For my wife, gardening is not just about raising food, it’s about participating in the web of life. Rebecca would be the perfect White House farmer because she is not just passionate and knowledgeable about organic farming, but also the resource systems of soil, water, and insects that make food production possible. To her, the concepts of saving seeds, collecting rain water, and composting are just as important as growing the vegetables, herbs, and fruits that feed us all summer and long into the winter. Rebecca’s love affair with gardening began over fifteen years ago while working on a small farm in Connecticut where she grew up. Later, while getting her master’s degree in international development, she continued to hone her craft while doing extension work in Nicaragua and Mexico. Through teaching the principles of organic gardening and permaculture, Rebecca showed those with limited means how to make the most of their inputs and outputs to develop healthy and sustainable food systems. Since buying our home in 2004, Rebecca has transformed our small suburban lot in Silver Spring, MD into an unintentional demo site for small scale sustainable farming. Combining flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables, she’s created a suburban oasis for pollinators and people alike. She takes joy in sharing the bounty of her harvest, as well as her enthusiasm for organic farming with neighbors, friends, and family. Rebecca’s dream is to run a permaculture learning center in Maryland and train the next generation how to live and eat in harmony with nature. What better place to launch such an important global endeavor than on the White House lawn, with Shasha and Malia as her first apprentices?

A graduate of Middlebury College with extensive farming experience, Michael currently manages production of organic vegetables and fruit for the AccokeekFoundation’s  CSA program, Center for Land Based Training apprenticeship program, and education programs.  Mike has a passion for sustainable safe farming. His entire career has been one of both learning and teaching, as well as performing the duties of a respectful guardian of our food supply. He has mentored young people in this venue and has a continually inquisitive mind and a thirst for new ideas and methods to fulfill his obligations to the land and its people.  He is a perfect example of what I would see as the blend of qualities required of the White House Farmer:  farmer, teacher, public representative for sustainable appropriate farming, and a superb custodian of the White House land.  His spirit, wit, sense of humor, and appreciation for what the land gives back to us and demands in return make him a first rate candidate for this position.