As has been reported before, agribusiness groups are mad that Michelle's garden is organic. The Mid America CropLife Association, which represents agriculture and pesticide companies, says, "fresh foods grown conventionally are wholesome and flavorful yet more economical." Bob Young of the American Farm Bureau Federation concurs. To Michelle, he says, "understand that you're making lifestyle choices here about how you want your food produced. Fine. But don't denigrate the other approaches to food production." His fellow Farm Bureau employee Mary Kay Thatcher adds, "If Michelle Obama was having dinner with me, I'd say the organic garden is a great thing, but use it for education about organic vs. conventional agriculture, the pros and the cons." So basically, Michelle should snap on her rubber gloves and spray her tomatoes with some hexythiazox or lambdacyhalothrin, in the interests of diversity. Or better yet, just get in a little plane and crop-dust the hell out of that shit.

Some people are even taking issue with Michelle's decision to emphasize local food. Xavier Equihua of the Chilean Exporters Association and the Chilean Avocado Committee says local food is "a charming idea and everything, but it's not practical," because local food is seasonal. He asks, "what happens if you want some grapes during the month of December? What are you going to do? Not eat grapes?" Uh, yeah? I like grapes as much as the next person, but they are not essential for survival, and while some transportation of food will always be necessary, it would do us a lot of good if we could return to a more seasonal way of eating. And really, how would Michelle, go about growing a garden that was not local? Outsource it to India? Water her avocado plants in Chile via Skype?

Of course everything Michelle Obama does is going to be scrutinized, and she deserves the opportunity to just plant a fucking garden if she feels like it. On the other hand, as Sadie said in her post on Michelle's stated aversion to cooking, "every word, from someone so admired and imitated, is an opportunity." Just as Michelle getting in the kitchen (and, as Sadie also says, Barack getting in there with her) might show America that cooking, even for busy people, is possible, Michelle's garden could show us that local, organic food is a worthy goal.

Beam points out that the White House's organic garden could stimulate demand for organic food. That might help bring prices down, so that people much poorer than the Obamas could actually afford an organic tomato. Given the dangers of many pesticides (the EPA says, "by their very nature, most pesticides create some risk of harm"), this would be a very good thing. Young and Thatcher make "different approaches to food production" sound like a wonderful rainbow of happy fruits and vegetables — some deliciously augmented with diazinon. But in reality, some "approaches" are healthier — for humans and the environment — than others, and the Obamas would do well to make these approaches more accessible to everyone.

Organic Panic [Slate]

Earlier: Should Michelle Obama Get Back In The Kitchen?

While a lot of people are eating organic, Greene's stunt it noteworthy for its length and thoroughness, eating only organic food — defined as that produced without pesticides, antibiotics or hormones — both at home and in restaurants. "He chose three years as a goal because that was the amount of time it took to have a breeding animal certified organic by the Department of Agriculture. While food growers comply with organic regulations every day, Dr. Greene wondered whether a person could meet the same standards." Obviously, this was pricey — organic food can cost up to twice as much as what Whole Foods parlance terms "conventional," no laughing matter in these straitened times. (He found that cutting down on meat helped equalize the costs.) Then too, even in Dr. Greene's relatively health-conscious neck of the woods (where he was able to join a CSA and shop numerous farmers markets), organic chow could be hard to come by at, say, truck stops. Quoth the good doctor, “It was much more challenging than I thought it would be, and I thought it would be tough. There were definitely days where there was nothing I could find that was organic.” He'd call ahead to make sure restaurants could ensure that no non-organic morsel passed his lips; his family was into it.

Greene's rationale was that "his findings offer new insight into the challenges facing the organic food industry and those of us who want to patronize it." He also hoped it would improve his own health which, anecdotally it has (the scientific verdict is still out on whether organic foods are healthier, with arguments for both sides.)

Three years later, he says he has more energy and wakes up earlier. As a pediatrician regularly exposed to sick children, he was accustomed to several illnesses a year. Now, he says, he is rarely ill. His urine is a brighter yellow, a sign that he is ingesting more vitamins and nutrients.

While the experiment is a laudable one — and, in fairness, predates a lot of the food-related stunt journalism that's glutted the marketplace in recent years, and certainly the recent economic downturn — the rigid and stunt-like nature of it feels slightly arbitrary. It's certainly Dr. Greene's prerogative, and since he has the time and means to do so, more power to him: it's doubtless good to know the practical limitations of theory. It is always encouraging, too, to see a doctor practicing what he preaches. That said, the application is beyond the reach of most everyone, and as such, experiments such as these are feeling increasingly academic.

For Three Years, Every Bite Organic [New York Times]