Activists visit Lubbock to promote organic farming

Daniel Bowman Simon and Casey Gustowarow travel the country in a redesigned school bus to spread the word about the White House Organic Farm Project, their plan to petition for an organic farm at the White House. "We need to be more invested in food security and reducing the amount of traffic that is generated by food moving through the country," said Simon, a 28-year-old New York University and University of the Pacific alumnus. "If the president is eating out of his own yard, it would send a very positive message." The two men began their trip Aug. 4 and they said their goal is to travel the country as they make their way toward Washington, D.C. in the days leading up to November's election. The duo arrived in Lubbock on Thursday with their unusual bus and spent several hours Friday morning encouraging the Lubbock community to sign the petition, which has about 2,000 signatures from people who support local organic produce. Simon said the bus, called the WhoFarmMobile, was designed by Stefan Sagmeister and Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's. It was created by fusing two miniature school busses together with one bus turned upside-down on top of the other. On top of the modified bus is an organic garden. Gustowarow said the WhoFarm project is a positive attempt to create change. "We're not necessarily asking people to drop everything and go be farmers," he said, "but, if you can buy local produce, why not?" The unique bus, Simon said, is a great way to "start having conversations with everyone, from grandmas to truck drivers." Gustowarow said the vehicle's organic garden is symbolic of their message. "If we can grow food on the top of a bus driving across the country," said Gustowarow, a 27-year-old McDaniel College almnus, "then why can't the president grow something on the front lawn, or other people grow something in their back yards?" Gustowarow said he faced several challenges when he initially planted the garden on the bus, but currently he can grow vegetables like lettuce, spinach and broccoli and herbs like parsley and basil. "I wanted corn," Simon said, laughing, "but it would've gotten smacked by the overpasses." Gustowarow said eating local organic food has many benefits. "It's healthier if you know where your food is coming from," he said. "It promotes the local economy," Simon continued. Larry Noland, a local organic farmer, said locally grown produce often offers a better selection and variety of vegetables. "When you grow your own plants, they just taste better," he said. "I don't know why, but they just do." Simon said he came up with the idea for the WhoFarm project after hearing Alice Waters' acceptance speech for the 2008 Global Environmental Citizen Award, an honor from the Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment. One of Walter's visions, he said, is an organic garden at the White House. At the time, Simon said, he was enrolled in an urban planting class at New York University, and the class caused him to become concerned about how many miles food travels before reaching its destination. On average, food in the United States travels 1,500 miles in trucks that individually can cause the same amount of damage to roads as 9,600 cars, according to a 2004 analysis from the Agriculture Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "It doesn't have to be that way," Simon said. "To be moving food around the country like that doesn't make much sense." So, he said, he called Gustowarow, whom he met while serving as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines, and pitched him the idea for the organic farm project. Gustowarow said he was working on an organic farm at the time but decided it was important to quit his job and join the cause. "It's one action that can have a large impact on hopefully everyone in the nation," he said. Cynthia McKenney, an associate professor of horticulture at Texas Tech, said it is "crazy" that the United States imports food from across the world. "You're adding a lot of extra mileage," she said, "and a lot of extra cost." Economically, rising fuel costs make this a good time for a movement promoting locally grown produce," McKenney said. "One way to reduce some of that cost is to reduce charges for freight," she said. According to a report by John Ikerd, an economist and former professor at the University of Missouri, it was estimated that American farmers, on average, make only about 20 cents on each $1 spent on food. The remaining 80 cents goes to pay for processing, transportation, packing and other marketing costs. Although the United States was founded on independence, Simon said, it now depends on corporate entities for produce. "We need to return our country to our agricultural roots," he said.

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