First lady's organic garden concerns chemical firms

[amyrose2712]

(snip)

But MACA, which represents agribusinesses like Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences and DuPont Crop Protection, is rather less thrilled about the fact that no chemicals will be used to grow the crops. The group is worried that the decision may give consumers the wrong impression about conventionally grown food.

“We live in a very different world than that of our grandparents. Americans are juggling jobs with the needs of children and aging parents,” the letter states. “The time needed to tend a garden is not there for the majority of our citizens, certainly not a garden of sufficient productivity to supply much of a family’s year-round food needs.”

(snip)

Although pesticides or chemical fertilizers won’t be used on the White House garden, Camille Johnston, spokeswoman for the first lady, said Mrs. Obama wanted to plant the garden to promote the eating of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet.

MACA members just want a little love pointed their way: “As you go about planning and planting the White House garden, we respectfully encourage you to recognize the role conventional agriculture plays in the U.S. in feeding the ever-increasing population, contributing to the U.S. economy and providing a safe and economical food supply.”

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/first-ladys-organic-garden-concerns-chemical-companies-2009-04-09.html

[ThomWV]

1. Good, I am pleased to know of their concerns, now they can go fuck themselves.

Feed yourself poisons and see where it gets you.

[spanone]

6. if only i could recommend your thread, i would

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. LOL! You have a way with words, and yes, I agree with you nt

[Renew Deal]

2. Yes, companies that poison their food to make it grow, and hire illegals to avoid paying taxes

and treat animals worse than shit are worried about the message being sent by the White House garden.

[liberalmuse]

3. Dow needs to STFU, and...

clean up that bigger-than-texas plastic island they dumped in the ocean.

[DainBramaged]

4. Agribusiness can go fuck themselves.

[Skidmore]

5. What passes for agriculture now

is certainly not conventional. What is safe about foods loaded with pesticides and chemical fertilizers?

[L0oniX]

7. What will happen when the garden cross pollinates with Monsanto seed?

[justabob]

8. monsanto will sue them nt

[amyrose2712]

9. Monsanto will steal them. nt

[Solon]

12. Monsanto will do both...

Sorry, just wanted to be part of the crowd.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

11. K&R! nt

[arikara]

13. How they get away with calling what they do "conventional"

is beyond me. Poisoning the ground and air has only been around for a few decades, frankenseeds even less time.

Conventionally... people composted, mulched, and companion planted with their own saved and traded seeds.

[CoffeeCat]

14. Sounds like these companies are afraid that....

...Michelle and the White House garden will spark many Americans into planting gardens.

If our First Lady can inspire enough people to grow their own food--why that would cut into the profits
of these chemical companies.

Didn't neighborhoods and families plant "Victory Gardens" during WW I and WW II--in an effort to increase the country's food
supply? There was a lot of pride and joy surrounding these gardens, and the practice really caught on.

I think this is precisely what these poison-producing companies are so worried about.

They know the power of our First Lady. They know she inspires. They don't want this practice to catch on--which might
cut into their coffers.

Also--you can bet that if this statement was issued publicly--a much harsher, more threatening statement was delivered by
these thugs in person.

The brazen behavior of these corporations is beyond the pale.

[librechik]

15. Dang, I thought that was from The Onion

they are truly inhuman.

[progressoid]

16. Oh Boo Fuckin Hoo.

[Orsino]

17. You know you're doing something right...

...when you annoy Monsanto, Dow and DuPont.

[varelse]

18. Mrs. Obama wanted to plant the garden to promote the eating of fruits and vegetables

Makes me wonder... did they even stop to think that this promotion of agricultural products (fruits and vegetables) could also be a GOOD thing for their industry?

[eilen]

26. Let's see,

so far the Obamas have said "grow good food" "eat good food", go to school and increase your skills and education (paraphrased), exercise, be attentive parents, .... obviously they are baby hating communists.:sarcasm:

[slay]

19. Fuck Dow, DuPont and Monsanto - three of the most EVIL corporations to ever exist!

Based on year 2000 data,<34> researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute determined that Dow Chemical was ranked eleventh among corporations in a measure of toxicity of airborne pollutants emitted in the United States, releasing more than 14 million pounds of toxins into American air in that year. (The statistics given are not correlated to the volume of production.)<35> According to United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) documents Dow has some responsibility for 96 of the United States' worst Superfund toxic waste dumps, in tenth place by number of sites. One of these, a mining site, is listed as the sole responsibility of Dow

more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Chemical#Dioxin_Leaks

DuPont Fined for Teflon Cover-Up
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will fine Teflon maker DuPont $16.5 million for two decades' worth of covering up studies that showed it was polluting drinking water and newborn babies with an indestructible chemical. It was EWG's petition that sparked EPA's lawsuit against DuPont. The fine is the largest administrative fine the EPA has ever levied under a weak toxic chemical law. However, the $16.5 million fine is less than half of one percent of DuPont's profits from Teflon from this time period, and a fraction of the $313 million the agency could have imposed. Yet another reason to strengthen our toxic chemical laws, which EWG is launching a campaign to do.

more: http://www.dupontsucks.com/

An Alabama jury has found that Monsanto Co. engaged in "outrageous" behavior by releasing tons of polychlorinated biphenyl into the city of Anniston and covering up its actions for decades, handing 3,500 local residents a huge victory in a landmark environmental lawsuit.

more: http://www.ethicalinvesting.com/monsanto/news/10074.htm

And finding those just took me about 2 minutes - there is much, much, much more wrong with every one of these fuckers. :grr:

[truedelphi]

41. Thank you for posting, and also, thanks, Michelle n/t

[Quantess]

20. I'm sorry, but Americans don't need any more reminders to use chemicals in their home gardens.

We already get a strong message that our yards and gardens will be inadequate without harsh chemicals.

I briefly worked at a big box home improvement store, in the Garden Department, and I remember all the customers who had the idea that the stronger the chemicals, the better. Just walking back and forth past those noxious products gave me a mild headache and queasiness. There was a very pregnant woman in Garden Dept who quit when she had a miscarriage, and I wouldn't be surprised if the miscarriage was triggered by the exposure to the garden chemicals.

[amyrose2712]

21. I wonder who ever came up with the idea ...

of a bright green freshly manicured lawn anyway.

[Quantess]

22. it's part of the suburban "American dream".

I didn't even mention the customers who were frustrated with weeds, who just wanted a chemical to magically get rid of the weeds and not kill anything else. They didn't want to listen to me tell them they need to pull the weeds by hand because the herbicides would kill their nice plants, too.

Or the customers who wouldn't listen to me when I said they shouldn't use certain pesticides on their fruit trees, not even when it said so on the label.

They would ask questions, hoping to hear, "Go ahead and use the strongest chemicals! This chemical will solve all your problems! The stronger the better!"

When I did not tell them what they wanted to hear, they would wait quietly until I walked away, then grab the too-strong chemicals and head to the cashier.

[jmowreader]

29. And how many of these complaints did you get?

"I bought this bottle of Roundup Plus here, sprayed it on my dandelions, and now I've got all these dead spots in my lawn. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?"

Okay, let me get this straight: Roundup Plus says right on the bottle it is capable of killing trees. You sprayed it on your grass. What the hell did you THINK was going to happen?

[Quantess]

33. Nobody came back and complained, as far as I know.

But we also had customers who complained that nothing would grow in their yards. They bought all kinds of nice shrubs and trees, and they all would die.

I didn't work there long enough to see whether they were the same people a year later...or maybe their previous homeowners were the ones who were herbi/pesticide-happy.

However, I was able to convince a few customers with moss problems to try sweetening their soil first with Super Sweet, before resorting to the harsh moss killers.

It just got tiresome, though, to know that so many people's first instincts are to dump tons of chemicals on their yards, without thinking of less harsh solutions first.

[jmowreader]

35. The best Garden complaint I ever heard...

Someone bought bundles of pine straw, took them home, cracked open the bundles and found a live rattlesnake in one of them. We refunded his money AND we even let him keep the snake!

[Quantess]

36. LOL. Hey, if it's good enough for a rattlesnake to lie around in, it's quality stuff.

:D

[old mark]

23. Bullshit. We have been growing our vegies organiclly since we started

gardening 15 years ago. We have beans, tomatoes and salad greens, may try onions this year, also growing organic figs and blueberries. We have a small row house and a small yard behind it, have more than we can eat most years.
Froze figs last October and just used the last of them yesterday.
Takes very little time, and is relaxing and enjoyable.
Hey Monsanto - fuck you!

mark

[havocmom]

24. Good! It means she is planting more than vegetables and herbs!

She is planting IDEAS. Good on 'er!

I still insist the best science, sociology, philosophy lesson we can give our kids is the garden.
They learn natural sciences, how to do experiments, how to be a part and share work, bounty, and how to be hopeful and patient. Most important: they learn that the way things are is not how you have to accept them, you can work and make your corner of the world a little better for yourself and others. Kids can learn to be more active in their own lives instead of just being consumers led around by corporations.

That SHOULD scare the crap out of corporate life, as practiced these days. People growing up able to think and take care of their own needs destroys the choke hold corporations have one us all.

Growing a garden is about a lot more than fresh produce. Kudos to the inspirational Michelle Obama for knowing that and putting it into action.

[KT2000]

25. Kick

for something that shows real progress! Good for the Obama's!

[ima_sinnic]

27. organic gardening takes less time than chemical gardening and is virtually free

when I think of the difference between my lush, busy garden with vegetables and flowers planted in a hodgepodge, all diverse and interacting, with heavy mulch preventing weeds and breaking down into food for the soil, NOT providing a handy monoculture for pest insects but rather plenty of resource for their natural enemies, contrasted with my neighbor's depressing-looking garden with poison white powder residue on the veggies, naked, dry, gray-looking soil most likely having very few worms and little life of any kind--and the time they had to waste weeding and rototilling between rows (had to make the rows 3 feet wide to fit the tiller--what a waste of space!) -- well, the difference was obvious. They had a problem with dryness and had to spend time watering, too. Hay mulch is king.

[Quantess]

28. Do you compost?

I keep a compost bin under the kitchen sink for food scraps and coffee grounds. Every few days or so I take it out to the "Earth Machine" outdoor compost bin.

That, combined with the fact we recycle, means that our household of two people has one garbage bag per week. I think that's pretty good.

[ima_sinnic]

31. I haven't been lately, just throw veggie scraps directly into the garden

to prevent undue "messiness," I push aside the mulch and scatter stuff under it, or dig a couple of little holes here and there and bury it a little.
I remember back in the 70s a woman named Ruth Stout published a little book, "Gardening Without Work," about how she never bothered with a compost pile, but simply stuck organic waste under cabbage leaves and so on. She also relied heavily on mulch.

However, I'm house hunting now and once I get a place of my own, I plan to go back to composting, simply because I do like that fabulous black compost.

Great on the recycling and so few garbage bags! I too have few--as a single person, I go to the dump about twice a month with one garbage bag or two at the most.

[Quantess]

39. That's what I used to do.

But my boyfriend didn't approve, so we started composting with an outdoor compost bin instead.
It all ends up in the ground either way.

[arikara]

47. Thanks for the reminder!

I was thinking about that book last night, trying to remember the author's name. Ruth Stout. Great gardening book and a fun read!

[The Straight Story]

30. I thought it said orgasmic garden, and was going to look for seeds online

;)

[Quantess]

37. Did you mean Horny Goat Weed?

http://myhealth.ucsd.edu/library/healthguide/en-us/Cam/topic.asp?hwid=hn-4391000

:rofl:

[VenusRising]

32. They can go shit in their hats.

They have done more harm than good with their nasty chemicals. We need to work more on integrated pest management and less on chemical warfare on our food.

I also really appreciate that Michelle is having two beehives maintained, as well. I hope their garden flourishes and all Americans see that they can cultivate their own food, too.

[era veteran]

34. Poison Distributors

MACA thinks the chemical way is conventional agriculture. How sad that the natural way is considered unconventional. The agribusiness way ruins the earth over time. Impacted sterile soils devoid of the earthworm. Algae bloom into the Gulf of Mexico. Flavorless foods and imported produce from countries still using DDT. The organic way improves soils the chemical way destroys soils. Soils are a finite resource. Organic is logical. Oh Michelle should be wary, that lawn at the White House surely has had golf course quantity chemicals thru the years. My garden green for twenty years. No bugs, no disease, bountiful production and pretty.

[Muttocracy]

38. yeah, all that gardening could seriously cut into Nintendo and American Idol time.

The notion that my grandparents, whose whole farm was organic before the term was invented, had "free time" to garden is ridiculous.

[uppityperson]

40. "juggling jobs" (unemployed) and don't have "the time needed to tend a garden"?

bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa

So, if someone doesn't have "a garden of sufficient productivity to supply much of a family’s year-round food needs", they shouldn't garden at all?

And no, we don't live in a "very different world than that of our grandparents", at least not those of us who are children of children of the depression. Good grief

[Hippo_Tron]

42. I honestly thought this story was from The Onion when I first read it

For god's sake, all the first lady did was plant a fucking garden. Most people probably don't even know it happened and most that do know it happened probably for logistical reasons won't follow her lead anyway. Yet agribusiness is really concerned that this will eat into their profits. Amazing...

[LaurenG]

43. This part (below) is hysterical - much like a child arguing for something they want.

"The time needed to tend a garden is not there for the majority of our citizens, certainly not a garden of sufficient productivity to supply much of a family’s year-round food needs." It's so transparent that they should have started the sentence with "We hope..." and ended it with "so remember, there is no proof that our chemicals will kill you".

[formercia]

44. People wouldn't have to slave for the corporations if they knew

how to be self-sufficient.

It's not about making money to be able to afford to live in the consumer-centric society. It's about having a healthy and happy lifestyle.

Some of the most miserable people I've known were rich.

Good for Michelle. Lead by example.

[BR_Parkway]

45. "conventionally grown food"?!? talk about framing the discussion

wow

[lumberjack_jeff]

46. Feeding you is too important of a job to be left to you.

Don't worry, you can trust chem-agri-corp-usa.