The White House Garden, or Yes, I am opinionated.

I came across this article about the garden begun by Michelle Obama at the White House last year.  I love it.  Now, if you read the article, the headline offers a bit of a sensational slant... oooooo, the garden isn't *really* organic!  What are they really up to?!  But I agree 100% with what they are doing. 

From what I've read, it did start out with intentions of being an organic garden, and how exciting it is to me that they would try that!  But technically speaking, "organic" is a very difficult standard to meet.  Some folks may go as far to insist that "organic" means that all materials that are used as compost be organic - meaning that all kitchen scraps that go into the compost pile be from vegetables that were organically grown themselves, or even that any manures used be taken from sources where the livestock was organically or naturally raised.  It just gets tricky.  And when it's the White House Garden, you know the Republican press is going to be snooping around trying to prove some tomfoolery if you put it on out there, claiming it to be organic. 

So - as the article says, it's not organic, but that's not the point.  The point is, they are growing something, they are doing it naturally, they are learning from the process, they are sharing food and sharing knowledge, and they are setting a very fine example both here and abroad.  They are also making what I feel is a very important change to be made in our country right now: actively changing the way food gets to their table.  There's a lot of other good changes that come along with making that step - economic, social, cultural, and environmental changes to name some.  

So get out there and grow something!