TheWhoFarm’s SF Victory Garden Soap Box Speech
YouTube excerpt (courtesy Slow Food Nation)
Good afternoon Slow Food Nation! My name is Daniel Bowman Simon. I am the international ambassador for the good thing at The White House Organic Farm Project also known as TheWhoFarm.
I don’t need to tell you about the challenges we face in our short and long term future. And I don’t need to remind you that a good, nutritious breakfast is essential to a productive day.
I hope you all agree that if the “leader of the free world” is to properly address the challenges we face collectively, he is going to need to be eating a good, nutritious breakfast every day, and lead our nation by example.
So, let me suggest, that the way to ensure our next Commander-in-Chief starts the day right, that we have a president who eats right to think straight, is to plant an organic farm right there, on the lawn of The White House.
Now, this is not just any ordinary suggestion. You see, in February, I was fortunate enough to hear Alice Waters speak in New York City, as she accepted her 2008 Global Environmental Citizen Award from The Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment.
In her acceptance speech, she spoke of two urgent dreams…that every American school have an edible schoolyard, and that the President once again dine from his or her own garden. These dreams resonated with everyone in the room, and I personally became obsessed with helping Alice realize her dreams.
And in many fruitful conversations that followed, it became clear to me that the means to ensuring that we, the people, have that organic farm on the lawn of the White House, no matter who is elected, is to launch a grass-roots, non-partisan petition-based campaign, to respectfully request that The White House Organic Farm (aka TheWhoFarm) be planted on the grounds of The White House, our nation’s First home, the home we, the people, the taxpayers, share collectively together.
Now, just like any good dish, there needs to be a good recipe for TheWhoFarm.
And so today, in unity with Slow Food Nation and with the San Francisco Victory Garden in our sights with the an incredible illustrative example, TheWhoFarm is finally launching a petition, complete with the recipe for success.
To the 44th President of the United States of America:
We, the people, respectfully request that an organic farm be planted on the grounds of The White House, at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC.
The White House Organic Farm (aka TheWhoFarm) will be a model for healthy, economical and sustainable living everywhere. It will serve as an educational tool and economic aid, and as a means to provide food security in the Nation’s Capitol. It will reconnect the Office of the Presidency to the self-sufficient agricultural roots of America’s Founding Fathers.
The White House Organic Farm Recipe
Article I: The Farmers
Public school children and Americans with disabilities will work The White House Organic Farm, setting an example for the world of hands-on learning and fostering an independent, do-it-yourself work ethic.
Article II: The Eaters
The White House Organic Farm’s harvest will provide fresh food for the President, the President’s family, and the President’s distinguished guests. Just as importantly, it will also supply healthy food to public school lunch programs and food pantries in Washington, DC.
Article III: The Delivery
Food from The White House Organic Farm will be delivered to local public schools and food pantries by volunteers on foot and by bicycle, at a net-zero cost to U.S. taxpayers.
Article IV: The Seeds
The White House organic farmers will plant a diverse mix of heirloom seeds passed down from Thomas Jefferson’s farm at Monticello and seeds donated by American farmers and gardeners, to celebrate both the rich agricultural traditions of the Office of the President and the passions of everyday Americans for working her fertile and bountiful land.
Article V: The Soil
The White House Organic Farm will use healthy topsoil, nourished by compost supplements from yard and food waste from all three branches of the federal government; from The White House, from The United States Capitol, and from The United States Supreme Court.
So, how does that sound, Slow Food Nation?
Are you all ready to visit www.TheWhoFarm.org to sign the petition?
So here’s our plan from now until our next president takes office:
TheWhoFarm is traveling across the highways and back roads of America to schools, churches, festivals, and farms, on TheWhoFarmMobile, parked right over there, an upside down double-decker school bus with a very experimental organic farm on the roof, to bring our message loud and clear.
Before I let you know how you can do more than just sign the petition to help realize the dreams of Alice Waters and TheWhoFarm, I’m going to briefly hand the mic over to Casey Gustowarow, one of my best friends and favorite farmers, who I met in the Peace Corps, and who is celebrating his 27th birthday today!
He is the person responsible for planting TheWhoFarmMobile, driving TheWhoFarmMobile, and perhaps most importantly, cooking delicious meals for the passengers on TheWhoFarmMobile.
…
Thank you Casey.
To make sure that TheWhoFarm is planted as soon as our next President moves into The White House, we need everyone here to sign the petition, tell your neighbors, and friends.
Please, send letters to the editors of your local papers, and to our national media, alerting them to TheWhoFarm! And please let us know if there are places we MUST visit, people we must reach out to, etc etc. And at the risk of needing to apologize to our Slow Food Nation hosts, please feel free to throw us a couple of beans, to help us feed the tank of TheWhoFarmMobile, and to feed our own hungry bellies….as we sow the seeds of what might just become the most visible and influential Community Supported Agriculture project this world has ever seen.
Let me just end with by quoting a couple of folks who ate from the land at The White House.
In 1785, Thomas Jefferson, wrote in a letter to his friend John Jay, “Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.”
And last but not least, a woman who led by example, who inspired my own grandmother and the nation-at-large to plant victory gardens during World War II, First Lady and an honorary WhoFamer herself, Eleanor Roosevelt, who promised that “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
Thank you again to Alice Waters for dreaming aloud, and for planting the seeds of TheWhoFarm.
Thank you Alice Waters!
Viva TheWhoFarm!
God Bless Slow Food Nation!
And God Bless America!
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