Issue 28: Agriculture

Featured Response: Daniel Bowman Simon || Founder, TheWhoFarm

Daniel Bowman Simon

The future for food is bright in America. This is due in large part to the grassroots movement for real change in Washington that our President-elect has about asked us to bring. Michael Pollan has pointed out that our current food system is negatively impacting on the health of the American people, our climate, our fossil fuel dependence, and even our national security. But we can remap the future by restoring a local and regional based, organically grown agriculture system. And with our economy in peril, there has never been a more appropriate time to ensure access to one of our most basic human rights; healthy, life-affirming food.

Our new president can show his solidarity and lead by example by green-lighting the planting of an organic farm at the White House. (They’ve got eighteen acres to choose from.) His chef will be happy to cook with the freshest and tastiest ingredients available, and his much-admired daughters will be among the healthiest kids in America. Imagine how many DC-dwellers would wake up to the possibilities of growing their own food in the concrete jungle. Many Americans will alter their diets and think more about their food origins. If they don’t want to get dirty themselves, perhaps they’ll at least seek out and support local farmers. The excess bounty from an organic farm at The White House can be shared with organizations working to reduce hunger int the local DC community. And imagine how many mission-driven organizations in America and around the world would be inspired to take a more active role in reducing hunger in their local communities if the White House provided some dirt-in-the-fingernails inspiration!

Daniel Bowman Simon is founder of TheWhoFarm (aka The White House Organic Farm Project,) a non-partisan, petition-based initiative to respectfully request that our 44th President oversee the planting of an organic farm on the grounds of The White House, our nation’s First Home, at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC.

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Inaugural Insight

  • The inauguration for the first U.S. president, George Washington, was held on April 30, 1789 in New York City.
  • Should January 20 be a Sunday, the President is usually administered the oath of office in a private ceremony on that day, followed by a public ceremony the following day.
  • Immediately following the oath, the bands play four ruffles and flourishes and "Hail to the Chief", followed by a 21-gun salute from howitzers of the Presidential Salute Battery.
  • The inaugural celebrations usually last ten days, from five days before the inauguration to five days after.
  • Since Thomas Jefferson's second inaugural on March 4, 1805, it has become tradition for the president to parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.
  • According to tradition, in the first inaugural, President Washington added the words "so help me God" when reciting the oath, although there is no contemporary evidence of this.
  • In 1977, Jimmy Carter started a new tradition by walking from the Capitol to the White House, although subsequent presidents have only walked part of the way for security reasons.
  • The War of 1812 and World War II forced two swearing-ins to be held at other locations in Washington, D.C.
  • The new President assumes power at noon on January 20th, regardless of whether or not he has actually taken the oath of office.
  • There is no requirement that any book, or in particular a book of sacred text, be used to administer the oath, and none is mentioned in the Constitution.

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