After successfully garnering 100,000 signatures petitioning the Obama administration to plant a White House garden with its "Eat the View" campaign, the same organizers are launching a new initiative: petitioning each of the 50 governors to celebrate July 4 by eating food exclusively from local farmers and producers.
50 states. 50 governors. 50 first families celebrating July 4 with locally sourced food.
That’s the vision of a grassroots group of individuals passionate about the healthful and economic benefits of local food, who recently launched a petition asking the nation’s 50 governors to help declare their food independence next month by eating a locally sourced meal on Independence Day.
Kitchen Gardeners International, with support from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) Food and Society Fellows, has launched “Food Independence Day” to educate and encourage consumers to source local and sustainable ingredients for their holiday meals and to request that their governors do the same.
Food Independence Day has posted a petition on Facebook and their Web site asking governors to “Whet our appetites by publishing your planned menu in advance of the holiday. Share your recipes and the names of the local farmers, fisherfolk, and food producers whose ingredients you’ll be using."
“As residents of your states and by our signatures below,” the petition continues, “we pledge to join you in this celebration of edible independence by eating healthy and delicious foods from our own local farms, gardens, and communities.”
Food Independence Day follows Kitchen Gardeners International’s “Eat the View: Replant a White House Victory Garden,” which earlier this year garnered more than 100,000 signatures to successfully petition the Obama administration to plant a garden on the White House South Lawn.
“Food Independence Day brings the spirit of the White House garden effort to a state by state, and even house by house level,” said Roger Doiron, founder of the nonprofit Kitchen Gardeners International and current Fellow with the IATP Food and Society Fellows. “We hope to foster enough interest and momentum that our 50 governors and their families will take note and enjoy their July 4 celebrations by feasting on local produce, meats, beverages and desserts from their own states or as nearby as possible. In doing so, we hope they set an example for and encourage their constituents to do the same.”
For more information and to sign to the petition, individuals can visit http://foodindependenceday.org/.
Once on the site, participants can share details, photos, menus and locations of their own locally-sourced 4th of July meals at: http://foodindependenceday.org/post/116860097/map.
Organizers will submit the petitions to governors the final week of June, so there is still time to get your last minute signatures on there.
Photo Source: prettydaisies via creative commons license
