By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

MADISON, Wis. — What are the chances of a Midwestern gal being hired to manage an organic garden on the White House’s South Lawn? Probably as likely as the South Lawn getting such a garden in the first place.

Ever hopeful, tens of thousands of voters cast their ballots at www.whitehousefarmer.com online, putting Wisconsinite Claire Strader at the top of a list of national candidates for the potential position of White House Farmer. It’s not a new cabinet post, and there’s no assurance or indication President Obama will even create the job – or the garden – but those voters and website originator Terra Brockman are hopeful.

“It’s been amazing,” Brockman said of running the site. “Nothing happened for two months, and then it’s all snowballed in the last few weeks.”

On Oct. 9, 2008, journalism professor and author Michael Pollan published an essay in The New York Times Magazine, in which he opined the cash and environmental costs of farming, and security issues, are forcing communities to get back to more local food production. In it, he called upon the new president to convert part of the White House property into food production as an example to Americans.

And it’s not just Pollan and Eleanor Roosevelt and her World War II “Victory Gardens” movement that inspired Brockman, founder of The Land Connection, which helps farmers establish and maintain sustainable farms in and around Illinois. She explained having a food garden at the president’s home goes back further than the 1940s.

Such gardens were called “War Gardens” and “Potato Patches;” Woodrow Wilson even had sheep on the property, she said. In the first several decades of the United States presidency, there was a food garden at their residence. In 1857, a greenhouse was put in where the West Wing now is. Perhaps the most famous presidential gardener was Thomas Jefferson, who kept extensive notes.

Brockman showed Pollan’s article to her father, Herman, a third-generation farmer in Iroquois County, Ill., whose other children and grandchildren also work the land. He suggested national nominations and polling as an interactive exercise to get other citizens to take notice, and she created the website.

“It was never meant to be ‘official,’” she said of the online election for White House Farmer, which ended Jan. 31 – though she admitted it would be great if Obama did hire Strader or one of the other farmers website readers picked.

“I think whatever the president does is a signal, it sends a message that it’s important,” Brockman added.
She pointed to Obama’s remarks about wanting to adopt a shelter dog for his daughters, if possible, and said it sparked a wave of interest through the country for shelter pets. She’s hoping for similar reaction should Pollan’s and her suggestions reach that high.

There is some indication for support of Brockman’s ideas, if not yet her specific movement – two weeks ago, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack broke ground on returning 1,250 square feet of paved ground in Washington, D.C., to green space called The People’s Garden. It “will include a wide variety of garden activities including Embassy window boxes, tree planting and field office plots. The gardens will be designed to promote ‘going green’ concepts,” according to the USDA.

“It is essential for the federal government to lead the way in enhancing and conserving our land and water resources,” said Vilsack. “President Obama has expressed his commitment to responsible stewardship of our land, water and other natural resources, and one way of restoring the land to its natural condition is what we are doing here today.”

An experienced activist

Bob Gragson, executive director of Community Groundworks at Troy Gardens in Madison – of which Strader is farm manager – said she did not grow up on a farm but oversees the growing and land management of 26 acres. This is part of 31 acres converted by the Madison Area Community Land Trust over the last eight years from rundown property into an urban farm and residences.

He said she oversees not only the organic no-till acres, but also the paid interns, employees and volunteer workers who do the tending.
The property is divided into: land for community supported agriculture (CSA), 190 small community gardens tended by residents, a natural area of prairie grass and woodland and on- and off-site educational gardening programs for adults and children.
Community Groundworks nominated Strader because of her commitment to education about the importance of local food security. “A lot of what we’re about is just that,” Gragson said. “(Farming is) a lost skill for a lot of people. We’re very much a believer people need to be growing food at home.

“It would be very hard for us to give her up,” he added, on the chance the president would want to appoint her as his personal farmer. “If they wanted her (though), she’d go in a heartbeat … What the actual outcome will be, I couldn’t tell you.”

He said the website election process has been exciting for the Troy community, for the possibility one of their own could be helping advise the president on food issues. He explained Strader is already being called upon by organizations outside Madison to talk about her experiences.

Brockman said she is brainstorming with the three top vote-getters (Strader and two women from Washington state and California) to put together a proposal. They have contacts in D.C. but need to decide who might be best to actually get this proposal before Obama for consideration.

She encourages those who support her to contact their federal representatives. Even if one of her website’s candidates isn’t chosen, Brockman would be happy to see someone appointed White House Farmer, and would like a chance to share suggestions for a garden, organic or otherwise.

“It made sense (in the past), and we think it makes sense now, for different reasons,” she said.

Gragson agreed. He said Americans should start becoming more local in their food staples now – instead of relying heavily upon groceries that travel an average of 1,500 miles to their store – “or we can pay a real price later.”