White House Veggie Garden?

For more than a year now my family has been focused on the issue of local eating. It was really pushed into the front of mine and my husband's minds by a book someone on the Social Action committee at our church was enthusiastic about; The Omnivore's Dilemma.Our desires to eat more healthfully and keep as much of our money in the local economy as possible and do what we could to help local farmers stay in the community as farmers and not sell off their land to developers all factored into our decision to begin buying as much of our food locally as possible.

It also pushed me to put in a vegetable garden -something I'd planned on doing when we moved into our home but never got around to actually doing.It's been an incredibly rewarding experience. We've made new connections in our community that we would otherwise never have made and we are learning, or rather relearning how to become more self-sufficient again (a truly empowering feeling - and there is so, so much more to learn!).

I want to share something with you all that came to my attention tonight. http://www.eattheview.org/ is a web site that encourages folks to establish gardens in visible spaces in their communities; town halls, schools, and so on as well as in their own homes. That's a great initiative on it's own but the thing that I thought was really cool is that they're asking the next President to put a vegetable garden back in at the White House.

A petition on the site reads, "We, the undersigned, are petitioning the next President of the United States to plant a food garden on the White House lawn, with part of produce going to the White House kitchen and the rest to a local food pantry. The White House is "America's House" and should set a positive example for the country and the world. The new President would not be breaking with tradition, but returning to it (the White House has had vegetable gardens before) and showing how we can meet global challenges such as climate change, food security, and fossil fuel dependence."

I for one think this is a fantastic idea! I'm asking you to consider both the idea of putting in your own garden (or helping establish a community garden) and signing the petition.

Thanks!