The White House Kitchen Garden and the power of symbolism

Soon after he was elected President, Barack Obama appeared on Meet the Press to say that he’d like to "open up the White House, and remind people that this is the people's house."

Roger Doiron, for one, was determined to take him at his word. Mr. Doiron spent a decade in Europe, running a grass-roots environmental group called Friends of the Earth. Today, he lives in Scarborough, Maine, in a little Cape Cod house with a white picket fence, where both his front and back yards are planted with vegetables and herbs. In 2003, Mr. Doiron founded Kitchen Gardeners International, a nonprofit virtual community of 10,000 gardeners from 100 countries, who inspire and teach people the importance of growing their own food.

“We’re trying to reframe the backyard in terms of global sustainability, without losing any of the fun,” says Mr. Doiron. He wants to reach “people out there who are concerned about peak oil, or the gardening gastronomes who want the freshest food possible…or the people who…are thinking, you know what? I can do some of this myself.”

Today, Mr. Doiron must be feeling particularly good. When Michelle Obama picked up a shovel and pitchfork yesterday and dug into a section of the White House lawn—in front of numerous cameras and reporters, no less—Roger Doiron could claim a very satisfying victory. It was his proposal, after all, Eat My View, which, back in February 2008, challenged the Presidential candidates to plant a vegetable garden on the White House lawn. Via an earnest and savvy marketing campaign on his website, Eat My View drew endorsements from the great chef, Alice Waters and the writer Michael Pollan, amassed a roster 100,000 petitions from ordinary Americans, and gained enough recognition to make its way to the Oval Office, and, yesterday, onto the White House lawn.

“This would not be a quaint little garden for the White House chef,” Mr. Doiron said last year. “I have something fairly ambitious in mind, that would make a powerful political statement — a garden large enough to cover most of what the White House needs, with an overflow to a local food pantry."

A White House Kitchen Garden may seem like a novel idea, and will, no doubt, draw the ire of cynics. But, in fact, it’s a venerable tradition. John Adams planted a garden to feed his family; President Woodrow Wilson had sheep grazing on the White House lawn, while his wife, Edith, planted vegetables with which she hoped to inspire students to grow food in their schools and communities. More famously, and recently, Eleanor Roosevelt grew a vegetable garden on White House grounds, and can take partial credit for the fact that by the end of the World War II, 40% of the country’s produce was being grown in the gardens of average American citizens.

In an age when obesity, diabetes and hypertension have risen to the level of national health crises; a global economic meltdown is pushing food prices ever upwards; and produce is increasingly being flown in from distant shores, the symbolism of a sizable, viable vegetable garden rising from the ground in front of cameras, on the world stage, cannot be overstated.

For proponents of healthy eating, this moment has been a long time coming. Chefs, farmers, and avid gardeners have long yearned for a White House vegetable garden. Alice Waters, a leader in the local and organic food movement, has lobbied the White House to plant such a garden for more than a decade. "Fresh, wholesome food is the right of every American," Waters said. "This garden symbolizes the Obamas' commitment to that belief."

But make no mistake: this is most certainly not just a symbolic garden. Anyone who’s grown vegetables in small urban spaces or in pots on tiny back decks will tell you that an 1,100-square-foot plot is a very sizable area, capable of yielding a LOT of produce. The White House (organic) garden is to be comprised of 55 different vegetables, fruit, berries and herbs, and will exist year round, with the crops changing with the seasons. The garden will be used for the First Family’s meals, office functions, and will see a portion of its yield donated to Miriam's Kitchen, a soup kitchen near the White House. (Oh, and there will be a beehive for fresh honey as well).

The fact that Michelle Obama has been able to frame the issue of growing vegetables in real (versus symbolic) terms—she wants her daughters to eat more natural, healthy food, and she wants them to know where their food comes from—makes the decision to plant vegetables at the White House seem so sensible and smart that one has to wonder why, exactly, it took this very modern First Family to see the value in reviving an outdated, but truly worthy, tradition. There are so many undeniably practical reasons for growing your own food: the heatlh benefits of fresh and pesticide-free produce, the cost-effectiveness of going outside and plucking your evening meal, the gratification of realizing that your body and hands are still capable of doing something great.

But as with anything the President does, symbolism looms large. Mr. Obama has often said that words matter.  And, clearly, symbols do as well.  Mr. Obama's decision to listen to Roger Doiron and the 100,000 people who endorsed Eat My View; his decision to stick to his word and "open up the White House, and remind people that this is the people's house,” is a symbol of no small significance. It is, in fact, a delightfully huge one.