White House Plus Garden Equals Farmers Market?
Image by The Kitchen Gardener via Flickr
At a National Health Care Forum earlier today, President Obama did sustainable food advocates proud when he connected the dots between health care reform, prevention & wellness – and locally grown food. But the icing on the cake? His hint that a farmers’ market may soon be coming to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
From the transcript of today’s q&a:
One of the things that we’re trying to do now is to figure out, can we get a little farmers’ market — outside of the White House — I’m not going to have all of you all just tromping around inside — (laughter) — but right outside the White House – (laughter) — so that — so that we can — and — and — and that is a win-win situation.
It gives suddenly D.C. more access to good, fresh food, but it also is this enormous potential revenue-maker for local farmers in the area. And — and that — those kinds of connections can be made all throughout the country, and — and has to be part of how we think about health.
A few months ago, I wrote about the work of Dr. Preston Maring, the ob/gyn behind farmers markets at Kaiser Permanente medical centers in cities around the country. Since 2003, when he founded the first hospital-based farmers market in Oakland, Calif., Maring has been instrumental with markets at 29 additional medical facilities and has led the charge on local food for hospital patients.
I asked Maring what he might say to Obama about health care if given five minutes of the POTUS’s time. Here’s an excerpt from his comments:
“Unless we put a focus on a healthy food system under the base of the pyramid and prevent disease rather than treat it, we’ll never have enough money to pay for it. You’ve got to have a healthy food system. There needs to be a focus on prevention; if we could reach children and begin to turn the tide on obesity, we would have a future population of people who had a much greater chance of living healthier and more productive lives.”
Maybe Maring got that five minutes after all…
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They used to keep sheep on the white house lawn.
Imagine the presidential socks for DC winters.
Obama clearly gets it, understands that government needs to promote and support real food if we want it to be more widely available and affordable to all. The bigger challenge is can he take on the Agri Biz lobby? Maybe after we get healthcare reform, people will realize he does have the political brains and brawn, and the support, to make real change. If only he’d stop kowtowing to the GOPers who have no intention of supporting anything he proposes….
this would certainly be a good start. i’d like to see an approach that’s more integrated with figuring out the population distribution problem. for example, in many suburban (formerly rural) areas, the agricultural productivity is getting paved over with strip malls, etc…
wonder whose pockets are getting lined there?
i fear the ship has failed, but a more more reasonable approach would have been a march toward a full employment model and use extant arable land to grow food and have employment for the local communities. kind of like the Cubans did after our embargoes on all of our pesticides…
so: good start, but i’d like more from the administration.
sorry, “ship has failed” should read “ship has sailed”.
In response to another comment. See in context »I love that the White House garden and potential farmers’ market “normalizes” growing food. While our yards are supposed to be beautifully landscaped, we’re only supposed to use ornamental plants. I grow vegetables and herbs all over my small yard, front and back, and while I’ve never been criticized for it (in fact I get positive feedback from the many neighbors walking by), I get a lot of comments from friends and family that *their* neighbors wouldn’t stand for vegetables out front. If the first family can help change the attitude that growing food is somehow declasse, if they can motivate others to start farmers’ markets in urban areas, if they can model farm to table thinking about food, then I am all in favor of it.
Here in Seattle, you’re now seeing edible beds in the sidewalk in front of single family homes — due to recent legislation. I agree, the more we see food grown by regular folks in urban areas, the more attitudes will change, and the WH’s efforts can only bolster those efforts.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] to do now is to figure out, can we get a little farmers market—outside of the White House,’’ President Obama said at a health care forum in August. The following month, such a market launched a block away from 1600 [...]