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March 22nd, 2009 at 10:49 am

Michelle Obama White House Garden Photos, Video

in: Environment, Politics

First Lady Michelle Obama plants White House garden, March 2009

First Lady Michelle Obama began work on a vegetable garden at the White House on March 20, 2009. See video and photos here. She had the assistance of more than two dozen fifth graders from from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, D.C. who will have ongoing involvement with the garden, planting, tending and harvesting the crops.

She becomes the first First Lady to plant a garden in the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt who planted a Victory garden during World War II. The White House Kitchen Garden is set on 1,100 square feet on the White House grounds and will be an organic vegetable garden, yielding crops year-round for the White House as well as for Miriam’s Kitchen, a Washington, DC soup kitchen.

World War II era Victory Garden poster

Both the First Lady and the President have long advocated for organic, locally grown produce, both to foster healthier eating and to avoid dependence on industrial farms which use harmful pesticides and chemical fertilizer and consume fossil fuel in transporting food. Prior to the Obamas’ advocacy, Alice Waters, the chef at the famed Chez Panisse restaurant in California, a longtime champion of locally grown foods and the “slow foods” movement, has pushed for a White House garden since 1992. (See: White House becoming Green House?)

In a recent interview, Mrs. Obama discussed her commitment to use the garden to set an example.

“A real delicious heirloom tomato is one of the sweetest things that you’ll ever eat,” she said. “And my children know the difference, and that’s how I’ve been able to get them to try different things.

“I wanted to be able to bring what I learned to a broader base of people. And what better way to do it than to plant a vegetable garden in the South Lawn of the White House?”

Michelle Obama also addresses rising concern about improper diets which have lead to the high incidence of obesity and related illnesses including diabetes, in the U.S. and sees the garden as a means to raise awareness. Regarding the involvement of children from Bancroft Elementary School which, incidentally, has had a garden since 2001.

“My hope,” the first lady said in an interview in her East Wing office, “is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”

According to the New York Times, overseeing the new garden will be White House assistant chef Sam Kass, a longtime advocate of locally grown food and previously the Obamas’ chef in Chicago. It will grow 55 different varieties of produce, including both fruits and vegetables, adhering to the White House kitchen staff’s wish list and grown from organic seedlings which were started at the White House greenhouses. The grounds crew and the kitchen staff will do most of the work, with the assistance of the school children, the Obama family and White House staff members who have volunteered.

Source: Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House

For more on the White House Garden groundbreaking ceremony, including photos, see Michelle Obama touts healthy eating as she tills new White House garden
 and White House Garden Is Not Exactly Shovel-Ready

More Michelle Obama pictures and video after the jump…

Here is White House garden groundbreaking ceremony video. Photos below.


Video Link

Michelle Obama plants White House garden, March 2009

Photo source: Whitehouse.gov Victory garden poster source: The National Archives

Related posts:

Michelle Obama White House Garden Photos, Video pics pictures


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