It seems the White House may be “going green,” as First Lady, Michelle Obama, has started planting the first presidential vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt’s World War II victory garden. I really hope that much of the pressure from organic food and sustainable agriculture proponents has finally been given a sounding board, as the new administration lends an ear towards the movements.

In the last fifty years, America has proven itself as a country able to perfect the art of making cheap, chemically-laden and genetically modified food. And while this food may produce large profits for big American agribusiness and pharmaceutical companies, sadly for all of us, this same food is also causing disease for the people.

It fills our bodies with toxins, and puts a massive strain on our global environment. Similarly, government subsidies have typically been handed out to farmers producing mono-crops, requiring large amounts of fossil fuel and fertilizers to grow and distribute. Mono-crops are also over-produced, leading to heavy surpluses of harmful foods such as high-fructose corn syrup and hormonally-altered soy beans.

The Obama Family Garden

The Obama’s family garden is a move in a different direction from that American reality. It encourages all Americans to look at creating their own locally-grown, organic garden.

In this light, the garden may also serve as an extremely positive example to the entire world, possibly sparking a movement towards local, small-scale urban and rural farming.

A worldwide trend towards local, organic farming, could have monumental implications, including the reduction in the use of pesticides, lowered needs for fossil fuels to transport produce, as well as better air quality in urban areas typically lacking in vegetation (as well as the bees, butterflies and insects that accompany even the most “city-like” of gardens).

At a recent organic food convention, despite the slight decline in organic food sales (blamed on the burgeoning economy and the tightening of food expenditures), advocates for organic farming seemed surprisingly upbeat. Beyond any cash-based bottom line, this group is dedicated to changing the world through a move towards organic, sustainable foods and living styles. And after being almost completely ignored by the previous presidential administrations for years on end, they view the changes of the current administration as a promising first step forwards a green revolution.

Michelle Obama’s public support towards local, unprocessed foods, is not the only move in government towards much-needed alternatives for human food sources. In an unprecedented move, members of the Department of Agriculture started their own organic “people’s garden” on the front pavement of their offices.

Similarly, the same department, once so connected to large-scale agribusiness, appointed Kathleen Merrigan, a longtime proponent of sustainable agriculture and unprocessed foods, as the top deputy to the department head.

And while the good news of Washington’s move towards organic and sustainable food sources has been flowing, some are still worried that the administration will not act quickly enough. Congress has often shot down many of the best efforts towards a less chemically-laden American diet, despite the many benefits.

Oftentimes, the realities of a heavily-lobbied federal government, as well as the lack of infrastructure, clash with the goals of food activists.

Even so, the Obama’s move to create an organic, local garden, is an important first-step in symbolizing the national government’s support of a movement towards making organic and natural food an American, and perhaps global, reality.

Only time will tell if this new garden and administation will work with us to eliminate the disease causing toxins our previous governments have allowed in the past. The next step from the White House should be to BAN all GMO foods!! We will see what happens..

Related Blogposts:

• 5 Health Issues Obama Needs to Address
• Which is Better – Organic vs. Locally Grown Foods
• The Health Benefits of a Raw Food Diet