History

We at the Eat the View campaign are the first to admit that we didn't really come up with the campaign idea ourselves: we stole it from John Adams! If we've done anything original since launching our campaign in February 2008, it's been to take a smart idea from our nation's past and explain - in words, pictures, and song - why it deserves a fresh, new look given our new circumstances. You'll see from the unofficial timeline below that it's a very old concept indeed and, if enough people get behind it, one with a very bright future.

Pre-2008
1792: Construction on the White House – known first as the ‘President’s House” - begins on what had been a tobacco plantation.
1800: Construction is completed. President John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams move into the White House as its first residents. Adams plants the first “First Vegetables” but is soon after voted out of office.
1801: Thomas Jefferson takes office, reaps where Adams sowed, and redesigns the garden plan adding a number of ornamental and fruit trees. It is worth noting that some of the first White House gardens, including Jefferson's, were dug and tended by slaves.
1814: British troops set fire to the house, destroying its interior. Three years of reconstruction and renovations take place which include building the portico and painting the President’s House white.
1825: President John Quincy Adams plants fruit trees, herbs and vegetables to help support his own household.
1835: President Andrew Jackson builds an “orangery” for growing tropical fruit.
1857: Orangery is demolished and a full-scale greenhouse is built.
1902: Greenhouse is demolished and replaced by West Wing.
1918: President Wilson and First Lady Edith Wilson recruit a flock of sheep to mow and fertilize the First Lawn at a time when the country was trying to conserve resources - human, financial and fuel – for the war effort.
1943: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt plants a large Victory Garden on White House lawn over the objections of the US Department of Agriculture inspiring millions of Americans by her example.

1954: President Dwight Eisenhower installs a putting green on White House lawn.
1979: President Jimmy Carter installs solar panels on the White House roof and tends an herb garden.

1981: President Ronald Reagan removes the solar panels and proposes that ketchup be considered a vegetable for public school lunches, a proposal that is lambasted by health officials and the media and quickly withdrawn.

1990: President George H. W. Bush declares the White House kitchen a "no broccoli zone."
1995: Chef Alice Waters writes to President Bill Clinton calling for organic gardens on the grounds of the White House and the Vice Presidential mansion. Clinton at one point responds "send me the seeds," but soon after gets caught sowing his own wild oats in a scandal that becomes the dominant flavor of his second term of office.

2008
Feb. 6: Roger Doiron proposes that the next president “eat the view” by planting a large organic kitchen garden (or Victory Garden) on the First Lawn with produce going to the White House kitchen and local food pantries, posting the idea on the website OnDayOne.org and pitching the story idea to Washington Post garden writer Barbara Damrosch who writes about it in her Feb 28 column.
March: “Eat the View” becomes the audience favorite on OnDayOne.org as the most popular and most discussed proposal for the next president to undertake upon taking office.
Apr 17: “Eat the View” campaign featured in the New York Times and numerous food and garden blogs.
June 20: “Eat the View” website and online petition are launched.
July 4: Syndicated columnist, Ellen Goodman, writes feature on “Eat the View” campaign which is published in over 400 newspapers including the Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune.
July 4-11: The White House Organic Farm project inspired by Alice Waters, Eat the View and others launches its own effort to grow organic food on the White House lawn by “waiting for apples,” i.e. waiting in line for one week for the release of the new iPhone, a successful publicity stunt that helps raise awareness for the idea.
July 29: Eat the View releases “This Lawn is Your Lawn” video on Youtube which becomes viral hit in sustainable food systems circles and is blogged by food writer Mark Bittman of New York Times and legendary blogger, Mark Frauenfelder, of BoingBoing.net.
Aug 29: Philadelphia Inquirer journalist, Ginny Smith, writes feature on Eat the View campaign which is syndicated by the McClatchy-Tribune News Service and published in over 60 papers nationwide.
Aug 29: The Who Farmers, having crossed the country in their Topsy-Turvy Bus, launch their own petition at Slow Food Nation calling for a White House organic farm tended by children and people with disabilities.
Sep 7: Eat the View launches its Facebook Cause.
Sep 12: Eat the View releases its “Garden of Eatin’” video.
Oct 9: Michael Pollan makes his own requests to the next president in a New York Times article entitled “Farmer in Chief.” His article concludes with Eat the View's request to the next president: that he replant a large organic Victory Garden on the White House lawn with produce going to the White House Kitchen and local food pantries.
Oct 21: “This Lawn is Your Lawn” is chosen as a winner in the “Climate Matters” video contest and as such is shown on national TV to an audience of 50 million households. The video is once again blogged on NYTIMES.com, this time by environmental reporter Andrew Revkin.

Nov: Inspired by Michael Pollan's article, the Brockmans Family Farm in central Illinois launches a White House Farmer contest online.
Nov 4: Senator Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States.
Dec 16: Eat the View voted as one of the 9 winners (9 for 09) of the OnDayOne.org contest all of which will be presented to the Obama administration in January.
Dec 21: Eat the View's Facebook Cause passes the 10,000 member mark.

2009

Jan 8: Eat the View featured in the Washington Post.

Jan 13: Eat the View campaign establishes contact with First Lady-elect Michelle Obama's staff.

Jan 16: Eat the View voted grand prize winner of the On Day One contest, beating out over 4000 entries including ones by a Nobel Peace Laureate and a Spice Girl. As part of the contest, thousands of e-mails are sent to the White House requesting that a garden be replanted. Eat the View petition drive is also featured in the Wall Street Journal.

Jan 20: Inauguration Day.

Feb 24: Eat the View campaign makes second contact with First Lady's staff.

March 1: Eat the View campaign pens op-ed for the Chicago Tribune.

March 4: Eat the View featured in Washington Times.

March 6: Eat the View campaign makes third contact with First Lady's staff.

March 11: Eat the View's effort cited again in the New York Times.

March 12: Eat the View featured in Agence France Presse (AFP) news release. Story is picked up, translated into several languages, and republished in newspapers around the world.

March 15: Alice Waters appears on 60 Minutes and renews call for a garden at the White House.

March 15: Eat the View petition drive mentioned in Associated Press news release. Story is once again picked up by newspapers across the country and around the world.

March 17: Signs of hope! In an exclusive interview in O Magazine, First Lady Michelle Obama mentions a "wonderful new garden project" she is planning. Tell us more!

March 20: Victory: a new White House Kitchen Garden is dug!