Seriously....we're talking about a garden....not Middle East peace.

Personally, I think this is a good example of some of the things that everyone should try to do, even if it's just a tomato plant in a pot on the porch.

As for it going into the aquifer...not too worried about that because of the small amount of soap used.

Look up Libby, Montana and keep your half-remembered completely inaccurate "facts" to yourself.

Why on earth would I use pesticides?

I just bought some dwarf variety heirloom tomatoes that will grow nicely in a pot, though I'm putting them in my yard. They were the Beryl variety, and I bought them from this couple: [nctomatoman.topcities.com] though they don't appear on the list.

You, personally? Or are you worried about that 1/16th of a penny of your taxes ending up in their salary? If it's the former, what's your base rate? I love to kill bugs and could use a summer job.

Of course, if you think you're paying the gardener, you probably think you're paying the cleaning staff as well. God forbid the home of our nation's leader be kept professionally clean, right? Tell you what -- I'm really pale, so an indoor job might be better than gardening. Fire them all and hire me! I'll keep the place dusted nicely for half the price.

It's better to outsmart the bugs. Introduce natural enemies. Or use natural oils as a spray.

Even if I'm totally wrong and nothing has ever happened to anyone because of pesticides...why risk it? Humans do some amazingly stupid s**t. One of them is risking destruction, coming up to the point of catastrophic, systemic failure, then going OOPS! And having to do a massive back pedal. Why do we keep repeating this behavior?

Really? Wow, where do you shop? None of the conventional fruit at our grocery store looks good at all. That's probably why I always end up at the farmer's market. Pesticide-free, local and even cheaper than the grocery store!

Why "clearly"? Because the pesticide/agri-industry know they can't actually trust that anyone will remember to wash off their food, especially if people don't know exactly what's been on various veggies. Thus, the products they use have to be relatively safe for consumption at the low levels they're applied onto crops.

To the pesticide part... There are many "natural" ways to keep your garden safe that are considered pesticides. I am a friend of the earth but lumping all garden products, like what most environmentalist do, together as pesticides is flat out misinformation. My grandmother sprays lemon and banana oil on her garden and flowers... works better than the harsh chemical based pesticides.

OMG do these women not have anything else better to do with their time other than write that letter.... they should be docked in pay for whatever company time they used to write that letter.... people amaze me .... it isn't any of their business what someone plans to do with their personal garden.... If I were Mrs. Obama my reply would go a little something like this;

Dear Janet,

Thank you for sending me that very long winded letter about agriculture in America I learned alot about the numerous americans who work in this field and statistics on it's history, however; you did not clearly explain how or why you have any reason or purpose in telling me what I should do in my garden.

Go fuck yourself.
Sincerely,

I've trained the wife to not even see organic produce departments. Hell, we avoid Whole Foods and their insane 30% across the board up-charge completely.

I'm probably going to get this completely wrong, cause its been a few years, but I always think of asbestos (and not just cause you mentioned it before). Apparently, 98% of the asbestos from the earth is 100% ok to humans, including all the asbestos from the United States. But theres someplace, I believe in Africa, from where the produced asbestos causes health problems. People are too dumb to grasp the concept of "good" asbestos and "bad" asbestos, so they just get rid of all of it, even though its extremely good at what it does.

If it's not poison (why "Clearly," btw? says who?) then why can't you drink it?

Not only that, a lot of stuff commercial farmers do is illegal in your home garden, unless you live in a totally zoning-free area. And for some of the pesticides farmers use, you need a license and sometimes bonding/insurance. (One presumes this varies by state, of course.)

Regardless of whether the Obamas gardened before, there's been a lot of citizen support for a White House garden, and on-grounds gardens for gourmet kitchens is a big and growing trend. What's the problem with it? It provides tasty food for state dinners AND teaches people about healthy eating and gardening. Oh teh noes, the do-gooders, doing inexpensive and useful good at the behest of their constituents!

I presume Bush was long since done with reading children's books when he was elected (Jenna and Barbara being too old for it), but I'm not going to bitch that he's "grandstanding" when reading to kindergarteners to promote childhood literacy and love of reading. Sheesh.

So's chicken wire. :D

This was like the funnest thing EVER when we had an aphid infestation.

@mac-phisto: All gardeners find immense satisfaction in that. :D

We have a 300 square foot veggie garden (and a large "other stuff" garden). I'm not totally anti-pesticide (I went through the state Master Gardener program and we learned the science of pesticides, not the FUD of pesticides), but they're an expensive input, storing them makes me damn-ass nervous, especially with a baby on the way and with pets in the home (I can guarantee *I* won't ingest it but not my four-legged critters), and we haven't found them necessary.

The best bug prevention is other bugs, and one problem with pesticides is they kill indiscriminately -- they kill bees and praying mantises as well as "bad" bugs. A healthy, non-pesticided garden will draw spiders and cannibalistic mites and praying mantises and things that eat the "bad" bugs for you. Otherwise, we rotate the nightshades, don't let people smoke near the garden (tobacco mosaic), companion plant, and use chicken wire to keep out the mammalian pests.

In addition to what soap said about environmental impacts, some states are starting to ask home gardeners not to pesticide or to follow very strict timing rules, because home pesticide use is contributing to the bee population crash.

Anyhoo, last time we had a bug infestation it was aphids, so we just mail-ordered ladybugs. Problem solved! Cheaper than the pesticide we would have needed, no storage or ingestion issues, and ooooooh! pretty ladybugs!

Sweetest dog in the world now, but no short term memory. Can't even remember to finish eating, and every time you re-show him the food, he gets REALLY EXCITED that someone totally left food there! They call him Special Ed.

@HappyCthulhu: ya, thats kinda my thing. my garden is barely 400 square foot. if your not lazy you dont need any pesticides. i get my little girl out to help me squish the bugs ourselves. especially the svb's. im not purposely gonna put poisons on our food.

In my home garden, I use Seven in a hand sprayer on the squash to squash bugs at bay since nothing organic works against them. Everything else survives just fine with our pesticides.

Likewise, it's not the business of some "Better Living Through Chemistry" group that Mrs. Obama chooses to go organic. Yes, it requires more work, and yes, much of that work isn't really practical on the scale of Big Agriculture. This is all just a bunch of hooey designed to Carterize the Obamas. Besides, what did Laura Bush do for eight years when she was First Lady?

it's basically a powder made of diatoms & is very effective against insects. i've never used it in a garden (b/c i've never had one), but will be trying this year. make sure you buy the plant-grade stuff, not pool-grade.

my favorite part is how it works. i guess these are akin to microscopic razors that cut the exoskeletons of insects & basically cause them to bleed out. is it wrong that i find immense satisfaction in that?

Another thing you can do, while we're listing organic gardening tips, is companion planting. I'm going to grow some borage and summer savory in my garden this year, which attract a type of wasp that just loves to eat certain garden pests.

I wonder how many people go to college thinking they're going to major in "organic chemistry" and then get really confused.

Secret Service guys can get a little target practice.

Especially the part where someone added "citation needed" instead of deleting it outright.

@HappyCthulhu: Lead by example and all that.

I don't need the obamas to be any kind of example for me, thanks. Especially if that "leadership" is fakery and grandstanding.

However, the huge environmental impact comes from the actual production of these pesticides. Most are petroleum based, and the production of the pesticides uses far more energy than the corresponding increase in crop production grants, so it's an energy sink. Combine that with the fact that it doesn't make a ton of sense to spend so much fossil fuels on something that grows from free solar energy, and the fact that general industrial waste from pesticide production is pretty intense (and sadly, not dealt with by the pesticide industry as a whole) and it comes out as a negative-sum game in the end.

George Daddy Bush said he didn't like broccoli, and boy were the broccoli farmers - pardon the pun - steamed.

That's life as prez. No matter what, people hate you.

Moreover, as others have pointed out, Bonnie McCarvel is a kook to insist that pesticide-based agriculture is "conventional." It's only been used for about 60 years now, out of how many thousands of years of agricultural history?

If you're not aiming for maximal crop yields, there are some easy ways to prevent pests in your garden.

1. Don't overfertilize. Too much nitrogen will cause soft, lush green growth, which attracts pests. Many bugs can smell new growth from hundreds of yards away. It draws them like a beacon.

2. Water appropriately and use mulch. If a plant is stressed by too much or too little water, it's more vulnerable to pest damage. Also, mites and flea beetles want dry conditions to reproduce. Personally, if I see treehoppers on a pepper plant, it's usually a sign that the plant needs more water. Don't ask me about the science behind it.

3. Plant resistant varieties. There are cucumbers that are resistant to cucumber beetles, and squashes that are resistant to squash bugs.

4. Cover your plants.

5. Weed. If weeds are growing in or near your garden, they probably have pests. Get rid of those host plants.

6. Kill and deter ants. I pour boiling water in any nest I find around my garden. Ants bring scales, aphids, mealybugs, treehoppers, and all sorts of nasties.

7. Don't use pesticides. Pesticides kill everything, and the beneficials that keep the pests in check (ladybugs, lacewings, mantids, assassin bugs, cryptolaemus, etc) take much, much longer to come back after an application of pesticide. As predators, they have much longer reproductive cycles, compared to pests like aphids which can double their population every three or four days. So the more pesticide you use, the more you'll need.

Dish soap works okay. You can buy organic insecticidal soap if you don't want to use the stuff from your kitchen. But in my experience, it's not exactly harmless to the plants. Just as it destroys the waxy cuticle of bugs, it could (and does, I suspect) destroy or weaken the waxy surface of leaves. I do use it occasionally, but I don't use it very often. I'm more likely to use homemade garlic or chile spray.

Not only that, but there's something vaguely anti-home-gardening about the tone.

"If Americans were still required to farm to support their family's basic food and fiber needs, would the U.S. have been leaders in the advancement of science, communication, education, medicine, transportation and the arts?"

It's almost like saying that home-gardening efforts to produce your own produce are sending us back to the stone age, and that any properly patriotic American would stop mucking around and let the real pros who "understand crop protection technologies" do the job.

You'll inevitably lose a few plants to disease, fungus, insects, drainage problems, poor germination, or freak weather patterns. People whose entire livelihoods depend on their garden, who spend just about every waking minute of the entire growing season tending to them, are unable to save every plant. I just do what I can with the time I'm willing and able to spend and don't get too worked up about a spinach plant full of holes. A good gardening day involves a lot of sweat, mud, manure, worms, spiders, and bees. You win some, you lose some. It's marvelous.

@Chris Walters: Eeeew, these taste like grandma!

The last laugh was on me the first year I gardened in a city/in this city/in this region when mysterious varmints ate all of my basil just before harvest time.

@Radi0logy: But there is a difference between growing a kitchen garden, which is what the Obama's are doing, and large production farming. (just as an aside, I do come from a family of large production wheat, soybean and cotton farmers)

Organic is easy to do for the backyard gardener.

The issue is that this "lady" is all bent out of shape because the President isn't going to dust everything down with sevin dust.

IPM is all about measuring, regardless of what one's approach to controlling pests and pathogens might be. It should not matter if one uses crystals and incense or short-range battlefield tactical nuclear weapons, one should still verify the impact on the pest/pathogen.

Urban areas are isolated from the mainstream agricultural areas, and are therefore less likely to have infestation of many of the most common pests of food plants, so there may be little need for "pest control" or "pathogen control" in the Obama veggie garden. But the question about which tools to use against pests is PREMATURE before one has a detectable level of pests or pathogens, isn't it?

The trade group needs immediate medical attention to deal with the self-inflicted gunshot wound to the foot!

@wardawg: No, they don't have to bite the plant for it to work.
It suffocates them.

@qxrt: It's an extreme example but it really is possible to shoot yourself in the head and live

Well for a personal home garden there are certainly cheaper ways to do without pesticides, just go out everyday and squish all the bugs you see by hand. Less money, but more time consuming. So I have absolutely no problems with a home garden being organic.

In the case of the white house garden, where most likely I am paying the gardeners to squish those bugs it might be a different story. Gardener wages are higher than non-organic methods.

I do think organic farming on a commercial scale is a bit elitist and not as good as it first sounds. Sure if you made all the farms in the world organic there may be 0.002% less chance that somebody will get cancer, however this would also cause mass starvation and a lot more immediate deaths. I don't believe we are at a point where we could turn back the clock and go organic without problems.

Keep in mind that pesticides kill off the garden enemies and the garden friends. Pesticides are a waste of money and not worth the diminished food quality.

1) Create more expensive product
2) Convince sheep that less expensive = dangerous
3) PROFIT!!! $$$$$$$

"Vegetables just taste better with DDT on them!!!"

"... made ... I shudder".

Ack! Classic over-correction. Should use "me", not "I".

The poor grammar makes me shudder.

Another thing that doesn't make much sense is the letter they sent. The closest they ever seem to get to a POINT is:

"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."

Otherwise, it reads like some sort of a let's-be-pen-pals thing, all "hi, I heard you're going to start a garden. I like gardens too! Gardens are good! They give us food!"

And even that line is so vague as to be nearly meaningless... okay, the average farmer produces enough food for 144 people, yay, I hereby official recognize him/her. Good job, well done. Now if you'll excuse me I've got six tomato plants to get settled.

Long story short: some people need to spend less time looking for things by which to be offended. This comment not directed at Ratty. :)

@WiglyWorm: A shelter dog vs. purchased dog has zero to do with allergies. There's no truly hypoallergenic dog, and beyond that shelters get filled with mixes that are the ones sold as hypoallergenic.

Oh, wait. In the last paragraph they give him a link with information on 'crop protection products' that is like the little emails that my mom sends me saying, "You should check this out - I thought you might find it interesting :-)".

Since he built his farm during the dust bowl (and BTW built his house and garage himself) he had to dig his own wells at various points around the farm for irrigation and water service to the house.

The pumps consisted of whatever two-stroke and automobile engines he could get his hands on cheap, and every day he went out to "The Garden" and fueled up the pumps, started them, and began his daily routine.

This long and seemingly pointless comment does have a point, and that is: the various combustion engines he used to pump water also spewed various noxious gasses around the farm. Which did a great job of keeping the pests away. I never once saw my grandfather spray pesticides on his crops.

They seem to be all up in arms about this organic garden, comparing it to commercial agriculture. There is no comparison. I have a small garden, and I would be furious if a local farmer stopped by and told me all the things I "Could" or "Should" be doing.

Next we will all be arguing whether cheese from Wisconsin is better than cheese from Vermont.

In other words, WHO CARES. It's the President's choice, and he made a decision he believed worked best for them. He just wanted some fresh veggies, that's all.

@Canino: Whether or not they had a garden in Chicago, it's nice that they are doing one now.
Lead by example and all that.

@bohemian: DO NOT TREAT YOUR TOMATOS WITH ANYTHING THAT IS MADE WITH TOBACCO!!!!!, like your cig butt mix.

You can spread the tobacco mosaic virus to your tomatos.
In fact, I did that once just by touching my tomato plant with the hand that I had just smoked with.

The caveat is that they still have to take bites of your plants before it works.

I wonder if the Obamas had a vegetable garden at their home in Chicago, or if this is something to make people say, "See, they're not elites, they're just like us!"

@WiglyWorm: Well said, took the words right out of my ... ummm, typing fingers?

Lots of good tips here: [ezinearticles.com]

Absolutely cheaper, and we usually have all of this stuff around anyway. A few large spray bottles of cayenne, water, soap, garlic and onion got us through last summer.

Muah-hahaha!

Just kidding :)

My mom always had a kitchen garden even when we lived in a large city. I don't remember her ever using anything on the garden besides water. Natural options are cheaper and usually don't require a run to the store. The closest I have come to using a chemical on our garden was cig butts soaked in a gallon jug of water and sprayed it on to get rid of a pest infestation.

Trying to put fear into people for not using chemicals is pretty silly.

Honestly, they'd have been better suited by not calling any attention to it at all.

And he's probably been breathing poison since day 1.

I know! Grow some plants in it!

There are lots of videos online about keeping a natural garden. It's usually much cheaper (for me anyway) to use these methods instead of buying pesticide at the hardware store. I always end up with more tomatoes and green beans than I could ever eat.

Organic doesn't mean the food tastes better and I don't think people claim that. But to imply that pesticides are safe because your grandpa didn't die by them isn't really saying much. There are people that tried to commit suicide by shooting themselves in the head and they came out of it with a scratch. That doesn't mean bullets can't kill you.

@JohnDeere: Your kid will probabaly eat poison, smoke poison (or second hand smoke), drink poison, etc. Its inevitable.

i have an organic garden. my kid is never gonna eat poison.