PHOTOS Green Fingers

[Jackeens]

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WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Michelle Obama welcomed fifth-graders back to the White House garden to harvest lettuce and peas they helped plant in the spring.

Mrs. Obama also joined several of the children in the White House kitchen on Tuesday where they helped prepare a healthy meal using some of the materials from the garden.

She says the meal was a celebration of their hard work in the garden. She says she hopes the garden project is educating people across the county about how what they eat affects how they feel and their health.

Many of the same students from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, D.C., had helped the first lady in planting the vegetable garden.

http://www.fox4kc.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-first-lady-garden,0,3186448.story

[politicasista]

1. I like her necklace!

:)

[Cha]

11. I noticed it too..is it

a little peace sign?..it looks like it. Not use to seeing one that small.

[politicasista]

18. Yep.

It looks great on her.

[Cha]

23. Yes, it does..all

subtle and stuff.

[hileeopnyn8d]

2. Release their names!!!!

;)

Is the First Lady wearing a peace sign necklace? I thought I had a lot of lettuce in my garden! Great photos, thanks!

[JayMusgrove]

3. Mrs COOOL !

We have the coolest First Lady EVER!

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. Hey eyebrows are a little high

...for my taste.

[Aristus]

16. But what lovely long eyelashes she has...

:wow:

[Beacool]

20. They are false eyelashes.

She's worn them before.

;)

[Aristus]

21. Well, if she owns the false eyelashes, then they are still "hers", right?

:P

[Beacool]

22. Semantics..........

:eyes:


:7

[FrenchieCat]

17. Her brother has the same ones......

So it may be that she can't help it.

Would be weird to actually lower one's eyebrow line, now wouldn't it? :shrug:

[JeffR]

19. Au contraire. Since January 20, a lot of DUers had their eyebrow

line lowered. You must have noticed.

[monmouth]

5. Michelle works so hard. Bless her. Mmmmmm, cupcakes....n/t

[Arctic Dave]

6. I want more of number 12. YUM!

[Libby2]

7. The garden looks great!

Look at all of that lettuce....yum.

[lamp_shade]

8. She's sooooo beautiful.

[alsame]

9. Wow, what a garden that is! I love that she keeps bringing the

kids back there to enjoy the results of all their hard work.

[Cha]

10. Those are the sweetest

pics, especially when one loves organic produce like I do! They're all sweet peas.

What an inspiration:9

[Clio the Leo]

12. I believe that's the sweater she wore with Mrs. Reagan....

... for all of my fellow "re-wearing watchers." lol

[Mira]

13. That woman has pizzazz.

Can you even imagine LawraPickles doing anything worthwhile like that.
Eight years of pampered living with grown children and no legacy.
Geez.
(I'm not forgetting something she accomplished, am I?)

[PretzelWarrior]

14. Photo #4. YOWZAHS!! I can't believe that one made it online.

just a little TOO much of a view of our first lady. But yes, very nice pictures.

[firedupdem]

15. Nice to see the garden coming together. Lucky kids...great job

Mrs. Obama and friends!

[hedgehog]

24. While I give Michelle full credit for planting the garden and extra points

for going organic, I can't help but believe this is the closest this city girl has ever been to actual dirt! I mean, c'mon, how many real gardeners get dressed like that to go out and pull weeds! ;) She does look great, and I'm sure she's got a lot of people planting gardens who would never have done so before.

[FailureToCommunicate]

25. Michelle IS dressed correctly for what she's doing: hosting very important guests at

her house: future leaders.
(And so what if she may not have gardened before. We didn't all grow up in the country.)

[hedgehog]

29. The internet doesn't allow for the nuance of real conversation.

Michelle is doing us all a real service by encouraging organic gardening and suggesting that a vegetable garden can be a beautiful part of any home landscape. But any garden that looks that good takes a lot of time and effort on a daily basis. Ask anyone who has ever returned from a two week vacation to find their paradise turned into a weed filled jungle! Michelle has a lot of responsibilities and she isn't always in Washington. She may spend some time on that garden, but someone else is doing the bulk of the work.

I guess the :eyes: is really for the talking heads who believe that Michelle does all the work and dresses like this when she does!

[Beaverhausen]

26. Stryofoam cups?

I applaud the garden but can't they find something else?

[Cha]

27. Did ya'll see the letter Michelle got from the "Industry" that

was prompted by these beautiful pictures? It's over in LBN..

BlueJessamine (848 posts) Wed Jun-17-09 07:56 AM
Original message

Industry is critical of Michelle Obama's organic garden
Source: Politico

Michelle Obama entertained some fifth-grade students from Washington’s Bancroft Elementary School at a late lunch Tuesday in the first lady’s garden. It was a harvest celebration, with ingredients from the kitchen garden the children helped get started in March, coming back in April to plant the seeds.

Kids, gardens, seeds and organic vegetables would normally make for a pretty safe and innocuous White House event, even given today’s hothouse atmosphere in the nation’s capital. But the symbolic importance of an organic garden on the South Lawn, visible from the iron fence on E Street, has blossomed in ways no one could have expected. It has not only spurred many to have their own home garden — it has also clearly put a scare into conventional agriculture, which has fought back.

Obama’s stated purpose — to highlight the importance of a healthful diet for children and how much easier it is to get children to eat from their least favorite food group, vegetables, when produce is just out of the ground — was quickly transposed upon a much larger playing field.

No sooner had the garden been announced than a letter addressed to Mrs. Barack Obama arrived at the East Wing from an organization that represents companies selling chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The Mid America CropLife Association, an agribusiness media group, urged the first lady to give conventional agriculture equal time. Referring to chemicals the group euphemistically called “crop protection products,” the letter said not only are such nonorganic techniques necessary, but their safety is also “supported by sound scientific research and innovation.”





Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23838.html


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snip:

Jeffrey Stier, a spokesman for the American Council on Science and Health, a group that accepts corporate funding from Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s and PepsiCo and generally sides with industries’ positions on health and environmental hazards, to be interviewed about the White House garden:

“I think the Obama garden should come with a warning label,” he continued. “It’s irresponsible to tell people that you should have to eat organic and locally grown food. Not everyone can afford that. That’s a serious public health concern.”

His reasoning: “People are going to eat fewer fruits and vegetables. Cancer rates will go up. Obesity rates will go up. I think if we decide to eat only locally grown food, we’re going to have a lot of starvation.”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3926895

[gauguin57]

28. That food, and those cuppy-cakes, are making me drool.

Mrs. Obama, please pass some of that stuff across a couple of state lines into Pennsylvania. Yum!