First Lady's Veggie Garden Contaminated

Axlin16

Sludge In The Garden
--- Yahoo! Buzz / Mike Krumholz

New homes are full of questions and possibilities. What color to paint the walls? How to arrange the furniture? What to plant in the garden? The Obama family must have asked a lot of those same questions when they moved into the White House. However, the first lady's dreams of growing an organic vegetable garden have been dragged down by a previous resident that refuses to leave: sludge.

Various sources within the Buzz are reporting that Michelle Obama's "organic" garden has been besieged by icky goo in the ground. As a result, the veggies aren't quite what the first lady had in mind. According to Daily Finance, the National Park Service tested the soil in the vegetable patch and found "highly elevated levels of lead" due to sewage used as fertilizer.

So the question is: Who to blame? While dumping sewage into the ground sounds like a crime worthy of Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons," the actual perpetrators were none other than the Clintons. Yep, back when Bill and Hillary were living it up in the White House, their gardening team used "sewage sludge for fertilizer." The fiends!

Sounds gross, but it's actually fairly common. However, it does mean that the highly touted "organic garden" will never "attain organic status." The certification process doesn't allow "the use of sludge as a fertilizer substitute." And there's another problem: If Malia and Sasha weren't into eating their veggies before, it's going to be that much harder to get 'em to eat 'em now.

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I thought this was an interesting story. It might be fairly common, and yes i've heard of using animal manure and other similarily gross things to make things grow. But human sewage?

Ugh. I don't want to eat veggies grown by Bill, Hilary & Chelsea's feces. Neither does Michelle Obama apparently.

Olorin

Thats nasty. I use manure as a soil conditioner, its good for adding structure to poor soil but its not that rich in nutrients, some types better than others.
The manure is basically cow or horse shit but you are supposed to let it rot and break down, so it is more like earthy smelling soil when its ready to use. Basically you should compost manure in the same way you would compost your garden waste etc, pile it in a heap or bay and let it all break down. When you buy a bag of manure from a garden centre it is ready to use and pretty much odourless, it just smells earthy.
Local farmers use sewage sludge on their feilds, as do most farmers, and you know when they have been "muck spreading" cause the smell cloaks the whole town and on a bad day with a hangover I've found the putrid stench to be vomit inducing. Its not raw sewage, it comes from the treatment plants and (allegedly) has potential toxins removed. Still fucking stinks though.
I cant imagine why the White House would use sludge as a fertiliser though, farms using it in the countryside because they get it more or less free is one thing - but spreading it on your garden?!

Mind you, those Clintons do seem like the type who wouldnt mind the smell of shit in the morning, especially Hilary.

Re: First Lady's Veggie Garden Contaminated

Re: First Lady's Veggie Garden Contaminated

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