"food is all about taste, and fresh and local taste better"

[in_parentheses]

...according to Michelle Obama, who is planting a freaking vegetable garden on the White House lawn.

From the NYTimes article:

While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables....

Comments

[ex_colorwhe]

garden, garden at their home, garden on the white house lawn, showing kids about gardening, media/press about gardening, veggies, organic gardening, smell of fresh tomatoes: PLUS FIFTY MILLION.

misguided mentions of teh fatz: fail. causing harm to millions of people.

[in_parentheses]

*sigh* Yeah, I know. You're right. There's always a little bit of fail somewhere, isn't there?

[ex_colorwhe]

yeah, there is. but although i felt compelled to point it out, i *certainly* don't think it cancels out the awesomeness of the garden! it doesn't even undermine it, because if they had no garden and no garden story, they'd prolly be exactly the same amount of misguidedly fatphobic. the garden isn't causing that. so YOU GO, GARDEN. :)

[ruthling]

yeah, I've been following this lobbying effort since before the election and it was exciting to see such a simple good ides actually go.

(the fato-phobe shit is annoying, but I think the Obamas will come around on that when they have a chance to think about it eventually)

[martini_corona]

Wait. Did I see the same article as you? I didn't get an anti-fat thing at all -- just a pro fruits & veggies thing.

[in_parentheses]

The connection between eating a good diet and "within months the children lost weight" is the issue. Those things aren't necessarily connected, and the continued assumption that they should be is damaging.

(colorwheel, did I say that right? :) )

[ex_colorwhe]

you said it smashingly. :)

martini-corona, in addition to the passage in_parentheses mentions about the kids losing weight, this quote --

While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at time when obesity has become a national concern.

-- continues that same assumption: that poor diet and fatness are necessarily connected. Which is unfair to fat people who do eat healthfully with lots of veggies, and doesn't do any good for thin people who eat mostly junk either. If they'd ended the sentence with "...locally grown fruit and vegetables.", i'd have been a happy camper.

[redbeard]

I also find it interesting to actually know what all of those "I voted for Bush because he was the candidate I wanted to go out for a beer with," people really felt.

Of course, I also wanted to go out with Gore. For a glass of Pinot.

[in_parentheses]

I don't want you to keep your mouth shut! Talking about stuff is good!

My complaint isn't directed at Michelle at all, but at the article -- and you're right that this article is by no means a particularly egregious example of this mischaracterization of the issue. I just get frustrated with the way that it's generally assumed now that poor diet=fat=unhealthy, and what all of those things actually mean and how they're linked together is rarely examined. In other words, the mainstream media tend to focus on the "obesity epidemic" rather than the "corn syrup and sedentary lifestyles" epidemic, thereby missing the point entirely.

...I could have sworn I had articles saved somewhere that make a good fatpol primer, but I failed to find them. Maybe I bookmarked them on my work computer? I'll check next week.

[chieur]

Of course, I have lot and lots of thoughts about this. And decided to keep my mouth shut as well

[chieur]

Or, rather, I had originally decided to keep my mouth shut. Clearly, that didn't end up working out for me. (But I've never been good at keeping mum.)