If The White House Garden Grew Subsidized Crops

The image below details what the White House Garden would look like if it was planted with subsidized crops from the Food and Farm Bill (via Slow Food USA Twitter). The image, created by Kitchen Gardeners International, shows the layout of the Spring 2011 White House garden. There are plots for fruits and vegetables including peas, kale, kohlrabi, pak choi, cauliflower, endive, herbs, swiss chard, lettuce, broccoli, chervil, garlic, greens, mint, collards, turnips, beets, arugula, spinach, rhubarb, blueberries and raspberries.

The "subsidy garden" shows the roughly $11 billion per year spent on mostly large-scale agriculture. The garden consists of corn, wheat, rice, cotton, soybeans, tobacco, sorghum, canola and sunflower.

Which would you prefer for your dinner?

Comments

[Beth Alexander]

01:48 PM on 06/10/2011

Well here it is. This is the prime reason is more expensive to eat healthy, fresh food than disgusting processed garbage that makes us fat. The reason a big mac is cheaper than a head of lettuce. It is completely cruel that to feed a family of 5 its cheaper to go through a drive thru and spend like 6 bucks than to go to the grocery or farmers market and purchase the components of a healthy meal. If the government would subsidize healthy food instead of the fattening corn and soy fillers and corn syrups that are in EVERYTHING. The need for healthcare for diabetes, obesity, heart problems, would go way down (and hopefully cost of healthcare), childhood obesity would go down, the use of antibiotics in livestock would go way down (and possibly antibiotic resistence in our children), omg I could go on. And maybe most importantly, less of our dollars would go to a company that is already trying to control the entire food supply (vast majority of corn, soy, cotton, canola, what u see GE by Monsanto). Think about it. Think about what you are supporting.

[Cricket4445]

08:09 AM on 06/12/2011

Hmmm, while I wholeheartedly agree that subsidized farming is killing our environment, contributing to the coffers of multi-national companies, ruining crop diversity, etc. I don't believe that a family of 5 can eat more cheaply by going through a drive through day after day.

I think so many in our country have forgotten how, or never learned to cook, using fresh, simple ingredients. They've never learned that a small city plot can grow a lot of food... We have created a culture of convenience that relies on easy, that doesn't take the time to sit down to a meal anymore.

We're dealing with problems that run deep - families that live in poverty that don't even have stoves. Busy families with two working parents or only one parent or a grandparent that has to care for their grandchildren and their own children. Or families that just haven't make good food a priority - both time wise and budget wise.

As a nation, we spend less on food than other western nations. That tells me where our priorities lie.

All that said, this is a really telling infographic.

[Beth Alexander]

06:27 PM on 06/13/2011

Actually I totally agree with your statement. And the fast food thing may have been a bit of an exaggeration, haha. (I'm full after one dollar menu item tho :)) I think much of it has to do with our way of life in this country. We're go-go-going all the time, it makes the convenient unhealthy crap so easy to market to people. Parents probably spend less time showing their children how to cook, and those children will go into the world without knowing how to cook. In all the European countries I've visited, mealtime is like a sacred thing, a soul feeding time you share with others and talk and relax sort of thing, even if the food was nothing elaborate. I'd prefer to try to abide by that model if I were starting a family.

[Dan Topkis]

02:25 PM on 06/09/2011

Great chart.. it would be much easier to view and the impact would be more compelling if t was color coordinated.

[Mister Grumpy]

04:54 PM on 06/04/2011

We know this will NEVER happen.......... the Republicans would claim that the Whitehouse garden is hurting corporate farmers.............

[Karl Wilder]

02:33 PM on 06/03/2011

Obama should have to eat what is foisted up on the American public. Changes would be quickly made.

[Mister Grumpy]

04:58 PM on 06/04/2011

When do you think Obama last visited a grocery store?............

I would guess about 25 years ago..............

[laurieanichols]

08:19 AM on 06/03/2011

I didn't realize that our agricultural subsidies were almost all carbohydrates. I was surprised by the appearance of tobacco and cotton. Personally, I love the make up of the White House garden as is, all those beautiful fruits, vegetables and herbs. Wouldn't it be lovely, if the small organic farmers were similarly subsidized. Perhaps, fruits and vegetables would be less expensive, thereby encouraging more consumption and though the logic of supply and demand, prices would then stabilize into an affordable rate. I hear that a big reason for many people not consuming fruits and vegetables is the expense, this might be the way for more healthful eating. Obesity is a tremendous drain on our medical system, decreasing the obesity rate would be a big savings medically as a whole for our society.

[snork]

12:06 AM on 06/03/2011

wow

[Al Schrader]

06:23 PM on 06/02/2011

I'm a farmer and I can tell you that before you get excited, you need to know some facts.
Corn is the number one thing we feed to livestock like beef, pigs, and chickens (poultry).
If the price of corn gets too high, your Big Mac could cost $10.00 and a KFC meal $15.00
Soybeans are used in everything especially soybean oil for use in deep fat fryers. Again, your Mc Fries could cost 5 bucks or two pieces of KFC fried chicken 8 bucks.
We also feed these grains to dairy cows. Your gallon of milk could cost 10 bucks.

Some of us are working on solutions to this. I'm one of them. I have developed a new strain of micro-organisms that turns poor scrub land soil in prime ag land. There are millions of acres of this scrub land in Florida alone. It's enough to feed the entire earth...Alfred-

[Lolly]

08:10 PM on 06/02/2011

This seems to prove the point--Big Macs and KFC are not healthy. We would be better off if platters of grilled vegetables and fresh fruits were served for 99 cents all over and a Big Mac Fries or a KFC dinner cost 10.00.

The reason the situation is reversed is that we subsidize unhealthy foods.

[snork]

12:08 AM on 06/03/2011

exactly why we should rework our system. Back when I was a kid the cows weren't eating corn—big macs were still affordable AND much healthier. Cows can't eat corn w/o all sorts of tricks to keep them alive

[EcoHustler]

06:11 PM on 06/02/2011

Gardening as politics: Digging the Founding Gardeners http://bit.ly/j3VM2d

[jaymes bee]

05:00 PM on 06/02/2011

It's less about what we're consuming as a country and more about what the US is exporting for profit. We're the No. 1 exporter of corn to the world, which would be why so much federal funding supports the support of that crop.

[spitfiredd]

03:14 PM on 06/03/2011

Corn is used in economic warfare that we wage on third world nations.

[Sara Lira]

11:16 AM on 06/02/2011

I'd love to have my own garden but some weird reason the thought of eating vegetables from my garden makes me nauseated. It should be the other way around.

[VA Jill]

10:49 AM on 06/02/2011

Love it! But didn't they forget sugar?

[ferrferr]

01:21 PM on 06/09/2011

Nope, the corn is the sugar. High Fructose Corn Syrup. If real sugar were subsidized then they wouldn't have started using the genetically modified corn as a sweetener. O_o

[yasunari]

05:53 AM on 06/02/2011

I'm so disappointed they're not growing marijuana...

[Joseph Furtenbacher]

06:21 PM on 06/02/2011

They don't want to be cutting Mexico's grass...

[Rebecca Harrach]

02:31 AM on 06/02/2011

What a great visual to aid in wrapping our brains around the nightmare that is the USDA and giant corporate ag. companies.

[Broknrekord3]

10:44 PM on 06/01/2011

Makes you feel all warm inside.

Or maybe that's the chemicals sprayed on said above crops.

[mlaiuppa]

04:52 PM on 06/01/2011

Why are we still subsidizing tobacco?

[yozampj]

02:36 AM on 06/02/2011

Good question. Don't we have better things we could do with $50M a year?

[spitfiredd]

03:15 PM on 06/03/2011

People are paid to not grow here in NC.