USDA Unveils "Peoples' Garden" In DC - Sounds Like SOCIALISM To ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hatrack]

In another sign that the Department of Agriculture is embracing sustainable food, the agency today will unveil expanded plans for a People's Garden that will include the entire six-acre grounds of the Whitten Building, the department's neoclassic marble headquarters on the Mall.

The plans, to be announced at the agency's Earth Day celebrations, include a 1,300-square-foot organic vegetable garden -- slightly larger than the one at the White House -- as well as ornamental flower gardens and bioswales, or mini-wetlands designed to reduce pollution and surface water runoff. The building grounds now are landscaped with grass, flower borders and trees planted to honor a person or mark an event.

Secretary Tom Vilsack, an avid runner, came up with the idea for the garden during one of his daily runs around the Mall. He noticed tourists stopping to look at the trees and their dedication plaques. A thriving garden, he thought, would be a better way to communicate the agency's mission of sustainability and in particular the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables, a cornerstone of the agency's push to improve school nutrition and reduce childhood obesity.

Initial plans were announced at a groundbreaking in February on Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Lincoln founded the Department of Agriculture in 1862 and referred to it as the People's Department, hence the name People's Garden. Originally, Vilsack, 58, envisioned a vegetable garden only half the size and a goal to have at least some type of garden -- even if just a window box -- at every USDA facility. But in an interview last week at his office, which overlooks the scrubby lawn, Vilsack said the positive public response to the idea and a March meeting with horticulture and garden groups persuaded him to broaden the plan. The garden now will encompass all of the agency's property on the Mall, and the department will work with organizations across the country to encourage individuals, schools and communities to establish gardens.


EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/21/AR2009042100876.html

[Cirque du So-What]

1. 'Socialism'?!? That's outright commie stuff there, bucko!

What kind of paean to private enterprise is that? Not one mega-corporation is given credit!

[gulfcoastliberal]

2. Very nice. Vilsack should expect a poison-pen letter from the perennial pushers of poisons!

Just as Michelle Obama did. I swear, that letter seemed like it was ripped from the Onion.