Why I Wrote a Letter to First Lady of Georgia Mary Perdue

My friend, Roger Doiron, ran that amazing campaign to encourage the planting of a veggie garden on the White House lawn for the first time since Eleanor Roosevelt did so during World War II. If you haven't seen this very cute video, This Lawn Is Your Lawn, click here (and, if you haven't heard, groundbreaking took place last Friday).

Granted, hundreds of thousands of folks involved in food policy, sustainability, health, and national security (these are all connected) worked tirelessly for years on many related initiatives as well. I, myself, even ran my own little Victory Garden Drive last year (I had about 86 signers/Roger had 86,498!).

I planted the first seed of my now-seven-year-old kitchen garden on 9/12/2001 as my small attempt to take a little bit of control in an uncertain world.

My children asked their grandparents about the Victory Gardens with which they grew up (and other questions--one per month via email for an entire year!), and we captured their stories in a document called Grandparents Say the Darndest Things.

And for you small business owners, I have an old-fashioned American success story for you right now. I met the owner of the company that supplied the seeds to the White House for the veggie garden last week at the Georgia Organics Annual Conference. Tom Stearns started his business when he was just 19. I'd say he's about 31 years old now. His company has 35 employees and is independently owned. Check it out.

Anyway, Roger is now asking folks around the country to encourage our state first families to plant veggie gardens at the State Capitols or governor mansions (Maine's First Lady Karen Baldacci already has one, California's First Lady Maria Shriver just committed to breaking ground in May). My friend Judy put a "bug in my bonnet" ( a "beneficial" one, of course!) the other day to get it up and going, so you'll now find Georgia's Garden here.

Oh, for goodness sake, who has time for all this clicking? I'll run the letter to First Lady Mary Perdue for you right here. And, by the way, wouldn't it be fun for us to have a video called Georgia On My Lawn that features all the wonderful food that can be grown right here in Georgia? (any filmmakers want to help?)

Dear First Lady of Georgia Mary Perdue:

In Michael's Pollan's now-famous New York Times Magazine article titled Farmer-in-Chief, he calls for a return to "sun-food agriculture" that relies on the way nature intended food to grow.

Well, if there is one thing we have in the great Southeastern state of Georgia, it is an abundance of sun. We also have a heritage of agricultural strength. As we watch our nation's families, schoolchildren and communities embrace the benefits of growing their own "solar food," we stand together as citizens of the ninth largest state (in population) in the United States and ask you, as our First Lady of Georgia, to hear the calling of this moment in history.

First Lady Mary Perdue, please follow the leadership of our nation's first lady and plant an organic vegetable garden at the governor's mansion. Invite schoolchildren to dig in. Teach our younger generation about healthy food and about harnessing the power of our abundant sun to create something good for our bodies, our communities and our country. Reap the rewards of a harvest whose time has come, and leave the legacy of a positive step forward for the agricultural leadership of our region.

Please forward this to all your Georgia-based friends, family members and colleagues. And go here to sign this petition! I'm hoping for more than 86 signatures this year. In fact, I'm hoping for a garden at the governor's mansion in time for tomatoes!

(As for City Hall in Dunwoody, perhaps a few pots of herbs?)