Michelle Obama's toxic veggie nightmare: White House organic garden polluted with sludge

daily finance ^ | 7/31/2009 | Alex Salkever

[milwguy]

When First Lady Michelle Obama planted an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn in March 2009, she hoped to both set an example of healthy eating and to grow tasty edibles for her daughters and husband. But Michelle's organic dream has been dashed by a nasty toxic legacy lurking in the soils of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It turns out that a previous Presidential gardening team had used sewage sludge for fertilizer

[milwguy]

So the Clinton's got their revenge on Barry after all. Really funny that the left are the ones who polluted the White House grounds by trying to be environmentally friendly

[AnAmericanMother]

Sludge isn't environmentally friendly. It's . . . sludge.

Just one step up from third-world countries emptying their "honey pots" in the garden patch.

[IrishPennant]

Just can't get away from "Bush's Fault", can they?

[boxerblues]

Read the article

The likely source of the toxic sludge that has ruined Michelle's garden? The Clinton White House apparently used a sludge-based product to fertilize the lawn during the 1990s!

[jessduntno]

National Park Service tested the dirt beneath Michelle’s garden and found the plot has highly elevated levels of lead averaging 93 parts per million.

“HONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...DO THESE TOMATOES FEEL HEAVY TO YOU?”

[RWGinger]

yes poetic justice all the way.
This, in the scheme of things can’t be exactly blamed on barry’s incompetence
but good grief how stupid was it for someone to NOT have tested the soil before they embarked on this feel good photo op?

Lord save us from these people

[HiTech RedNeck]

Hardy har har, I guess.

The Obamas seem to have plenty of money to toss about. Why don’t they hire a few Washingtonians to replace the soil in the proposed garden area with better stuff? Or do an elevated garden.

[HereInTheHeartland]

So the Obamas are feeding toxic vegetables to innocent children?
Where is the outrage?

[HiTech RedNeck]

It was Clinton and they document it.

[jessduntno]

“Why don’t they hire a few Washingtonians to replace the soil in the proposed garden area with better stuff?”

SOUNDS LIKE A SHOVEL-READY PROJECT...

[onemiddleamerican]

From the article:

Not surprisingly, the National Park Service tested the dirt beneath Michelle's garden and found the plot has highly elevated levels of lead averaging 93 parts per million. That's below the 400 ppm that the Environmental Protection Agency says is a threat to human health. But I'd wager that Sasha, Malia and Barack won't be getting arugula or tomatoes from this garden any time soon.

I wonder if the Clinton's sewage sludge is really the culprit, or if the lead in the soil is simply the result of years and years of non lead-free gasoline auto exhaust in this highly urban location.

[Paleo Conservative]

Just can't get away from "Bush's Fault", can they?

The problem apparently predates W.

The likely source of the toxic sludge that has ruined Michelle's garden? The Clinton White House apparently used a sludge-based product to fertilize the lawn during the 1990s!

[milwguy]

My thoughts exactly. Hire a backhoe to come in and scoop out a foot or so of dirt and then have a couple dump trucks come in with some good dirt. They are too clueless to know about gardening though, that is not something ‘elites’ like they should have to trouble themselves with.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Organic nasties can be dealt with pretty well, through treatment (that’s how we have a product called Milorganite) but the heavy metals are a problem. I would surmise the lead came from lead drain plumbing.

[Paleo Conservative]

but the heavy metals are a problem.

Only if the heavy metals are taken up by the plants and incorporated into the edible parts.

[thulldud]

Or do an elevated garden.

Now there's an idea. Nebuchadnezzar had one of those. Baraq al-Husseini could go one better.

[AnAmericanMother]

Yeah, my husband does sewage treatment plant consults.

My favorite highly scientific method is the "Dead Chicken Cure" for a recalcitrant aerated basin . . . .

We have been competitive shooters for years and years, but we try to keep control of the lead situation . . . . I'm sure the backstops out at the range are over the allowable limits!

[Clay Moore]

We had a neighbor who used sludge on his garden when I was growing up. Every time it rained, it smelled like the sewer plant exploded and we were right down wind of it.

[AnAmericanMother]

They could easily get some landscape timbers or railroad ties and do a raised bed. Wouldn’t even need a backhoe. Better for the plants anyhow.

[School of Rational Thought]

New domestic garden czar to be named.

[IrishPennant]

I was just being facitious....but look for the “but Bush never cleaned it up” response to come up sometime :)

[Reagan69]

Poor Barry, he just can’t get a break.

[delphirogatio]

Irony is a beuatiful thing.

I smell an allegory in this story too!

[indylindy]

Sludge inside and out at the WH anymore.

[justrepublican]

This is such a non-story. Where are the anti-birthers on this, complaining about the wasted time spent on such a non-issue.

[McGruff]

July 30, 2009 — Organically grown food is no more nutritious than conventionally grown food when it comes to the amount of certain important nutrients, according to a new review of published studies.

“We wanted to answer the question, ‘Is there any evidence that organic food is nutritionally superior to conventionally grown food?’” says the study’s lead author, Alan D. Dangour, PhD, a public health nutritionist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “The answer is no. Organic food is not nutritionally superior to conventional food.”

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20090730/organic-foods-not-more-nutritious

[tacticalogic]

Sounds like Michelle found her excuse to bail out of tending a garden after she got her photo ops in.

[Neoliberalnot]

Hey kids, how bout some crap on a shingle? Good enough for the obama brats.

[luvEastTenn]

There are SO many rich metaphors in this story that I don’t know where to begin!

[Clintons Are White Trash]

It is always recommended that you have your soil tested before installing a garden. How do you know the best way to fertilize if you don't?? In this instance, with the building an grounds as old as they are (i.e. developed) I'm suprised this wasn't a given.

Tsk Tsk, seems to be the way this administration approaches everything. Pass the bill and worry about what's in it later - plant the garden, worry about what's in the soil later. Idiots!

CAWT - Master Gardener :)

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

that’s how we have a product called Milorganite

You ^do^ know what the process is that creates Milorganite, right?

[freeandfreezing]

No doubt the Clintons used the sludge-based product because all through the 1990s the EPA was pushing sludge as a good thing. I had to listen to more than one bureaucrat explaining how harmless sewage sludge was, or how "there is no record in New Hampshire of anyone ever getting sick from septage" - like they forgot what caused all those epidemics of typhoid fever, cholera, etc. years ago.

You'd be astonished if you read the 1990s EPA material promoting the safety of sludge and septage. Basically, its really harmless stuff they say.

Of course anyone who has ever been near a bucket of the stuff knows better.

Which is why believing what the government says can be very hazardous to your health and well being. You can be sure that once the EPA finally realizes that spreading sludge contaminates the ground with lead and other heavy metals that they'll turn right around and sue the landowners to clean it up. And the FDA will ban produce grown on fields that have been spread with sludge or septage - unless you spend a fortune testing the produce.

[Free State Four]

but look for the “but Bush never cleaned it up”

Bush was too busy trying to kill all the Native Americans in New Mexico with arsenic. Remember? Thanks to the incredible reduction in tolerable arsenic levels in drinking water instituted by the Clinton administration on its way out the door. The scm spent months accusing Bush of murder.

[The Sons of Liberty]

The Obamas seem to have plenty of money to toss about. - when it's TAXPAYER's Money!

[LADY J]

WOW!! More great 'feel good' ideas from the gang that can't shoot straight. Might have have been a good idea to use some common sense to test the ground BEFORE the garden was planted in a lawn area that was polluted by the Clinton administration.

YES!! Let's turn OUR health care over to these experts!!

I'm remembering the big PR photo-op showing Michelle serving all those little kids lunch, with the food they grew in their garden.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[~Kim4VRWC's~]

First thing I thought of was all the kids who ate the vegies, and now we find the clintons are responsible? The irony...

[mikey_hates_everything]

Can these people do anything right (not politically, anyway)?

[ExTxMarine]

“YES!! Let’s turn OUR health care over to these experts!!”

Yep, and just like this debacle, about a year after it is in place the “new and improved” health care system will be loosing money to fraud, abuse and stupid mismanagement. And they will say, well the health care system should have been corrected by the Bush Admin - those Eeeeevil Bush people! They might even throw in a reference to Cheney - just for good measure!

[HereInTheHeartland]

“First thing I thought of was all the kids who ate the vegies, and now we find the clintons are responsible? The irony...”

Just another way that the words “toxic” and “sludge” can be linked to the Clintons.

[GnuHere]

Give them a “Clunker Garden” rebate!
More J. Crew clothes for Chelly and the girls!

[Cheetahcat]

Maybe algore in his quest to be one with the earth was using the lawn like a Mexican restroom. She is less than an Idiot all those resources one call and a truck load of Potting soil would have appeared,Whatever she tried to grow would be twice as big provided the growing beds were properly done..

[Jeff Chandler]

There is nothing at all wrong with using activated sludge to fertilize landscaping. It’s just not advisable for produce.

[freebird5850]

I wouldn’t use railroad ties. I did that for one of my wifes’ flower garden. When it gets hot the creosote leeches out and gets all over your clothes and the bottom of your shoes. When the wind blows just right you can smell them from 50 ft away. It’s gross and they are coming out this fall. they are also tearing out any piers out here that have pilings that contain creosote.

[freebird5850]

“Sounds like Michelle found her excuse to bail out of tending a garden after she got her photo ops in.”

Yeah it cuts in on here boozin time.

[freebird5850]

here=her

[Jeff Chandler]

They could easily get some landscape timbers or railroad ties and do a raised bed.

Or they could used redwood beams produced from old growth trees.

[6ppc]

the plot has highly elevated levels of lead averaging 93 parts per million.

So the rose garden is now a Super Fund site?

[AnAmericanMother]

They quit using the creosote in the RR ties because of environmental concerns - now they're using something else that doesn't leach and doesn't smell bad.

Of course, the ties rot a lot faster - we're going to have to replace ours soon.

Landscape timbers are a little easier to get hold of, but more expensive.

[freebird5850]

Oh yeah you are right, I was just trying to point out the misery of using the old type. I stepped on one and then made a stain on the carpet in the living room. I forget what I used to get “most” of it up.