Testimonials

The health of future generations has its roots in the food we put on our nation’s tables. We now know more about nutrition than ever before, and it is time to put that knowledge to work. With healthy home-grown fruits and vegetables, instead of fast food and junk food, we can have a better health and better productivity, and can dramatically reduce the burden of illness that currently weighs on society. What better place to start than at the seat of our government?
-Neal D. Barnard, MD, President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

What could possibly be more local and more delicious than food grown in your own backyard? Planting a garden on the White House lawn would be a watershed moment for local sustainable agriculture and a mouthwatering prospect for the First Family. The First Family enjoying the fabulous flavor of fresh seasonal produce picked from the White House lawn is just what we need. It will help remind us all to pursue policies and make choices devoted to sustainable local agriculture, because it strengthens our communities, our local economies, the health of ourselves and our planet – and it tastes great.
-Rick Bayless, Award-winning chef-restaurateur, cookbook author, television personality, and founder of the Frontera Farmer Foundation

Growing food, not lawns at the White House is simply the best and most obvious choice for Obama's new Administration. The current, pesticide-laden, petrochemical-dependent, wasteful display of rolling green lawn sends a global message of affluence, arrogance, and environmental ignorance. This message may be consistent with the priorities of the White House regime of the recent past, but surely a revised message, one of healthful awareness and fruitful abundance, is far more appropriate for the future of our Nation. Thank you, Barack Obama, for perpetuating food security, seed stewardship, and grassroots community education by approving, supporting, and maybe even getting your hands dirty at the White House organic garden!
-Heather Coburn Flores, activist and author of Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community

It would delight me to see an organic vegetable garden at the White House. What a powerful example of old time American frugality coupled with modern environmental consciousness. I think people everywhere would cheer the First Family for making this important gesture.
-Eliot Coleman, organic farmer, author of The New Organic Grower and Four-Season Harvest

Just one plot of land at America’s House dedicated to growing good organic food sends a strong message not just in these tough economic times. It says that the growing of food is important to the health and wellbeing of the all the people of the country, including the First Family. As a bonus, it is a front and center reminder to people of color of the tradition having a garden that feeds your family well. Food in this country—the need for food is the great equalizer, it is what brings us together. What better way to help unify us all in our conversations on health, culture, and self-reliance than to take a little space that sends a big message to all Americans.
-Andrea King Collier, author of The Black Woman's Guide to Black Men's Health and Food and Society Policy Fellow

Health officials are warning that this may be the first generation in our country's history to die at a younger age than their parents. A garden on the lawn of the White House, garden fresh food served at family meals, children learning from the positive example of adults and excess food donated to food banks – all this could lead the country toward change that not only can we live with - but might save the lives of this generation of children and all generations to come.
-Ann Cooper , Director of Nutrition Services for Berkeley Unified School District and Founder of Lunch Lessons LLC and Food Family Farming Foundation

Much as I like rose gardens, I would love to hear President Obama address the nation from his cabbage patch once in a while. At the very least, the Obamas could set a great example by enjoying nutritious home grown food and reducing their food miles to zero. Dependence on a foreign food product (tea) sparked our Revolution. A new revolution in food self-sufficiency could make this country great again.
-Barbara Damrosch, author of The Garden Primer and the weekly column “A Cook’s Garden” in the Washington Post

"Food is the new gold," they now say on Wall Street and in Washington. If true, that makes heirloom seed vaults the new Ft. Knox. Gardeners and farmers who save and share old-time seed varieties suddenly become the new Department of Homeland Security, and the true guardians of our future food -- and our children's food future. There is no more fitting place to sow these seeds of change than on the historic grounds of the White House.
-George DeVault, President & Executive Director, Seed Savers Exchange, Inc., Decorah, IA

Reviving the kitchen garden at the White House would set a luminous example for the world, and France in particular: although we have a deep-rooted culture of good food, the reality of many French families' daily meals is less ideal, and we struggle with some of the same issues regarding nutrition education, and an easy access for all to fresh, locally grown produce. The Elysées gardens are much smaller that the White House's, but the commitment would be no less eloquent.
-Clotilde Dusoulier, author of the award-winning food blog Chocolate & Zucchini and the book Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that 1 in 3 eight-year-olds is on a path to develop Type II diabetes during their lifetimes. How do we get ourselves off this collision course? Teach young people to grow, cook, and eat real food. If the first family will lead the way, we'll steer clear of a health care crisis far bigger than the one we face today.
-Curt Ellis, co-creator of the documentary KING CORN and Food and Society Policy Fellow

As one who has been eating my lawn for more than a quarter of a century, I urge the Obamas to use the megaphone of the White House to enlist others in the cause. Putting an organic food garden on the White House lawn would: make food gardening cooler than having a greensward; demonstrate the productive power of organic growing; teach the young Obamas that it’s fun to grow their own; and—last but by no means least—supply the White House kitchen with the best food available to keep the first family healthy and happy.
-Joan Gussow, Teacher, grower, author The Feeding Web and This Organic Life

Michele and Barack Obama have said that they would like to have an impact on the local communities of their new hometown, Washington D.C. The first step they could make in this regard is to dig up that D.C. soil in their (or rather our) front lawn of the White House. Growing vegetables, fruits and herbs responding to local climate and culture in that space between their house and the street would be a dramatic opening act of localism. It would set an important precedent for all Americans to pay more attention to where we are, starting with the land at our doorstep.

-Fritz Haeg, architect and creator of the Edible Estates project

During World War II, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged Americans to participate in America's Victory Garden movement by planting a vegetable garden on the front lawn of the White House. Inspired by her example, millions of Americans planted gardens. The result? More than 40% of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed during 1943 were produced in school, home and community gardens. Americans are once again ready to garden...but we need our First Family to lead the way.

-Rose Hayden-Smith, University of California garden historian and Food and Society Policy Fellow

Ecologists have long known that industrial agriculture is the greatest single source of human impact on the environment. Increasingly, climate change and energy insecurity pose immediate and existential challenges to our food system. The solution lies in transforming the system to eliminate fossil fuel inputs—by reducing food miles and growing organic. Public education is a key aspect of the food and farming transition, and a garden on the White House lawn would provide a supremely public, symbolic statement about the importance of local, small-scale, sustainable food production.
-Richard Heinberg, author of Peak Everything and Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute

Remember what your high school English teacher always told you? “Show not tell!” A garden on the White House lawn would do more than any pronouncement by politicians to express our nation’s renewed values of sustainability, community, and health. For we know that the industrial food system contributes as much as one-third of the world’s global warming effect and is linked to startling rates of diet related illnesses here at home and around the world. The White House garden would show the American public – and the entire world – that we as a nation are truly committed to honoring the soil and farmers and to getting off the chemical and fossil fuel treadmills of industrial agriculture.

-Anna Lappé, co-author Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen and Hope's Edge , co-founder of the Small Planet Fund

I can't imagine a more pleasing or optimistic image than an organic vegetable garden (with flowers, I should hope!) on the front lawn of the White House. It sends only good messages, those having to do with beauty, health, a sense of time and place, and a deep sense of self-reliance. The impact it would have on children, particularly on those who have garden programs in their schools, to see that yes, the president of our country, and his wife and children, eat from a vegetable garden! Just imagine! (And as a garden stands for ultimate true food security, it should be paid for by the Homeland Security department.)
-Deborah Madison, cookbook author and founding chef of Greens restaurant

Farmers grow food for the public. It's time the public sees the work we do. What better place to witness and understand our shared "public food" than a White House garden?
-Mas Masumoto, organic farmer and author of Epitaph for a Peach

President Obama has already said the solar panels are going back on the White House roof. How much fun it would be to have a great big garden, for something more nutritious than roses, on the White House lawn! All over the world urban gardening is undergoing an incredible renaissance--providing food and providing community for city dwellers everywhere. Washington should be no exception.
-Bill McKibben, author and scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College and co-founder of 350.org

I wholeheartedly support President Obama growing a kitchen garden at the White House. In this time of high food and fuel prices, unemployment, economic crisis, global warming, and many other problems, we need a symbolic act that people can emulate across the country. What could be simpler and more powerful than growing a garden to produce food? This down-to-earth deed can empower and inspire others into action.
-Charlie Nardozzi, author of Vegetable Gardening for Dummies , TV gardening show host

America may have been the country that invented fast food, but now, almost everywhere you look, it is gradually growing into a Slow Food Nation. Today a great many enthusiasts all over the States are promoting the production and consumption of food that is good, healthy, fresh, local, sustainable and fair for the American people. As part of this ‘new deal’, they are recovering the good things from their past and traditions and projecting them into the future. A garden at the White House would not only feed all those who live and work there magnificently; it would also show America and the world that change can also apply to food. This is no utopia, it really can happen.
-Carlo Petrini, president and founder of Slow Food, and author of Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, And Fair

As deeply as Americans feel about their lawns, the agrarian ideal runs deeper still, and making this particular plot of American land productive, especially if the First Family gets out there and pulls weeds now and again, will provide an image even more stirring than that of a pretty lawn: the image of stewardship of the land, of self-reliance and of making the most of local sunlight to feed one’s family and community. The fact that surplus produce from the South Lawn Victory Garden will be offered to regional food banks will make its own eloquent statement.
-Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley and author, most recently, of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

These days, the world cannot afford a president who doesn’t like broccoli or thinks ketchup is a vegetable. Now, more than ever, the time is right for all of us to get our hands in the soil and grow some food to improve the health of our kids and our planet. Our new president and the first family have a huge opportunity to inspire us by their example. An organic garden on the White House lawn will do much to encourage kids and adults to eat more veggies.
-Susan Rubin, founder of Better School Food, a dentist, holistic nutritionist, food educator and activist, mother of 3

The First Garden on the First Lawn would send the right message that the key to good health is healthy and active living. The First Family should be the role model for families in the United States demonstrating the physical activity value of gardening and the nutritional value of consuming fresh, organic food. Malia and Sasha would learn lifelong lessons and adopt lifelong practices that all children would be encouraged to also learn and copy. Our health status is significantly influenced by lifestyle and behavior. The First Family by way of the First Garden can be the first step to putting the nation first in health.
-Eduardo J. Sanchez, MD, MPH, FAAFP, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas

As a healthy food advocate, I was elated when I discovered that Michelle Obama insists that her daughters eat organic food. Now if she would urge President Obama to plant an organic garden on the White House lawn the family would have local, seasonal, and organic food just a few steps away from their kitchen door, and they would be setting an example of one of the best ways for everyday people to save money during these hard economic times—growing their own food.
-Bryant Terry, chef and author of the forthcoming Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine

As we welcome our new president into the White House, President Obama's message of change is evident. We the people want to change our way towards a healthier and greener environment. We as gardeners and farmers would like the opportunity to help transform the White House lawn into an edible garden. Our message is clear: To grow your own food gives you a sense of power and it gives people dignity. You know exactly what you’re eating because you grew it. It’s good, it’s nourishing and you did this for yourself, your family and your community.
-Karen Washington, urban farmer and community activist, Bronx, NY

Local, affordable, nutritious food should be the birthright of all Americans, not just the privilege of a few. Since 1993 I have envisioned a beautiful vegetable garden on the White House grounds. If planted, it would be a victory garden in the truest sense: a demonstration to the world that the American presidency is dedicated to the good stewardship of the land. Supporting seasonal, ripe, delicious, American food would not only nourish the First Family, it would support our farmers and energize the nation.

-Alice Waters, founder, Chez Panisse