A shorter food chain has many benefits

Last Saturday morning, in the midst of pancakes and maple syrup, my 12-year-old asked me the importance of Michelle Obama’s planting a garden on the White House’s South Lawn.

It was a most timely question, as I was on my way to the Georgia Organics 12th annual Conference and Trade Show at Agnes Scott College.

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TODD HEISLER/New York Times

Eleanor Roosevelt was the last first lady to have a garden at the White House, in 1943 during World War II. First lady Michelle Obama broke ground, with some assistance, Friday for a vegetable plot on the South Lawn.

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And it wouldn’t be until later that evening, after hearing keynote speaker and food writer Michael Pollan deliver his address to roughly 1,100 people, that I would truly be able to answer her.

That morning, I told her it was significant that the first lady planned to plant vegetables on the White House lawn for the first time since Eleanor Roosevelt did back in 1943, as a victory garden. Roosevelt’s example inspired millions of Americans to help the war effort by planting their own gardens. Roosevelt always led by example. Obama is doing the same.

After attending an upbeat, informative session on starting a farm-to-school program and a brilliant lecture by writer Dan Imnoff on the state of the U.S. food system, I realized we still have a war effort when it comes to the foods we eat.

Those of us who support local, sustainable foods, from chicken to chervil, are at war with big farming. It’s a shame, since throughout the conference speakers gave plenty of examples of small farmers across the country who make the small-farming system work every day.

How? Will Allen, CEO of Growing Power, a not-for-profit organization that supports the development of community food systems in Milwaukee, does it through a 2-acre, 14-greenhouse where he grows greens, vegetables and herbs year-round, as well as raises goats, turkeys, chickens and perch.

After dining on a “farmers feast” from area chefs and growers, Pollan, author of “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” noted, “We find ourselves at a strange, new place, suddenly invited in with a seat at the table. We have a president who understands and connects the dots between our food supply’s effect on energy, health care and climate change.”

Could we, eventually, reduce health care costs with healthy, sustainable foods? Pollan’s answer, of course, is yes. He reminded us that 20 percent of our fossil fuels support our food system — a system that could be weaned and “put back on a diet of … sunshine and water.”

How to do it? By changing from a monoculture in the field to polycultures — going from big, subsidized factory farming to small farms that are rewarded for diversifying crops. It’s not exactly a new idea — before World War II it was how we farmed.

Our current system, which offers no crop rotation and supports feedlots of animals so closely confined that they are overloaded with antibiotics, is broken, and we’ve got to fix it. We have to shorten our food chain, and that may start with something as simple as a wife and mother telling her husband that they’re starting a garden on the front lawn.