Chews Wise

White House Garden by this Summer?

Neil Hamilton, a law professor long active in the local food movement, predicts that the White House will have a vegetable garden by this summer.

"I believe that by this summer there will be a garden – another garden, a vegetable garden – on the White House lawn,” Hamilton said at a weekend legal seminar at Yale University.

If he's right, a lot of activists and foodies - from Alice Waters on down - will be quite happy. My only question is who the farmer in chief will be and whether the Obamas will upset the produce industry by going organic.

My guess: the garden will use "sustainable," low-input practices, but won't be fully organic to side-step the issue. But either way, it will be a boon for the community garden movement in this nation, showing that it ain't real hard to grow your own greens, tomatoes, peppers and okra.

So what unusual variety should the Obamas grow? My vote is for the long Asian cucumber and would suggest that Sooyow Nishiki variety sold at Kitazawa Seed Company. Sweet and prolific, one cuke can make a nice lunch salad.

Big Win for Sustainable Ag! Merrigan tapped for No. 2 Post at USDA

President Obama named Kathleen Merrigan, a Tufts professor and a central figure for more than two decades in organic and sustainable farm policy, to the No. 2 position at USDA.

This amounts to a major win for organic, sustainable and local food advocates, since Merrigan is not only well-versed in these issues but has been a tireless advocate for them. Most notably, she wrote the Organic Food Production Act -- the law that governs the entire organic food sector -- as a staffer for Vermont Sen. Leahy back in the 1980s, then worked at USDA and the Wallace Center, before moving to Tufts.  

Although she had put forth her name for an undersecretary position -- I blogged about her here -- I hadn't heard any talk that she was in the running for the No. 2 position. 

"Sustainable and organic farmers are excited ... that someone who has been associated with these issues her whole career is going to be at that level in the department," said Ferd Hoefner of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

That sentiment will be echoed far and wide.

- Samuel Fromartz

Fish on the dish in a warming planet

Global warming has started to erode coral reefs, churn up more storms and drive salt water into fresh water sources - such as this threat to the Ganges in India.

Now a new study shows that while fisheries in the northern hemisphere may bear the brunt of the impact environmentally, people in the poorest countries will suffer the most hardship as fish populations decline. Worldwide, more than 2.6 billion people rely on fish for at least 20 percent of their protein intake. 

Two-thirds of the 33 most vulnerable nations are in Africa, where fish accounts for half of all protein intake in many countries. Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo were most at risk, though Russia stood out ranking third. Peru and Colombia in South America; and Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam in Asia also made the list.

Add this report to the pressures from overfishing - from the hungry demand of Asian and European nations -- and Africa may well be at the leading edge of unsustainable fisheries.

For another perspective check out this video of a lecture by researcher Daniel Pauly, a fisheries biologist who studies populations trends. 

- Samuel Fromartz