Victory Garden is soooo Old School.
For the first time in Poltics ever, President Obama talked about this very issue in the campaign. How freakin' amazing that Barack and his family are going to implement the Victory Garden concept.
Just a Photo-Op? YOU BETCHA! Lots of them, lots of funny stories how Daddy cut his thumb with the herb snippers... Every difficulty that they will confront will be the same difficulties the new Grow to Eat Gardner will have to actually deal with. Pests, water, weeding, failure.
Michelle would be wise (and we sorely need some of this kind of wisdom) to make a White House Family Garden that can teach the Nation whilst they entertain the Nation. It doesn't need to be the biggest thing she does, but it just might be the most important things Ms. Obama can do. Just think of the tie-ins with children's websites...
Be nice to see Michael Pollen involved. Now there's a person who gets it. Heck, bring in a Mexican (legal) gardener to teach the Obamas and help them keep the garden growing and expanding.
I'd love to see Michelle and her children learning from Gramma (Nana?) how to use, and preserve the things they harvest from their family garden. Serve some "home grown" to visiting Republicans (insert snark here).
I've been working very hard over the last years to learn this stuff, and I still can't feed myself without ever going to the grocery. But that is not the point. The goal is to make the Family Garden the first nutritional source.
After they get the garden going, perhaps they can have a family (national) discussion about chickens & eggs... Wouldn't it be a hoot to have the chicken coop be a Mini Capitol building? Heck I'd pay money to build that. Just imagine the piles of chicken s**t coming out of that building. Now that is the way to stimulate growth!
You can live a long time on vegetables, fruits, berries and eggs. And getting us closer to our food has benefits beyond nutrition. Getting us closer to our family and neighbors is essential to making these perilous times less frightening. Restarting COMMUNITY is vital to survival.
The "middle class," broken and ill, could just possibly save the United States from third world hunger, by re-purposing the family backyard. And let's bring the less well off into our backyards and trade labor for food.
The Obama Family can help us do this by leading us. Showing us, teaching us, and working alongside us. They had better get started, times a wasting, bust that White House sod and get those seeds and plants in the ground.