From a white house to The White House...
Would you let this man rip up your lawn, Mr. President-Elect?
Copyrighted photo provided courtesy of Roger Doiron.
To start things off big, Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International (KGI) and Eat the View (ETV) graciously agreed to answer a few questions via email. If you missed it, ETV launched a couple of weeks back; the new initiative was inspired by Doiron's On Day One petition to reinstall a vegetable garden on The White House lawn. Whomever wins the presidential race in November, ETV will present him with a petition calling for a new veg bed and a packet of heirloom seeds. Ultimately, Doiron hopes the notion will trickle down to other high-profile residences, including governor's mansions, and end up being all the rage in your neighborhood, too. (After you read this interview, please check out the ETV web site for more details on how you can be a part of this creative tactic to place veg beds top of America's agenda once more.)
On with the Q&A:
• RW&G: The KGI site includes a description about how KGI came to be. Could you share a little bit about the lessons you acquired from starting a web-based non-profit centered on gardening?
Roger: One lesson that took me quite some time to learn is that “many hands make light work” or at least lighter work. For the longest time, I was trying to move mountains on my own. The smartest thing I’ve done in recent memory was to find a way of unleashing the knowledge, generosity and good will of [KGI's] six-thousand person network through new interactive and social networking features on our site. We’ve gone from being a hub ‘n spoke network to one with denser connections that allow people more chances to find what it is they’re looking for whether it’s a deep discussion, a garden tip, or a personal association.
• RW&G: From your point of view, what's the potential in the intersection between gardening and the online world? Where do you think all of the new sites and web-sparked interest in home gardens might it take us (global citizens) collectively?
Roger: My hope is that growth in the internet and gardening sites on the internet will help us discover the pleasures and possibilities of our own backyards, literally and figuratively. A local foods revolution is under way but it needs to become “localer” and bring more people into it. One of the obstacles is that many people lack the know-how needed to get started in gardening. I think the internet can help in two ways, first by being a vast source of online information about how to garden and cook again. But even more important than that is the potential it offers for bringing people together, near and far.
• RW&G: Could you tell us a bit about your Food Society Fellows work? What does that involve?
Roger: Sure, I was fortunate to be chosen as one of thirteen fellows from across the US and Canada last year. We work independently and in partnership to move the current food system towards one that is “good, clean, and fair.” We do this via outreach and communications to various audiences using various techniques and tools from policy briefs to YouTube videos. Fellows receive a stipend, media training, technical assistance, and the help and support of the fellows network. It’s been a wonderful opportunity for me and one that has allowed me to amplify my work’s impact.
• RW&G: For fun, what's your favorite veggie to grow? Your least favorite?
Roger: My favorite veggie is the one in my plate! I’m sort of boring, you might say, in that I’m like so many other gardeners who spend a good part of the year thinking about the first, real tomato of the year. So, tomatoes are big for us. I don’t have a least favorite. Whatever it is I grow, I try to do well. We grew a lot of string beans last year and did grow tired of the harvesting after a while. Come December, though, boy were we happy to have all those bags of frozen beans! It was like having money in the bank.
• RW&G: Bonus question...what five web sites do you frequent most?
Roger: Well, this is a softball question because I just happen to manage five sites and those tend to be where I end up spending a lot of my time:
- www.kitchengardeners.org- KGI’s website
- www.eattheview.org - The home of the White House lawn project
- www.nefood.org - The Northeast Food and Farm Network
- www.eatmainefoods.org - The Eat Local Foods Coalition of Maine
- www.frenchbyphone.org - My wife’s site for her French language instruction company
In addition to those, I spend a fair amount of time on news sites trying to stay up to speed with everything happening in the world. My favorite places for that are www.nytimes.com and http://news.google.com.
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Thanks, Roger!
And, everyone, don't forget to mark your calendars NOW for International Kitchen Garden 2008 (August 24), a terrific KGI initiative!
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