White House Green Thumb

So I definitely have gardening on the brain. Never fear, gentle reader, this too shall pass and I'll swing back to my typical crafty ways soon enough. At times like these I wonder if I might not have just a little teensy manic streak. When I get tracking on something, I tend to pursue it to the exclusion of all (or at least most) other things. Right now it seems to be gardening. Forgive me. I have not forgotten the mittens, the socks, the quilt, the lace work, the pattern design. It will all be back soon.

But for now it's a 24-7 local food fest up in here.

Maybe you've heard by now, but in case you haven't, the kitchen garden is back at the White House. My first reaction is to be happy, as I would be happy if it were revealed that the First Lady actually designs lace shawls or the President knits his own socks. (Can you even imagine!? Just typing that gave me goosebumps...) I am pleased that something I find valuable and Good has found support at the highest levels. You all know I'm just a touch fanatical about local food consumption and small scale economies based on self-sufficiency and the Jeffersonian Ideal, so I might not be seeing straight here. I shall atempt distanced analysis...

Cynical Kate knows that the White House Kitchen Garden, maintained solely by the Obama family, is untenable as the main method of food production for the Presidential family, let alone state dinners. In 17th century France, as spices became commonplace and fresh vegetables expensive, tastes shifted so that haute cuisine favored the simple and fresh to display the valuable produce the wealthy could afford. These days, it is a status symbol as much as anything could be that occasionally a state dinner might feature an heirloom tomato picked right from the vine, just a few steps away. Serving that tomato speaks to the values that the President (and First Lady) and by extension America, wish to display to visiting dignitaries- frugality, resourcefullnes, hard work, self sufficiency. But if the President were forced to entertain only with what his household could make themselves on the White House Estate, there wouldn't be much time left for managing a country. The fantasy that we can convert modern American consumerist culture into one based on a subsistance model is romantic, but ultimately empty. The White House Kitchen Garden is absolutely propaganda (which does not necessarily make it bad. Professor Orr you taught me so much...). And the taxpayers are going to be footing the bill for this symbol-ridden garden.

Now, Idealist Kate knows that there are far far worse symbols that the taxpayers could be footing the bill for. (How about a Mission Accomplished banner and fighter pilot photo-op?) And anyway, costs seem pretty low. According to the Times, seeds and soil amendments are about $200, the labor will be provided by grounds crew, kitchen staff, and other White House staff volunteers, along with local school children. I like what a garden says about America. I like that President Adams planted the first one as a matter of necessity but also to take pleasure in seeing things growing. I like that the First Lady wants to use it as a teaching tool to show city dwelling students where the food they eat actually comes from and the work that it takes to make that food grow. I like that it's promoting healthy eating along with the appreciation of nature. I like that the First Family is setting a positive example and actually doing something productive with the land the White House sits on. I like what The Garden is propagandising.

So I don't care. I'm drinking the KoolAide. The way some people want to know who Michelle's wearing to such and such a dinner, I want to know what she's planting in the garden.

It's an interesting topic to consider, but I find the politics of food really fascinating. In another life I'd be a nutritional anthropologist. If you want to read what more intellectual people than I have to say about this, check out the Times's compiled opinion page. I did find some dissent on the comments page over here, mostly concerned that it's just a "photo-op" and has no actual effect. Generally though, the well reasoned arguments have come down in favor of the garden, but for a variety of reasons. Isn't politics fun?