The First Lady of the Garden

At Harriet Tubman Elementary School, in one of Washington, D.C.’s underprivileged neighborhoods, the children now have access to a gardening club in addition to their soccer club. The garden’s fairly modest vegetable production is intended not so much to be consumed as to “help familiarize the children with vegetables,”* according to Elizabeth Golub, a math teacher and director of the gardening club. Since Michelle Obama began working with the school, as part of her initiative to combat childhood obesity, the cafeteria is also serving healthy meals. The children are sometimes served “things that they have never seen before,” adds Monica Davis, another teacher. “Like strawberries, for example.”*

The first lady just celebrated the first anniversary of her “Let’s Move!” campaign, launched in February 2010. What seemed, at first, like the hobby of a president’s wife who was desperate for a humanitarian cause has turned out to be an ambitious and multidisciplinary undertaking. In one year, Michelle Obama has managed to increase awareness among chefs, large retail chains and even the food industry. From Coca-Cola to Kraft and Wal-Mart, companies have committed to reducing calories in beverages, fats or portion sizes.

A new child nutrition law was passed by Congress in mid-December 2010, and the president signed it immediately (“Had I not been able to get this passed, I would be sleeping on the couch,” he joked). Now, the USDA can set standards for foods distributed to schools, banning the distribution of candy, soda and other junk food in cafeterias. $4.5 billion will be dedicated to providing fresh food in school cafeterias. Anti-poverty groups have bemoaned the fact that the administration has reduced funding for food stamps simultaneously, part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But the first lady has convinced them that in developed countries, fighting against hunger is also fighting against obesity.

Michelle’s garden has quite a following (if we dare say so). Parents are overjoyed that their children are discovering that a meal can be more than “a half-dozen chicken nuggets on a plastic plate.”* In Washington, D.C, a Democratic city where the rate of adolescent obesity is the highest in the nation, nine schools have started gardens. But in a neighboring county (Republican), authorities have refused to authorize them, emphasizing the dangers of nature in a school environment: “Vegetable gardens are a food source for pests, create liabilities for children with food allergies and have other associated concerns.” Instead, teachers have been offered window planters…

Nationally, Michelle Obama’s campaign is not without controversy. The tea party has seen it as a new manifestation of the federal government’s bulimia (recently, one of its leading lights, Senator Rand Paul, growled, “Frankly, my toilets don’t work in my house. And I blame you and people like you who want to tell me what I can install in my house, what I can do”).

Republicans want to be free to eat fries made with caribou fat if they so desire. This is in accordance with what Sarah Palin calls “God-given rights.” In an episode of her television show about Alaska, the former vice-presidential candidate appears in the midst of preparing s’mores (a deadly combination: crackers, chocolate and marshmallows) and says, “This is in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert.”

The first lady replied that it is not a question of depriving Americans of cookies smothered with fudge or whipped cream, but simply to communicate the message that her daughters Malia and Sasha hear every day: “Dessert is not a right.” Be that as it may, her campaign has become an element of the conflict between the right and the left over government prerogatives. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center published in early March, 57 percent of Americans believe that the government ought to play a “significant” role in the fight against obesity. But among conservatives, 61 percent believe that the government should mind its own business when it comes to the contents of their dinner plates.

Wednesday, March 16, while her husband was fretting over the budding democracy in Libya, Michelle began the gardening season. Surrounded by children from Harriet Tubman Elementary, she transplanted the White House vegetables. The occasion was half neighborhood school festival, half presidential garden party, with liveried butlers ready to serve hot cider under the trees. The press office distributed maps of the garden, a plot of land about 102 square meters that produced 900 kilograms of fruits and vegetables in 2010.

“So what kind of vegetables do you all like?” Michelle Obama asked. The students swore that they liked broccoli and spinach. “Leeks?” she added, “You like leeks?” A silence ensued. “You guys know what leeks are?” Her audience was not even aware of their color.

Never mind that! The class was invited, if not doomed, to return in the spring to taste the leeks.

*Editor’s note: The quotations above, accurately translated, could not be verified.