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April is National Gardening Month and no one’s garden is getting more attention than the recently planted White House garden. Why?

Because at the crossroads of an obesity and diabetes epidemic, an economic crisis, and increasing environmental degradation lies the simple, family garden. And this makes the White House garden more than just a bunch of dirt and seeds. This particular garden is raising awareness about taking control of these three very important issues.

Gardening for Health

Michelle Obama described the White House garden project in a recent interview with Oprah. "We want to use it as a point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet. You know, the tomato that's from your garden tastes very different from one that isn't. And peas—what is it like to eat peas in season? So we want the White House to be a place of education and awareness. And hopefully kids will be interested because there are kids living here."

In addition to getting Malia and Sasha to dig in the dirt, Mrs. Obama has invited students from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, DC to participate in the garden project (perhaps to help guide the way as they’ve been actively planting and tending their own school garden for two years now). Gardening is a great way to teach children how to grow food and the importance of eating healthy, but the practice is being embraced by adults as well. According to the National Gardening Association’s most recent survey, 43 million households plan on growing their own food this year, up 19 percent from 2008. Roughly half of the survey’s respondents said they were planning on growing their own in order to have food that is better tasting, higher quality, and safe (because they know where it comes from).

Gardening for the Economy

Beyond the important issues regarding health, there are economic rewards for following Michelle Obama's example. Growing our own food reminds us that we can be resourceful no matter what the state of the economy. Indeed, this isn’t the first time the White House has had a garden and promoted gardening for fiscal reasons. As far back as 1800, John Adams started the first White House garden because at that time, the President (not the taxpayers) had to buy the food he ate. Growing his own was simply the most frugal thing to do.

Perhaps the most famous White House garden (until now) was the Victory Garden planted by Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II. The Roosevelt garden inspired an entire movement during wartime to address a food system stressed by an economy fraught with labor and transportation shortages. At the peak of the Victory Garden movement American families grew 40% of the nation’s produce. Our nation once again desperately needs this type of patriotism rooted in frugality and the Obamas are making that clear.

Gardening for the Environment

Unfortunately, despite how many Presidents carefully cultivated and expanded the White House garden, the fruit trees and annual vegetables were left to shrivel after the end of World War II. In fact, the end of World War II marked a revolutionary change in our entire national food system. Much of the research, development and manufacturing supporting the war was transferred to agriculture. Chemicals used for warfare were marketed instead as fertilizers and pesticides. Weapons and machine technologies were applied to farm equipment allowing farmers to significantly increase how many acres they cultivated. Industrialized farming was subsidized and encouraged as the global food system opened and local farms exported foods to the war ravaged lands of Europe.

With grand dreams of economic prosperity and the eradication of hunger, agricultural science progressed almost unfettered, nearly losing sight of its roots – or, more specifically, the soil and water from which all things grow. Today, industrial agriculture practices pollute surface and groundwater with animal waste and chemicals, cause negative health impacts from pesticide use, and increase ozone pollution and climate change from heavy use of fossil fuels. It’s an unsustainable system fueled by the soaring profits and power of a handful of multinational corporations.

The new White House garden will be grown organically, without using toxic, synthetic chemicals – good thing for the kids who will be working in it. Actually, with growing awareness of the health and environmental tolls of conventional agriculture, national interest in organically grown food has been increasing over the past decade – roughly 15 to 20 percent annually. It’s a development the chemical manufacturers are none too pleased about and they’ve petitioned the First Lady, urging her to use conventional methods. Kudos to Mrs. Obama, she’s remained steadfast in her commitment to grow a garden that promotes human and environmental health.

Gardening for You

While the Obamas have made a point of making the White House and its new garden open and welcoming to the public, you can plant your own personal seeds of health and hope by starting a garden in your yard, on your roof, in a local vacant lot, or on your kitchen windowsill. There’s no excuse not to, especially when you can get seeds for free from One Million Gardens - each packet contains 4-6 varieties of heirloom seeds that have the potential of providing hundreds of pounds of food.

You can find more great ideas for starting your garden from Kitchen Gardeners International, a non-profit network of 10,000 gardeners from 100 countries whose mission is to inspire and inform people to grow their own food. So, what are you waiting for? Grow your own!

Additional Resources:

Price of Organic Got You Down? Grow Your Own!

Video History of White House Gardens

National Gardening Association

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