TUESDAY 21 JULY 2009                             • I'LL VOTE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE VEGETABLE GARDEN

As we know, one of the first things Michelle Obama did when she moved into the White House was to establish a vegetable garden. She’d been urged to do so by friends of ours such as Alice Waters and other American chefs and food writers. But Michelle didn’t need much urging; and now dozens of kids have descended on the White House to pick the produce, cook their own lunch using it, and return to the garden to eat.

According to the online magazine, Salon (click here),the kids’ harvest included 73 pounds of lettuce and 12 lbs of peas. (Mmm, in France these would be two of the ingredients for a single dish, petits pois à la française.)

Salon also says that the kitchen garden has so far yielded a haul of 100kg of food, at present cucumbers, tomatoes, aubergines and french beans are being picked– they’re way ahead of us in Washington. Some of this the White House “has donated to a local food bank that serves meals made from fresh ingredients only. But the goal isn't necessarily to get everyone in the U.S. gardening, which isn't really possible unless you have the land and the time to tend crops.”

The Assistant White House chef, Sam Kass, who glories in the title of “food initiative co-ordinator” told Salon that the White House kitchen uses some of their home-grown food every day. However, “This isn't about ‘Everybody grow all their own food’,” Kass said. Instead, “we try to re-establish connections to the people in our society who really grow the food, from there to us eaters rethinking what we're putting in our bodies and what we're feeding our kids.”

Now that’s speaking the language I like to hear. I wonder if any of our politicians has the imagination to start a project like this. Is there room for a potager in the garden of the Elysée Palace, or of Number 10? There’s already one at Buckingham Palace, by the way.