A History of White House Gardens

Recently we posted an article from the Thrill Dept. about the new vegetable garden and beekeeping scene over on the White House lawn along with a fun video about the history of White House gardens (see below).

Along similar lines, I recently found this nugget of fun on the website of the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens (a truly wonderful place in the Home Borough): First Gardens: An Election Year Primer on the White House Gardens, published last summer. It's well worth reading, and don't miss the part (and the very end) about Ronald Reagan and the sinkhole—priceless and just so achingly metaphoric.

And here's that video I posted last month, in case you missed it:

The Garden of Eatin': A Short History of America's Garden from roger doiron on Vimeo.

Just Food in the New York Times

Spring is here on so many levels. And a welcomed groundswell of attention is being paid to sustainable farming, community-supported agriculture, urban food-growing, and all that good stuff.

We're pleased to see that the Executive Director of Just Food—a NYC-based organization that, among its many other good works, is seeking to get beekeeping legalized in our fair city—is being featured in one of the New York Times' Q&A columns.

So go ahead, Ask About Local Food in New York!

Red Hook, Brooklyn—Agriculture USA

Fab Farmer Gets "Genius Award"

Meet Will Allen, founder of the Milwaukee-based organization, Growing Power. Here's the kind of person America needs more of.

Indeed, with all the nonsense going on lately, it's refreshing to hear a good story about a sane person contributing to the well-being of his community—and the earth—through those most potent of exertions, sustainable ag and yes, community organizing. And naturally, bees are part of the package.

Super-psyched to see Mr. Allen's great work recognized and rewarded by the MacArthur Foundation. Check out this video interview.

Live long and prosper, Will Allen!

Urban Farming

Lovely piece in the Times about urban farms right here in NYC. Check out the gorgeous slideshow, then read the full article, Urban Farmers' Crops Go From Vacant Lot to Market.

Kim Severson Wins "Headline of the Week" Award

Just made that award up off the top of my head, but wouldn't you agree this headline rocks?

An Unlikely Way to Save a Species: Serve it for Dinner

It certainly grabbed my attention—mainly because it got me thinking (again) about the sad and frustrating reality that if we want anything in nature to be protected, we need to first show how it matters to humanoids. Biodiversity for its own sake is a hard if not impossible sell in the context of human narcissism. Biodiversity that yields a clear return in terms the human "consumer" can wrap his/her/its brain (and maw) around—well, that kind of biodiversity has a future. Perhaps.

None of this is to take anything away from the truly noble project of working to protect biodiversity in the agricultural realm. Severson's article provides an excellent 101 on the topic, with a focus on "plants and animals that were once fairly commonplace in American kitchens but are now threatened, endangered or essentially extinct in the marketplace."

The article's inspiration is a very cool new book edited by Gary Paul Nabhan called “Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods” (Chelsea Green Publishing). Nabhan has written many books about endangered foods, biodiversity, and even migratory pollinators.

Severson's piece provides a nice overview of the topic at hand. There's a wonderful infographic on Disappearing Foods throughout Turtle Island, dividing our continent up into gastronomic regions like Salmon Nation, Acorn Nation, Corn Bread Nation, Gumbo Nation, and Clambake Nation. Turns out I reside in Maple Syrup Nation—news to me.

Check out this mind-blowing map and chew awhile on its varied implications. Then go out and plant some Seneca hominy flint corn or start raising a few Tennessee fainting goats. Now that's living!

The Conspiracy Against Locally Grown Produce

A farmer's perspective on the bureaucratic and economic barriers to delivering fresh, wholesome, locally grown fruits and vegetables to your table.

On Seeds and "Human Error"

With fully three-quarters of crop biodiversity "extinctified" in the last 100 years through the infinite wisdom of you-know-who, humankind is hedging its bets with a Global Seed Vault near the arctic.

Buried deep in the permafrost (which global warming may ultimately render not-so-perma), with a bomb-proof entrance, the vault is a repository for crop seeds from all over the world, a kind of biological Plan B in case a natural disaster or "human error" (talk about euphemisms!) wipes out all the seeds on earth.

For more info, check out the New York Times slideshow, or read the article, or see Andrew Revkin's DotEarth blog.

1. Patterns of seeds..., 2. The Seeds of Our Bones, 3. Seeds of Change, 4. Seeds