White House: Eat the View

Just in case there's some of y'all that haven't heard of this yet. I love the boldness. The pics make me smile. Nice, but with Obama's current trajectory, who knows?

http://www.eattheview.org/

regardless, this topic is bringing out all sorts of in-the-closet-would-be-victory-gardeners. My mom for instance (biological, not the recent amtrak activist) was recently heard saying. "People just don't know how to grow food anymore! We need food in every neighborhood! We need a block watch for people to organize themselves and take care of their needs!"

(if you knew my mom, you'd be equally blown away.)

Recent wise words at a food and justice conference in Seattle, from Sarita
Q: How will we tell people that local, sustainably grown food can feed us better than industrial ag? (or something like that)
A: Physical Tangible EDIBLE evidence!

I hadn't heard of this! too funny. wouldn't that be a superb statement to the country if they did it? maybe would help make self sufficiency a little more "trendy" considering the rock star status of obama. couldn't hurt.

I don't think they want self-sufficiency to be popular.  They've spent a lot of time and money in the last 100 years making us dependent on an very expensive government.

Obama seems to be just rhetoric --- I don't think his actions will indicate anything new in government.

Sue

I totally agree sue. it'll be the same song on a slightly different note. nobody wants to jeopardize their cushy made up job! it is a fun idea though.

What would be really great -- although it will never happen -- would be that the inmates at the White House could only eat food grown on the property.

Sue

it could happen


speaking of the president-to-be, hear this all permies: You know all those young folks, and others, first time to vote, to feel something, really excited to tears about getting this guy in office? Let's do all we can so that they don't get jaded when Obama inevitably disappoints them.

I am so bored of another group of jaded youth retreating to their hidey-holes and not giving a rats ass about the world outside.

I have a few things to say, and a few gardens to show them to, before apathy sets in. And though the phrase may be old to permaculturebella, well it's the first time I heard this permie motto. 'Don't petition, pass the peach'.

(though honestly, i'm a 'diversity of tactics' kind of gal. the above phrase has a nice ring to it)

I hadn't heard that motto! excellent. the older and wiser I get the more I realize the value of "passing the peach".  All the info and statistics in the world aren't as motivational as an experience that drives the point home.

Yeah that is so true.  Pass the Frost Peach in Western WA!  Young folks today are part of the entitlement generation.  We think we are entitled to getting our butts wiped.  And right now we have obama's face printed on our teepee.  I have a ton of friends who say "all my friends call me a hippie, I love it, yay Obama!"  Lets celebrate by getting a new tattoo of a friggin peace sign.  That did a lot for mama earth.  70 bucks that could have bought 3 peach trees! 

I will stop now.

Sometimes there are other ways to get your own way.  I'm near the end of Alcohol Can Be a Gas by David Blume (2007, International Institute for Ecological Agriculture), and he tells about how back in the '70s, he and some others looked into the regulations of beverage production.  They discovered that there was a section for a simplified license for 'experimental distilleries', which looked like a way for small distillers of alcohol to legally produce.  When several of them applied, they were brushed off. 

"So The Mother Earth News and other magazines wrote about alcohol, the immoral busts, and the experimental permit, and encouraged people to apply for the license.  Although no one knows the exact count for sure, best estimates are that over a quarter-million people sent in requests -- and there were only two BATF clerks assigned to process permits.

"When the experimental permit requests were answered, the applicants were told to post a $10,000 bond.  The permit, which required frequent renewal, didn't allow you to sell or give away your fuel and required poisoning the alcohol with chemicals that would actually damage your engine.  When people got this news back from BATF, most folks took their permit and bond applications and burned them under their stills.

"Spurred by public outcry, several members of Congress got into the act, insisting that the BATF cooperate with the budding fuel producers.  Several changes took place:  The government lowered the permit fee to #100 and then finally did away with it altogether.  The bond fee for small plants was dropped, and bonds on medium plants were made quite reasonable.

"It's also legal now to sell or give away your alcohol, as long as it's denatured.  The present denaturing formula requires two gallons of gasoline or diesel to be added to each 100 gallons of alcohol..."

In Chapter 26, he also outlines the steps you can take to convince your local planning commission to issue you a permits. 

He also tells of another distiller/farmer who dug a pond with his bulldozer and put his still on a floating platform made from joists and air-filled 55-gallon drums.  As a "boat", neither the building inspector nor the fire marshall had jurisdiction over his operation. 

Another suggestion was to attach your tank of alcohol on a couple of cheap axles and wheels, making a tank trailer, which puts your tank beyond the jurisdiction of the fire dept. and under that of the highway patrol, which can't do anything unless you take it onto a road, which you wouldn't be doing.

Think and connive.

Sue

ooooh I love conniving. those are great ideas. I wonder if it would fly if you set up a still on an indian reservation.

If you were Native, possibly.  But the rules that govern Native Sovereign Immunity (from prosecution) are rather specific.  I believe that if a special law for Natives says you are immune from certain things due to certain reasons, you CAN be prosecuted if what you're doing are on the list.  Murder, for instance:  Native Sovereign Immunity protects the tribe from being sued if they treat their non-Native employees like dirt, but if they murder one of them, that's against the law, even for them, and they can't hide behind NSI.

Sue

Only natives are allowed to spear fish salmon in western WA.  But any old feller can gig a frog.  Don't even need a hunting or fishing license.

it prob wouldn't work. my thoughts just go with the indian casinos around here. gambling is illegal but the tribes are exempt. sure alot of non tribal peoples gambling there! not quite the same though. 

Did you hear that this is happening?! It was in the NY Times yesterday: Michelle Obama is having fifth graders help her dig up the white house lawn for over 50 kinds of veggies and berries. Her goal is to educate kids, who will tell their families and then have growing healthy food spread to the communities.

Of course, it could be political pressure, and/or presidential policy wonks that have asked the first lady to step in and say this is her project, or maybe this is truly what she wants to do. In any case, it's a cool thing if you ask me!

Eat The View is celebrating and has thank you links. 

And here is the first shoveful of sod being removed:

note from Kelda: okay i admit it, I posted that thing about 'eat the view' but i didn't even vote on it. BUT I will actually vote for this. Carrie is one of my heroes, i'm crossing my fingers I can be her assistant at Mother Earth Farm this coming year, and she would kick ass so totally, so permaculturally, at the white house. It's a long shot, but I'm going to vote anyway.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pierce County's very own Carrie Anne Little is in the running, along with nineteen other farmers nationwide, in a campaign called "Eat the View!", which will urge the Obamas to plant a large organic Victory Garden on the First Lawn, and to appoint an official White House Farmer.  The White House Farmer would be responsible for plowing up the existing lawn and planting and maintaining an organic garden, which would serve the White House kitchen as well as local food banks, as well as promoting organic and local farming nationwide.

Carrie Little is the owner and proprietor of Mother Earth Farm, located on 8 acres of farmland in Orting.  She and Mother Earth Farm have been working with Emergencv Food Network since 2000.  The entire production at the farm is given to local food banks.  In 2007, Mother Earth Farm provided more than 162,000 pounds of organic, locally grown produce, herbs and honey to our neighbors in need.

I encourage everyone reading this to follow the link and vote for Carrie – she epitomizes public service, and deserves to be recognized for all her hard work on behalf of those less fortunate among us.


White House Farmer: http://whitehousefarmer.com/?page_id=119

Emergency Food Network: http://www.efoodnet.org/

Mother Earth Farm: http://www.efoodnet.org/mother_earth.htm

Mother Earth Farm on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mother-Earth-Farm/46596853423

 

and Holy CRAP! She has the most votes right now. It's hardly I ask folks to vote for something for me. Now is one of those times though.

More about how she kicks ass that the email didn't say:
PERMACULTURE
*she is actually growing polycultures on a 'feed the masses' scale. they're simple polycultures, but she's always experimenting with them and expanding.
*she gets her field tilled in the spring by horses.
*she fertilizes with horse poo from a nearby stable (not a pre-mix out of a bag)
*her seed-saving collection is massive and the biggest i've ever seen from a farmer who feeds the masses.
*she has an orchard & bees & lots of herbs alongside the veggies, and Really rotates fallow land (i'm just saying that not all organic farmers do...)

SOCIAL JUSTICE
*somehow she manages to stay so frikkin involved as an activist. gave packets of seeds away at the anti-wto protests, goes to georgia every year to protest the war-mongering School of the Americas, and i've met many of the most progressive radicals in this county through her
*purdy women's prisoners come out to work her fields. women can have their daughters come out and see them while their weeding/harvesting
*is that like slave labor? Carrie has pushed through a program at the prison that allows her women to get credit from UCSantaCruz from working at her farm! they leave prison with Real skills they can use to better the planet
*oh Yeah! all the food goes to food banks, not only that, she's made educational resources for the food banks so that everyone can learn how to cook kale, sunchokes, etc.

WHY SHE'D KICK ASS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
*the most revolutionary thinker disguised as the gentlest most lovable woman.
*she'd feed the obamas, and the housekeepers, and the foreign dignitaries, all this awesome food.
*she wouldn't let them get away with any bullshit on her watch, this may be Very important, i'm just thinking of barack thinking "hm, what would carrie think of such and such plan? I'll go out and ask her."

Well well, I heard Obama's actually going to do it!
Then I get this email:

Dear Family and Friends,

Just a note of deep thanks for all your support.  I am incredibly overwhelmed by the love and connectiveness you all have shared to help make a little voice known from Pierce County.  Please share my gratitude to your families and friends as well, for if it were not for the branches of the trees and the deep, spreading roots, this would never have happened.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Below is the joint statement that myself and Clare Strader produced in response to the election.  I think you'll agree that it's the 'cause' that needs to be brought to light.  Please help us by writing our President, Congressional Representatives and our Senators to move on this action.

Deep peace and love of the emerging seed,

Carrie (Anne) Little

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


It is a great honor for us to be recognized by our communities as potential candidates for the first White House Farmer.  We are thrilled by the possibility of converting a portion of the lovely White House lawn into a lively vegetable farm.  As vegetable, fruit, and flower growers, we know that a well-managed organic farm can be at least as beautiful as a lawn and certainly more engaging, productive, and inspirational.



The fact that so many farmers were nominated for the White House farmer position and that so many individuals voted in this unique "election" speaks loudly to our combined interest in local, organic agriculture.  As is made clear in each farmer's nomination, there are many skilled growers who contribute significantly to local food movement throughout our country.  We are all unique.  We all have a somewhat different focus be it Community Supported Agriculture, or emergency food relief, or youth empowerment.  Still, we share the common cause of feeding our local communities with the freshest, cleanest, most healthy food we can coax from the soil.



Taking personal responsibility to a new level by addressing the core issues of the Obama administration's focus, this farm could be the example for the nation.  It would clearly address economic insecurity, fuel conservation, climate change, and healthcare issues in a very tangible way.  Collectively, this effort could be the center of the cultural shift needed to highlight the imperative that we need to eat locally and think globally.



Together we are working toward a new future of agriculture in our country.  We believe that future is grounded in small-scale, organic food production that meets the nutritional needs of people within reach of the farm and is not shipped from coast to coast at great cost of fuel, freshness, and nutritional value.  With the support of more and more eaters in our communities, that future is coming nearer.  A White House farm and a White House farmer will be powerful symbols for this future of agriculture, not to mention a delicious resource for the DC community.  No matter who becomes the first White House farmer we stand in support of the White House farm project and would be honored to bring our spades and worm castings and hula hoes to join in the effort!



Claire Strader              Carrie (Anne) Little                   

oh yeah, she got it.

(but really 'got it' don't mean much. I mean Obama never said he was really looking for a farmer. It's like applying for a job without that position being open.)

We'll see. We sure would miss her, but she would totally rock it.

Any news on whether this is gonna actually happen?