and War of the Weeds of particular interest. We thank you for recognizing the importance and value of America's current agricultural technologies in feeding our country and contributing to the U.S economy.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
Sincerely,
Bonnie McCarvel, Executive Director
Janet Braun, Program Coordinator
Mid America CropLife Association
11327 Gravois Rd., #201
St. Louis, MO 63126
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Just beyond the new swings the Obamas have installed for Sasha and Malia in the grounds of the White House, the first lady yesterday [Friday] and 26 Washington schoolchildren began digging a 1,100-square-foot organic kitchen garden on the South Lawn.
"My girls like vegetables more if they taste good," said Michelle Obama, looking almost too chic to get dirty in a belted sweater and black patent leather boots. "Especially if they're involved in planting it and picking it, they were willing to give it a try."
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).
Today, the fifth-grade students from Bancroft Elementary, who will help harvest the peppers, carrots and spinach later this year, seemed happily unaware of such disagreements between culinary giants, giggling as they raked and shoveled.
"So today is getting the soil ready. Then we'll come back in a couple of weeks to actually do the planting. And then sometime in June, right - right around the time that school is over, hopefully we'll have lots of great vegetables and fruits. We'll harvest them and then we'll bring you guys into the kitchen in the White House," the first lady said.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
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