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Dear Kitchen Gardener, (Begin pinching yourself now) "Obamas to Plant White House
Vegetable Garden"
On Friday, March 20th, 2009, 23 third
graders will join First Lady Michelle Obama on the South Lawn of the
White House to break ground on an 1100 square foot kitchen garden that
will provide food for family dinners and formal dinners. According to the New York Times: And better still: Almost the entire Obama family, including
the president, will pull weeds, “whether they like it or not,” Mrs.
Obama said laughing. Ok, you can stop pinching yourself: you
aren't dreaming this and an off batch of sauerkraut hasn't caused a
rare case of lacto-fermentation-hallucination. THEY ARE REALLY GOING TO DIG THIS GARDEN!
AND WE HELPED MAKE THIS DAY POSSIBLE! Those of you who have been part of the KGI
community for a while know that this is a long-term project of ours,
started in February 2008. It was back in the middle of the
presidential primary season when 99.9999% of the population was focused
on who the next president was going to be. We were the .0001% of the
population that was thinking about what his or her family was going to
eat and where it would be grown. It's been quite a ride for KGI as an
organization and for me personally since then. For those of you who
are new and weren't with us for the trip, we had some fun along the
way. We started following a hopeful little web project called OnDayOne.org
in February 2008, read about ourselves in the New
York Times in April, began putting our names on a White House Food
Garden petition in June, hummed along to This
Lawn is Your Lawn in July 2008, read about ourselves in the
International Herald Tribune in July, placed bids on the White
House Lawn which we had put up for sale on eBay in August, watched with
wonder as two
young guys inspired by our work set off in a funky bus to take the
edible White House idea across the country and back, chuckled our way
through September watching the
Garden of Eatin', read Michael
Pollan's "Farmer-in-Chief" article with great interest in October
which also spoke of a new garden at the White House, voted "This Lawn
is Your Lawn" onto national TV through the Climate Matters video
contest in October, got swept up in the energy of the November
elections, leafed our way through the Washington
Post in January, pushed hard to get out the vote in the
OnDayOne.org contest later that month (and won that too beating out
4000 other ideas), began inviting more people to sign our petition on our
campaign site and on
Facebook also in January, spoke with and e-mailed various members
of Michelle Obama's staff in February (me, in this case, but maybe you
did too? They said they were hearing from a lot of people.), and here
we are in March 2009 reading the headline above and vicariously walking
our way through the delicious garden paths of the future South Lawn: What more can I say besides thank you for
all your support and patience with this project. Many individuals
made this great day possible: - Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, John
Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Barack and Michelle Obama - but we can feel
pride in being the community that pulled together and made a
difference. So let's celebrate that. The seeding or the
weeding can wait. Tomorrow's about savoring a moment that was a long
time in the making. Best wishes, Roger PS: Got any thoughts to share on
this news or anything else? That's what our forums are for. PPS: If you are a media person, blogger, or
know one, you can find our press release below. ---- For Immediate Release Contact: Roger Doiron phone: (207) 883-5341 cell: (207) 807-6364 100,000 Applaud
Announcement of a New White House Food Garden Environment, Nation’s
Food System and People's Health Stand to Benefit (Scarborough, Maine)
–100,000 people signed a petition asking the Obamas to replant a
Victory Garden at the White House, and recent news reports indicate
that they are about to reap what they sowed. For advocates of
sustainable and healthy foods, this harvest of good news was as welcome
as the summer’s first red-ripe tomato. “I’m thrilled for the Obama
family and for all who will be inspired by their example to grow
gardens of their own this year,” said Roger Doiron, founder of the
nonprofit Kitchen Gardeners International and leader of the successful
petition campaign, “Eat the View.” Launched in February 2008,
Eat the View proposed that the Obamas replant a White House Victory
Garden while planting a few extra rows for the hungry. The campaign
used viral videos and social networking technologies like Facebook to
grow a large support base, attract international media attention and
help inspire a larger grassroots effort. In January, 2009, Eat the View
won the “On Day One” contest sponsored by the United Nations
Foundation, beating out 4,000 other entries and resulting in thousands
of messages being sent to the White House in support of its proposal. Over the course of the past
month, the Eat the View campaign has touted the economic benefits of
home gardens as part of its pitch to White House staff members. As
proof, Doiron and his wife spent nine months weighing and recording
each vegetable they pulled from their 1,600-square-foot garden outside
Portland, Maine. After counting the final winter leaves of salad, they
found that they had saved about $2,150 by growing produce for their
family of five instead of buying it. “If you consider that there are
millions of American families who could be making similar, home-grown
savings, those are no small potatoes,” Doiron said. Although the White House
garden campaign is now winding down, Doiron says the Eat the View
campaign is just getting warmed up. “Now that the Obamas are on board,
we’re going to be reaching out to other people and identifying other
high-profile pieces of land that could be transformed into edible
landscapes. Sprawling lawns around governors’ residences, schoolyards,
vacant urban lots: those are all views that should be eaten.” History of Harvest at the
White House While the Obamas’ garden
and the online technologies that campaigned for it might be new, the
idea of an edible landscape at the White House is not. Throughout its
history, the White House has been home to food gardens of different
shapes and sizes and even to a lawn-mowing herd of sheep in 1918. The
appeal of the White House garden project, Doiron asserts, is that it
serves as a bridge between the country’s past and its future. “The
last time food was grown on the White House lawn was in 1943, when the
country was at war, the economy was struggling and people were looking
to the First Family for leadership. It made sense before and it makes
sense again as we try to live within our own means and those of the
planet.” Additional info: Eat the View campaign
website: History the White House as
an edible landscape from 1800 to the present: http://www.eattheview.org/page/history-1 Eat the View artwork: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42913695@N00/sets/72157608739986075/ Testimonials on behalf of
the Eat the View campaign from noted national and international figures: http://www.eattheview.org/page/testimonials-1 Eat the View campaign
videos: http://www.eattheview.org/videos Bio and photos of Roger
Doiron: http://www.kitchengardeners.org/2005/10/about_roger_doiron.html http://www.flickr.com/photos/42913695@N00/sets/72157608739762927/
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