USDA chief spotlights food crops at D.C. garden: Six acres of organic vegetables designed to showcase USDA mission

From the Capital Press:

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is transforming the six-acre site surrounding the department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., into a showcase of good farming and conservation practices.

While Vilsack’s original plans called for a 612-square-foot organic vegetable garden, those plans were soon expanded to encompass 1,300 square feet. In addition to the garden, the site also has ornamental flower gardens and mini-wetlands designed to reduce pollution and surface water runoff. Dan Newhouse, director of Washington state’s Agriculture Department, recently traveled to the nation’s capital on a trade trip. He said initiatives like the new gardens at the White House and USDA headquarters send “a great message.”

“People continue to be more and more interested in where their food comes from,” he said. “A garden is a window into the lives of the men and women who farm for a living.”

For Vilsack, these landscaping changes make more sense for an agency dedicated to agriculture than the site’s original landscaping with its grass, flower borders and memorials. During the Feb. 12 dedication of “the People’s Garden,” Vilsack, 58, broke ground with a tool far more powerful than the customary shovel. Donning a hard hat and manning a jackhammer, he started removing what he referred to as 1,250 square feet of “unnecessary paved surface” that will be planted in grass.

“You’ve heard of paving over farmland,” he said as onlookers cheered. “We’re taking a reverse action today. We’re reclaiming this piece of earth.”

Read more from the Capital Ag Press by clicking here.

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