You are absolutely not going to believe this!
For over ten years now people have been trying to get the White House to dig up part of their lawn and plant an organic garden in its place. Finally, with the arrival of the Obamas, this dream is becoming a reality.
“A garden like this is one of those small gestures that is powerfully symbolic,” Michael Pollan, author of “Omnivores Dilemma” and vocal advocate for agricultural reform,” said in a recent article on the ABC news website. “At a time of economic crisis, a garden can provide a surprisingly large amount of fresh, healthy produce,” Pollan said. “But just as important, it teaches important habits of mind — helping people to reconnect with their food, eat more healthily on a budget and recognize that we’re less dependent on the industrial food chain, and cheap fossil fuel, than we assume.”
All good, right? Wrong.
Apparently, the idea of all that healthy produce being cultivated at the White House, and the message it would send to American consumers, was displeasing to chemical companies that produce pesticides.
We received the following email today from friends at the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.
Dear Friend,
The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) has a bone to pick with Michelle Obama. MACA represents chemical companies that produce pesticides, and they are angry that – wait for it – Michelle Obama isn’t using chemicals in her organic garden at the White House.
I am not making this up.
In an email they forwarded to their supporters, a MACA spokesman wrote, “While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made [us] shudder.” MACA went on to publish a letter it had sent to the First Lady asking her to consider using chemicals — or what they call “crop protection products” — in her garden.
I just signed a petition telling MACA’s board members to stop using Michelle Obama’s garden to spread propaganda about produce needing to be sprayed with chemicals. I hope you will, too.
Please have a look and take action.
Thanks!
Small Farmers. Big Change. 