Is Michelle Obama's New Book “American Grown” an Inspiration for Gardeners?

June 5, 2012 - PRLog -- Michelle Obama's new book, "American Grown", was just released. No matter how you feel about the Obama's and their administration, you would think that a book on gardening would be good no matter what, especially if you are as crazy about gardening like I am.

Michelle Obama has a new book called “American Grown,” and it seems more like a political book than one aimed at gardening.  I mean, for starters, the timing of her new book being released just as Barack Obama's numbers start to dip in the polls, is quite a coincidence. Michelle Obama states in her book that the first thing she did as the First Lady, was to tear out the southern facing lawn so that she could put in a garden. If I was retired, this is probably the first thing I would do to. But as a First Lady, it seems like she would have a lot more pressing matters to take care of, like taking care of sick children, or visiting a hospital. Starting a garden is an excellent activity, but not if you are the First Lady, and you have a lot of important things you need to do.

To me, gardening is part of being self reliant. It'll be very interesting to know how much of the work she actually did herself, and many taxpayer dollars she paid for every tomato, cucumber, and radish. I will bet on 1,000 to one odds, that she didn't break even on her garden. Her intent is at least partially good. She wants people to start gardening, to take time to grow things organically, rather than to buy things that are grown in the stores using chemicals.  In that part of her message I wholeheartedly agree with.  

Is Michelle Obama For or Against Healthy Eating?

As First Lady, she has waged war against unhealthy eating. At least this is what it seems like to the uninformed.  If she really was against unhealthy eating, wouldn't she just ban cafeteria food altogether?   It seems like this would be the best way to do it. However, Democrats have long been buying their votes by offering people free lunches for years. Now, they are not only offering free lunches, but they're also feeding breakfast and dinner at the school cafeteria. Now, I'm not against providing people with meals that truly need them, because I believe that charity is important. But when you are stealing from one person by forcing them to pay taxes and giving to another, it does not give either person the opportunity to give or receive charity. The person receiving believes they are are entitled to reap the benefits of someone else's hard work.  Plus, I do not believe that most people who receive these programs are actually in need of them. I know far too many that are just using the programs because they exist, and not because there is a real need.  The reason why they are called entitlements is because once people start receiving them, they start to believe that they are entitled to them. That means they can get something without having to work for it.

I know a few hard-working people with kids at home that would qualify for food stamps and the breakfast, lunch, and dinner programs at school, but that is not the way they do things in their family.  For my part, we pay our own way, and we don't expect anyone else to do it for us. If necessary, we get two or three jobs to get through tough times.  That is how we grow and that is how we learn responsibility. Why not just have kids bring their lunches from home? It is going to be way more healthy than eating at the cafeteria. Some politicians are not in favor of any kind of personal responsibility. If you can get somebody else to pay for something, then why not? Another problem is that these government allotments only favor foods that are politically correct, and usually those are not things that are good for you.

My idea of a nutritious meal, is a good home-cooked meal.  Plus, when you eat a good home-cooked meal, you get to spend time with your family. It is so much better to be eating in at home with my family.  It doesn't matter how many laws or regulations you pass, I won't believe that eating at a cafeteria is going to be healthy.

What Is the Number One Cause of Obesity in Our Country?

The number one cause of obesity is overeating and a lack of exercise. If Michelle Obama was really trying to fight obesity, she would get rid of food stamps, or at least make it so that people on food stamps could only buy generic products like rice, beans, and oatmeal. I know a lot of hard-working Americans that could be on food stamps but aren't.  This is the staple of their diet and they aren't fat at all.  Rather than making food stamps healthy, food stamps have been expanded to include soda pop, potato chips, delivery pizza, all of the name brand products, and all sorts of manufactured foods that are very unhealthy for people. I don't know anybody who is on a diet of rice and beans diet that is obese.  People become obese when they have all the potato chips, pizza, and all the cereal that they want to eat regardless as to whether or not they can afford it. Not everybody who is on food stamps is obese, but most people that are obese are on food stamps. Why, for two reasons. First of all, they don't have to work as much as people who are not on food stamps, and second of all, they don't have to pay for any of their food. So they might as well eat whatever they want, whenever they want to eat it. Also, part of it has to do with not being responsible. If you're responsible for providing for yourself financially, why should you be responsible for taking care of yourself physically?  This of course is not aimed to everyone that is on food stamps, but I sincerely believe that getting rid of food stamps would go a long way to helping solve problems with obesity.

If you take two people who are poor and make about the same amount of money, and one is on food stamps and the other isn't, more often than not, the one who is receiving money for food stamps is going to be a lot heavier.  This may not be true in other countries, but it is true in America!  Rich people in this country are usually thin, and it is usually the poor people who are the fattest.

Spencer Arnold also writes for http://gardennlawn.com, a very high quality online newsletter providing authoritative and accurate gardening advice and information. He saw the headings in the local newspaper this morning and couldn't resit writing an article about it.