The White House Organic Garden: Helpful or Hypocrisy?

As I was gathering information for my recent post Our Contaminated World: Making Nature Illegal, I ran across and bookmarked this website, The Who Farm, which hoped to encourage the White House to plan an organic garden.

Imagine my surprise to see Michelle Obama actually breaking ground the other day, to the delight of the media, a class of 5^th graders and a lot of well-meaning folks out there.

Frankly the timing is suspicious considering the very hot current topic of bill HR 875. This bill, otherwise known as The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, was introduced by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in February. Her husband is Stanley Greenburg, who works for Monsanto, wouldntcha know. This bill threatens the very legality of organic farming, and the outcry is far and loud across the less mainstream Internet. Here is one typical discussion, but one can find raised hackles all over the place.

So is this Obama family garden plot a little publicity aimed to steer the public away from the truth about the administration’s apparent position on big ag? It raised an eyebrow over at Cryptogon, and forums are quickly picking up on the hypocrisy. It seems outrageous to clamor over the wonderfulness of a White House organic garden without at least mentioning the pending bill and its surrounding controversy.

This bill is sought by the current administration in response to recent food safety issues. The tragic problem of tainted food – spinach, peanut butter, etc – is creating quite a convenient ‘solution’. Could it be just another thing to add to the list of the dialectical chess game currently being played by the Oligarchy and the powers-that-be, in order to further consolidate and empower a centralized control mechanism? Namely, and likely, the The Codex Alimentarius and its current offshoots. An interesting podcast about the Codex can be found over at Red Ice Creations with Scott Tips of the National Health Federation, which seeks to protect individual rights to use dietary supplements and alternative health therapies without government restriction. Dad 2059 has been talking about it for awhile now, and has some interesting links and discussion.

It reminds me of another recent issue of contaminated toys from China, which led to, of course, The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which now requires rigorous, and expensive, testing of all materials in children’s products. While some large American toy manufacturers are seeing their sales improve due to the new regulations, smaller crafters and second hand stores are going out of business by the dozen.

The Oligarchy is slowly but surely wiping out the little guys, all in the name of safety. Wonder how it got to be that way in the first place?

One wonders about Mrs. Obama’s position on HR 875, and whether she has discussed it with the hubby. Perhaps, as Cryptogon tentatively hopes, it’s her way of speaking out against HR 875. Maybe there are some interesting discussions going on in the White House living quarters at night.

Or, perhaps it’s just a ruse. One certainly wonders what she thinks about the monster likely behind the bill, Monsanto, their terminator seed technology and the suicides of thousands of farmers around the world.

“Organic” doesn’t necessarily mean not genetically modified. Therefore one naturally also wonders if the White House will be using heirloom non-GMO seeds, and if so, whether they plan on also saving the seeds they harvest themselves, which is the irreplaceable link in the chain to true sustainable living and survival. Teaching organic farming to 5^th graders without mentioning this is like leaving fractions out of math class.

And if the White House IS growing heirloom tomatoes and saving seeds, for example, I reiterate: how now, brown cow??

While the White House garden is a good thing to see, as it may encourage others to go out there and grow a few veggies themselves, it sure would be extra-refreshing to see someone there speak out on the issue of non-GMO seeds and the seemingly hypocritical bill which is well on its way to further controlling and restricting the choices and freedoms of our natural heritage.

When taxes are too high, people go hungry.

When the government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit.

Act for the people’s benefit.

Trust them; leave them alone.

Tao Te Ching # 75

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