>If Mrs. Obama's vegetable garden encourages others to grow more of their own food, then she's doing everyone a big favor and leading by example.<
HappyFood, if her garden serves as a way to teach people that they can grow wholesome veggies without expensive (and potentially dangerous) synthetic chemicals, than she'll have, indeed, done the country a big favor.
I doubt, however, that she'll actually encourage others to grow more of their own food. The economic climate is taking care of that all by itself.
Anytime there is economic uncertainty, the number of people who grow all or part of their own food goes up exponentially. You may have noticed, for instance, the greater number of seeds and gardening supplies available everywhere; and the number of TV ads for gardening related products (many of which are shucks, it's true), etc. That's because the folks who produce such things were already aware that gardening would explode this year.
I've seen it myself, with the incredible increase in folks calling me about buying heirloom seed. And with the numbers who appear at any of my gardening and heirlooms seminars and presentations.
But it's not a new phenomanon. Home gardening has been an economic trailing indicator for a long, long time.  |