Over at Slow Food Nation I found this Eat the View campaign to get the Obamas to model something good for the nation: devote a portion of the White House grounds to an organic edible garden. You can vote for it here:
Friday, January 09, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
23 comments:
Ruth-I have added my vote! I have also voted on a few other initiatives suggested by Change.org related to equal rights for LGBT people. Here is a link to the main one on Marriage Equality Rights if anyone is interested in adding their support.
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/pass_marriage_equality
_rights_for_lgbt_couples_nationwide
I guess I have not right to vote, although your new President will also be a bit of ours! The initiative sounds symbolically interesting, but I hope Obama will spend more time on solving all our problems rather than gardening! :-)
(The "learning to be girl" thing on the sidebar is really charming!)
Have nice a moderatly cold weekend!
Donica, thanks for that! The site says:
"The Ideas for Change in America competition was created in response to Barack Obama's call for increased citizen involvement in government. The final round of voting began on January 5 and is comprised of the top 3 rated ideas from each of the 30 issues in the first round of the competition, which collectively received more than 250,000 votes.
The top 10 rated ideas from the final round will be presented to the Obama administration on January 16th at an event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, co-hosted by the Case Foundation. At the event we will also announce the launch of a national advocacy campaign behind each idea in collaboration with our nonprofit partners to turn each idea into actual policy."
Peter, the whole world should be able to vote on issues that affect everyone.
While gardening may not seem too crucial given the world's tragedies, I actually think it is one of the most vital cultural changes that needs to happen. Industrial agriculture is depleting and poisoning the world's ecosystems. If we would be more gentle with the grounds around us, and support local farmers, this would have a huge impact on not only the earth but on our economies. Our thinking has to change.
Ruth, I voted for the Victory Garden! I think it is a wonderful idea, and if they do it, I hope it will be more than just a token garden. We want to increase our garden space this year and we need to cut down a few trees (which we hate to do, but....) to get more sunshine for more hours to be successful. It just kills me that a lot of the people around here who own five or ten acre lots sow all of that land into grass. Maybe they will put a pond in the middle which would be great for the wildlife, but then they treat it with chemicals to contain the algae and duckweed. Surely, they could at least leave the acreage natural so it would have less impact on the wildlife habitat.
Ah yes, Susan, we have that around us too.
We're expanding our garden too! And it will be closer to the house than last year's, meaning I/we will be more likely to maintain it.
But imagine the joy of being a White House chef and having fresh greens or beans from the garden to serve for dinner. Everyone can grow their own fresh things, even in pots, like my poetry mentor. In fact, she turned her tiny city front yard into a garden, actually her husband did. So everyone walks by on the sidewalk and can smell the full long row of basil and admire the tomatoes and beans. Heaven.
Mmmmm, I love the fragrance of basil and rosemary when you accidentally brush against them as you walk by. Heaven, indeed.
An interesting project. Why not?
We may all have to become gardeners in the future! I voted...
Sue, yes, why not do small things in the right direction?
Thanks, Sandy. This project may not get President Obama's attention. It won't be a disaster if it doesn't, the way other things will if they don't get attention. But I sincerely think it is our aloofness from the small, daily ways to live right that has gotten us into big trouble.
good idea Ruth, i created an account and voted.
Life is bitter and sweet. Living is rough and smooth, often monotonous.
We keep ourselves busy and entertained. i understand the need to entertain ourselves and efforts to lead a healthy life, play games, watch TV, movies, take interest art music literature. but i get very upset when i see golf courses. And the money that goes in to maintaining them. What a criminal waste !
My apologies to golf lovers.
i belong to the stone age Ruth, i am sorry.
rauf, you have my 100% agreement on golf courses. That's the only thing I have against golf. Thanks for voting.
You mean they don't have one already?!
Just think of all the potatoes they could grow!!!
(enjoying our home-grown kipflers at the moment).
Thanks for your comments to my comments! You are right! I will thus vote after all! :-))
Oh Letty, there is another one of those Aussie words. Kipflers?? Do those be potatoes, precious?
Well that's good of you, Peter. Thank you.
No, not an aussie word.
Kipflers are a fancy type of potato.
They look like little poos.
Mmmm....tasty.
Oh, are they the finger-length ones? Those are sooo good!
That's them.
They kinda taste like roasted chestnuts.
Hello, I'm one of the legions who found you via Blog of Note (congratulations!). You have a wonderful blog and I can see why you were honored.
I love this post, I heard Terri Gross interview Michael Pollan on Fresh Air. Pollan suggests this victory farm in his open letter to the next president.
Here's the link to the npr story and interview:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95896389
Thank you for bringing this to light; I plan to spread the word on my blog in the next week or so.
That's great, Dutchbaby! I'm glad to hear that. I think it would be such a cool thing, and I'd love to see a piece about the White House chef using the greens.
Thank you so much for coming by and leaving a nice comment.
Sounds nice! Thanks for sharing!
Warmly welcome to visit http://www.art-ych.com
Oil painting
Oil paintings
Painting
Post a Comment