What’s not to love about the White House Garden?
It’s easy to forget what President Obama came into office burdened by—the economy that had just lost a floor, two wars, surging unemployment, torture and on—and how the culture of the White House, such as it was, wasn’t exactly inspiring (the Bush twins or their stumble-into-walls-constantly-vacation-at-his-tumbleweeds-Crawford-Texas-ranch father?).
This first year, there have been many images in the White House of the First Family that have moved me. From the Inauguration on out, those girls—it seems fairly and genuinely shielded from overexposure—brighten our collective imaginations with their beaming smiles and thrill in the complete specialness of these experiences they are enjoying. I am glad they are sledding on America’s front lawn with their mom. Right up alongside my fondness for their fun is my admiration of Michelle Obama’s garden and how it signals what so many of us know is tantamount right now: local food, savoring earthly bounty, growing more of it, and sharing with those less fortunate (the White House vegetables do help to feed homeless people in the neighborhood).
Now, Michelle Obama has decided to take on the pressing health issue of childhood obesity. From a glance at headlines over the past few years, it’s no surprise that many children are in deep trouble: health issues like early onset diabetes, heart disease and dangerous cholesterol readings are not rare occurrences as they once were.
In this media saturated time, the quest for thin seems to dominate celebrity and layperson psyche alike. Somehow, losing weight has become entertainment. There’s America’s Biggest Loser, which features “normal but very fat” people losing extreme amounts of weight, and there are shows that feature D-list celebs trying to less extreme amounts of weight (and regain fame).
There’s a big divide between morbid obesity and a chunky but healthy kid. That’s just one distinction that seems to get lost in the very real—and very legitimate—concerns about children and fat. In a supersized culture, where many children don’t merely watch television but spend many hours in front of a screen (a Kaiser Family Foundation found over the past five years the amount of time the average 8- to 18-year-old spent with media is up by 1 hour, 17 minutes a day — from 6 hours, 21 minutes in 2004 to 7 hours, 38 minutes now), and where in 1969, 41 percent of children either walked or biked to school; by 2001, only 13 percent still did, these distinctions do matter a great deal. Why aren’t we making them? I think the answer must be wrapped up in money: the kind of profit realized by exploiting people’s wellbeing, be it by hiding the dangers of tobacco or high fructose corn syrup or creating fake programming that compromises people’s health in order to “win big” on a televised weight loss show. While cheap food without nutritive value and so much sodium that daily ingestion can elevate a person’s risk of heart attack significantly, the weight loss industry nets billions of dollars.
I could go on and on about the body dysmorphic disorder plaguing our culture. But rather than talk about the ways that media pressures a cult of thin and celebrity culture presents a cult of unreal and mass marketing provides a cult of fast-easy-addictive-unhealthy, I would like to state a few hopes for Michelle Obama’s very sincere and important efforts, instead.
I’d like to see a healthy lifestyle focus go beyond what individuals can do—and there are lots—to pushing for systemic change. I’m not talking about banning bake sales in school (although that could be fine), I’m really talking about offering healthy food in schools—farm-to-school programs, gardening in the curriculum, and those sorts of efforts—rather than standard cafeteria fare. The healthier options will cost more and will undoubtedly require a lot of education and effort to capture kids’ palates and imaginations. I want to link up issues like walking to school, health and a healthier planet. This means supporting programs that help kids reach schools safely, thus addressing crime issues, traffic calming, bike lanes, and the idea that this effort is critical. Finally, I hope Michelle Obama does endorse breastfeeding, less because of the possible links between breastfeeding and better outcomes re: obesity but because to truly support it—family leave, places to pump, and all else it takes—a more family-friendly set of policies are necessary and I think that those kinds of changes are positive ones. The priorities I am suggesting really have everything to do with common sense, simple and practical and pleasant choices, all.
Even this week, an editorial about hunger in the New York Times emphasizes that increasing numbers of Americans are hungry. As the recession deepens and spreads, hunger is fanning out, too, to people we considered “immune” from it, in suburbs and cities, in communities that are poor, middle class and affluent. A study from Feeding America—a coalition of food banks–found 37 million people — roughly one in eight Americans — had sought emergency food assistance from the network last year, a 46 percent increase from 2006. On Long Island, where the increase from 2006 was 21 percent, only a small percentage of these clients were homeless or elderly. Thirty-nine percent were children under 18. Only 30 percent received food stamps, revealing that the food stamp program—so necessary—is failing to reach all in need or cover the food needs of those receiving the assist. As our local Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and Northampton Survival Center would concur, the government safety net is failing. Friends and neighbors can offer critical support during troubled times, but generally cannot provide the entire net.
So, along with raising awareness about childhood obesity and trying to turn those tides back toward healthier lifestyles for young people, the very real dangers—and in a society that has the means to make different priorities, preventable—of hunger in America cannot be overlooked. There’s no question in my mind that focusing upon our nation’s gardens will help us keep true to our shared challenges and set our priorities and adhere to our collective potential so that we may feed ourselves well, in every sense of that word.
