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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Michelle Obama, locavore
  • Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:21:52 -0700



Michelle Obama, locavore
First Lady promotes 'fresh and local and delicious' veggies at state dinner
by Tom Philpott at 2:33 PM on 24 Feb 2009
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2009/2/24/143310/198

I wish I could "friend" Michelle Obama -- in real life, not on MyFace or
whatever that thing is called.

Last week, she sent a verbal Valentine to community gardens. More recently,
she snuck a bunch of reporters into the White House kitchen, where she
sang the praises of local food. According to a New York Times report, the
First Lady served up a discourse worthy of the Berkeley sustainable-food
doyenne Alice Waters:

When food is grown locally, [Obama] said, "oftentimes it tastes really
good, and when you're dealing with kids, you want to get them to try that
carrot."

"If it tastes like a real carrot, and it's really sweet, they're going
to think that it's a piece of candy," she continued. "So my kids are more
inclined to try different vegetables if they are fresh and local and
delicious."

Now, some wags might protest that, as the Times reports, Wagyu beef
appeared on the menu that night. Was it imported all the way from Japan?
Fed on grass -- or industrial corn? Why isn't the White House sourcing beef
from celebrated, pastured-based nearby farms like Polyface?

All legit questions, but ... when can we come by and perform a
perfection-check on your fridge and larder?

I like Ms. Obama, not just because she can wax Waters-esque about carrots.
I also admire her sharp critical edge -- the one she displayed during the
campaign, when she made her famous speech about being proud of America for
the first time in a while.

She got pilloried by cable TV hosts and muzzled by campaign handlers, but
she had a point: 30 years of stagnant wages, a Ponzi-like financial system
reliant on a series of absurd bubbles, a hollowed-out education system, the
buildout of a high-profit, low-nutrition, high-polluting food system, the
willlful refusal to address vital issues like climate change...

As Ms. Obama finds her sea legs aboard the good ship White House, I hope
she continues to explore her inner locavore -- and season it with a dash of
critical political/economic thought.





  • [Livingontheland] Michelle Obama, locavore, Tradingpost, 03/13/2009

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