Are you worried that an organic garden on the White House grounds might cause some Americans to start eating a wide variety of chemical-free, locally grown produce? The Mid America CropLife Association, a lobbying group for agribusinesses giants, is.

Just a few days after Michelle Obama invited local fifth graders to help plant the White House Kitchen Garden, the MACA, a group which represents and is comprised of former executives from Dow AgroSciences, Monsanto and DuPont Crop Protection, sent the White House a letter (which can be viewed in its entirety here) expressing their disappointment that she had not “recognize[d] the role conventional agriculture plays in the US.”

But that’s not all. The group went on to provide a dose of propaganda educational information, including little known fact that “technology allows for farmers to meet the increasing demand for food and fiber in a sustainable manner.” Drawing a clear line between technology, undefined, and sustainability does not, in the strictest terms, suggest the group’s total disapproval of organic farming methods.

That outright statement came in an email MACA sent their members shortly after sending the first lady aforementioned letter, in which they said that the idea of an organic garden “made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder.” [italics mine].

MACA also informed Michelle Obama of the apparent causality between agricultural engineering and national pre-eminence in just about every field:

If Americans were still required to farm to support their family’s basic food and fiber needs, would the US have been leaders in the advancement of science, communication, education, medicine, transportation and the arts?

At least one group is reacting to the new War on Homegrown Tarragon.

Quickly responding to MACA’s below the beltway tactics, Credo, the mobile phone company founded on the principle of social responsibility, has launched a campaign asking concerned citizens to “Tell the Pesticide Peddlers: We support Michelle Obama’s organic garden.”

How ungrateful of Credo, which evidently fails to realize that, were it not for the “advancement in…communication” made possible by agricultural engineering, they would not even exist.

Photo Credit: White House blog