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Brodhead's Dela Ends has been nominated to become the first White House farmer.
People can go online to www.whitehousefarmer.com to nominate people for White House farmer and to vote for their choices until Saturday, Jan. 31.
Brodhead's Dela Ends has been nominated to become the first White House farmer.
SPRING VALLEY TOWNSHIP — The White House has a chef, so why shouldn’t it have a farmer?
That’s the question a group is posing to the new president, along with three nominees who could fill the role.
Dela Ends of Scotch Hill Farm outside of Brodhead might be one of the three.
Ends is among 37 who as of this morning had been put forward for the so-far non-existent position of White House farmer.
It’s an exciting opportunity, Ends said, but admits, “it’s a dream.”
“But we’re definitely dealing with an administration that says it wants to listen, so this is a real opportunity to bring some change,” she said.
WhiteHouseFarmer.com was conceived by the Brockmans, a farm family in central Illinois, according to the site. Visitors to the Web site can vote for their favorite farmer, and organizers plan to submit the top three vote getters to President Barack Obama.
The site, it says, is a forum to follow up on Michael Pollan’s call for a White House farmer in a New York Times open letter to Obama.
The White House farmer would be charged with transforming “five prime south-facing acres of the White House lawn” into an organic fruit and vegetable garden. The produce would be used by the White House chef and given to area food banks, the site says.
“They’re kind of looking for a specialized person, and it’s the type of work we’ve been doing in Rock County for 15 years,” Ends said.
Five acres?
“That would be easy for me,” she said. “I grow vegetables for 200 families.”
Scotch Hill Farms is a community supported agriculture farm. Families sign up to receive fresh produce for 20 weeks from the rural Brodhead farm. Ends and her family work about 30 acres, including a few acres of grain and hay for their animals—goats, sheep, a pony and chickens.
Her family’s organic farm is part of Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture, a leader in the country’s community support agriculture movement, she said. Ends is a member of the steering committee for the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training, and she’s been a 4-H leader for 15 years, leading the goat and gardening projects.
So how about farming at the White House?
“Ya know, that would be fun,” she said with a laugh.
If all the ifs come true—if Obama was to create such a position, and if Ends was chosen—she said doesn’t think she’d move.
“I have a farm, a business,” she said. “I guess we’d just see what they want. Personally, I would just like to have a voice … It would make more sense for a farmer from that area who knows how to grow in that region.”
The movement is more about the discussion it creates, she said.
“If they (the Obama administration) will just listen, listen to ideas and implement them, that would be fantastic,” she said.
But Ends said she’s still looking for your vote.
“I will represent Rock County. We need jobs in Rock County right now, and I’d love to see more people get into the kind of farming we do. I’d be glad to teach them.”